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 Birth wort,86 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 Thistle86 (Silybum marianum), and from these
same gardens may have escaped the medicinal Thorn-apple87
(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 Romans.—-Op.
cit., p. 071.
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
dedieaee a la Vierge Marie."—DeCandolle, op. cit., p. 673.
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
originaire 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 repanda entre cette epoque et la deeouverte de
lAmerique."
88 Unknown in Greece and wild in Algeria, this species occurs as a weed
throughout Western Europe. Though having a remarkable fruit it is