24 The Presidential Address.
is, however, often merely a garden escape, having even
double flowers; singularly indestructible and capable of
spreading along the banks of a stream. It may, therefore,
have come from the Saxon or Norman flower-garden. The
Gooseberry has Celtic names of native origin, was not culti-
vated by the Romans, and bore the Anglo-Saxon name of
"Tea-berry." It may, therefore, be indigenous,37 though its
existing localities seldom have that appearance.
Coming to such an Essex as this, the short swarthy Mon-
golian Neolith, with polished celt, gold ornaments, flocks and
herds,38 must, I think, without intentionally introducing new
plants, have had an immense indirect influence upon our
flora. He is not likely, when not harassed by an invading
race, to have lived by choice only on those hills and downs
on which he has left us the cromlechs and long barrows that
probably belong to this age. Even if he preferred to live on
pile-dwellings, as in Norfolk and in Holderness, he almost
certainly effected a certain amount of forest clearing. Not
to speak of artificial pasturage, he is believed to have grown
flax, and here we have the necessity for tillage of a somewhat
detailed character. In growing corn, flax, or other crops he
must have unintentionally introduced weeds into the country,
possibly the Pimpernel,83 and that Plantain (Plantago major)
37 DeCandolle, op. cit., p. 911.
38 "There are remains of domesticated forms introduced by the race
which supplanted the Palaeolithic tribes. These are the- dog, horse,
sheep, goat, short-horn, and hog. It is noteworthy that these domestic
forms were not parts of the indigenous fauna of Europe. They appear
at once in Neolithic deposits, leading to the inference that they were
introduced by the human tribes which now migrated, probably from
Central Asia, into the European continent. These tribes were likewise
acquainted with agriculture, for several kinds of grain, as well as seeds
of fruits, have been found in their lake-dwellings ; and the deduction has
been drawn from these remains that the plants must have been brought
from Southern Europe or Asia. The arts of spinning, weaving, and
pottery-making were also known to these people. Human skeletons and
bones belonging to this age have been met with abundantly in barrows
and peat-mosses, and indicate that Neolithic man was of small stature,
with a long or oval skull."—Archibald Geikie, 'Text-book of Geology,'
p. 907.
39 The name is of Celtic origin, pimper signifying "five," in allusion to
the petals.