60 NOTES.
be damaged by the constant trampling of cattle which is doing so
much injury to other parts of the woodlands. The exclusion of
cattle would afford evidence in years to come, by comparison with
other parts of the forest, of the injury the cattle do to the
woodlands generally, and so lead to the much-needed control of the
rights of feeding, at least in the wooded parts of the forest.
It should always be remembered, as Sir Fowell Buxton very justly
remarked, that Epping Forest as it came from the hands of the Arbitra-
tor, was by no means "complete." There are abundant opportunities
for wealthy well-wishers to follow in the pleasant ways opened out
by the senior Verderers. Anyone who studies the forest will speedily
discover defects of outline waiting to be rounded off by the acquisition
of plots of land which if built upon or otherwise maltreated would be
blots for ever marring the fair aspect of the woodlands. Much work
in the fascinating occupation of "judicious planting" also awaits the
forest enthusiast. The rescue of Epping Forest was a great triumph
achieved by hard-working and far-seeing men, some of whom have
already passed away; to "complete" the forest in reality would be
to raise the best monument of their exertions, and would show that
the public appreciate as they ought one of the greatest benefits con-
ferred upon London during the present century.
Tobacco-growing in Essex.—In the "Essex Standard," of April 27th,
1889, the following statement appeared:—"At Braintree, on Thursday, a
quantity of English grown tobacco, belonging to Mr. O. E. Newman, of Rayne,
was destroyed by the order of the Inland Revenue Authority, under the following
circumstances. Mr. Newman last year tried tobacco growing on his farm at
Rayne, and raised 240 plants which thrived well, some of them growing upwards
of six feet high. The crop was harvested and subjected to a drying process at
Mr. Newman's malting at Braintree, but through some defect in the curing was
rendered unfit for the market. Mr. Newman reported this to the Excise
authorities, who ordered the tobacco to be destroyed."
Primula Hybrids.—In the "Journal of Botany" for June, Mr. E. S. Marshall
makes the following remarks upon the hybridization of species of Primula, which
are interesting in connection with some observations in Mr. Christy's paper on
"The Species of the Genus Primula in Essex," in our "Transactions" (Trans:
E.F.C, vol. iii., pp. 148—211) :—"P. verts X vulgaris, gathered in E. Suffolk
last May, has behaved oddly in cultivation. It commenced to flower in January,
the blossoms at first being almost exactly like those of vulgaris. It has gradually
shaded off towards veris, the stalked umbels growing more and more pronounced,
and the colour deepening, till it is now (end of April) nearer the latter parent in
appearance The Rev. R. P. Murray has shown me fresh specimens of natural
garden hybrids of P. vulgaris x elatior and P. veris X elatior, which are just like
the wild hybrids from Saffron Walden. In the second case, the fertilization must
have been due to insects, as P. veris grows only at some little distance. In 1887
I found P. vulgaris x elatior in a wood where no vulgaris was to be seen, and its
pollen must have been conveyed a long way."