mosses and liverworts. The stem and leaf-sheath of the umbelliferous plant, I have every reason to believe, is that of cow parsnip (Heracleum Sphondylium), but a search for remains of fruits of this plant, the discovery of which would have done much to confirm my diagnosis) proved unsuccessful.
The pieces of bark recognised belong to the following species oak, birch, hazel, rowan.
My attention has been directed by Professor Bayley Balfour to a report on the vegetable remains found at the Lochlee Crannog, Tarbolton, Ayrshire, investigated by Dr. Robert Munro.
Dr. Munro's account of the excavations of this Crannog is in the Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, vol. xiii., and the report upon the vegetable remains by Professor Bayley Balfour supplies what appears to me to be some interesting comparisons between the plant remains of that site and those of the Newstead Roman Station.
The brushwood from below the log-pavement of the Lochlee Crannog was, it appears, composed of woods belonging to one or other of the following trees: birch, hazel, alder) willow. The twigs and branches of the nature of brushwood found in the material from the Newstead site are chiefly hazel and birch) while twigs of alder and willow) although not plentiful) were also found.
Alder and willow are trees preferring damp situations, so that their occurrence, perhaps in some quantity, in the vicinity of the Lochlee Crannog at the time of its occupation is easily understood. Hazel and birch, with alder and willow more plentiful perhaps in moist situations, I am inclined to believe) were somewhat dominant trees in the primeval woods of North Britain.
This opinion is supported not only by the results of the examination of the material from Newstead and the records from the Lochlee Crannog, but also by the results of similar investigations which at various times I have made of the plant remains of other sites of Roman and pre-Roman occupation. Thus, to quote the result of one such investigation only:[1] of a number of logs from a pre-historic pile-structure in Wigtownshire which I examined in 1903, seven were, I found, birch, five alder, three hazel, one poplar (or willow), and one oak.
Oak recorded from Newstead, from the Lochlee Crannog, from the Wigtownshire pre-historic dwelling, and from many other Roman stations, appears to have occurred plentifully in primeval woods of North Britain, in which were also scattered trees of rowan and white beam.
It is rather remarkable that no specimens of coniferous wood have been found in the brushwood deposits either at Newstead or at the Lochlee Crannog) and the absence of beech wood from material from both stations is worth noting.
1 Ludovic Maclellan Mann, Pre-historic Pile-Structures in Pits,' Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, 1903.
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