Editing Roman Britain (section)

== Environmental changes ==
The Romans introduced a number of species to Britain, including possibly the now-rare Roman nettle (''[[Urtica pilulifera]]''),<ref>{{Cite book |last=Kavalali |first=Gulsel M. |title=Urtica: therapeutic and nutritional aspects of stinging nettles |date=2003 |publisher=CRC Press |isbn=978-0-4153-0833-5 |page=15}}</ref> said to have been used by soldiers to warm their arms and legs,<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Nearing |first=Homer Jr. |date=1949 |title=Local Caesar Traditions in Britain |journal=[[Speculum (journal)|Speculum]] |publisher=Medieval Academy of America |volume=24 |issue=2 |pages=218–227 |doi=10.2307/2848562 |jstor=2848562 |s2cid=162955707}}</ref> and the edible [[snail]] ''[[Helix pomatia]]''.<ref>{{Cite book |last=New |first=Tim R. |url=https://archive.org/details/introductiontoin0000newt/page/136 |title=Introduction to invertebrate conservation biology |date=1995 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-1985-4051-9 |page=[https://archive.org/details/introductiontoin0000newt/page/136 136]}}</ref> There is also some evidence they may have introduced rabbits, but of the smaller southern mediterranean type. The [[European rabbit]] (''Oryctolagus cuniculus'') prevalent in modern Britain is assumed to have been introduced from the continent after the [[Norman conquest of England|Norman invasion of 1066]].<ref>{{Citation |title=Unearthing the ancestral rabbit |date=2006 |url=http://www.britarch.ac.uk/ba/ba86/news.shtml |work=British Archaeology |issue=86}}</ref> Box (''[[Buxus sempervirens]]'') is rarely recorded before the Roman period, but becomes a common find in towns and villas.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Lodwick |first=Lisa A. |author-link=Lisa Lodwick |date=2017 |title=Evergreen Plants in Roman Britain and Beyond: Movement, Meaning and Materiality |url=http://centaur.reading.ac.uk/68336 |journal=Britannia |language=en |volume=48 |pages=135–173 |doi=10.1017/S0068113X17000101 |issn=0068-113X |s2cid=59323545}}</ref>