36 
The Presidential Address. 
necessarily taken place, there is no doubt that in this way 
much of Essex was at this period restored to a wild state. 
There were the forests of Totham, of Hatfield, of Chelmsford, 
of Brentwood, of Waltham, including Henhault and Haver¬ 
ing, and of Womansfield, near Dagenham, providing in all 
pannage for 86,471 swine, 83 not to speak of the deer and other 
game animals that they contained. 
Just as modern tourists occasionally add a plant to our 
gardens, so, no doubt, did those mediaeval tourists the 
Crusaders. It was thus perhaps in the 12th century that 
we got the Feverfew ( Pyrethrum parthenium) 84 from Turkey, 
and the Birthwort, 85 once known as “ Saracen’s Birthwort.” 
Then, too, may first have been cultivated, in the gardens of 
the clergy, the Star of Bethlehem ( Ornithogalum umbellatum ), 
and Our Lady’s Thistle 86 ( Silybum marianum ), and from these 
same gardens may have escaped the medicinal Thorn-apple 
(Datura stramonium ), the Pink (. Dianthus plumarius ), the 
Yellow Fumitory (Corydalis lutea), and the Pale, twin-flowered 
Narcissus (N. biflorus). 
It is to the Moorish occupation of Spain that we are 
probably indebted for the introduction from North Africa of 
the Corn Crowfoot (Ranunculus arvensis ), which is often a 
troublesome weed. 88 
83 Pearson, op. cit., p. 51. 
84 DeCandolle points out that, though wild in Turkey and to the east, 
this plant seems not to have been known to the Greeks or Eomans.— Op. 
cit., p. 671. 
85 Watson, ‘ Cybele Britannica,’ vol. ii., p. 355. 
86 “ Peut-etre la decouvrira-t-on, vraiment sauvage, en Syrie ? Alors, 
ce seraient les croises qui l’auraient rapportee et qui auraient introduit 
dans toutes les langues du midi de l’Europe, et jusqu’en Angleterre, la 
dedicace a la Yierge Marie.”—DeCandolle, op. cit., p. 678. 
87 As to this plant, once thought to be of American origin, DeCandolle 
sums up a long discussion (op. cit., pp. 731-4) in the words :—“ Parait 
originate de l’ancien monde, mais probablement des bords de la mer 
Caspienne ou regions adjacentes, certainement pas de l’lnde, et il est 
tres donteux qu’il ait existe en Europe du temps de l’ancien empire 
romain ; il parait s’etre repandu entre cette epoque et la decouverte de 
PAmerique.” 
88 Unknown in Greece and wild in Algeria, this species occurs as a weed 
throughout Western Europe. Though having a remarkable fruit it is 
