THE EXISTING TREES AND SHRUBS OF
EPPING FOREST.
By F. W. ELLIOTT.
{Read 14th May, 1898; abridged and revised September, 1898.]
DURING the early years after the passing of the Epping
Forest Act the Conservators established nurseries con-
taining a great variety of trees and shrubs, both British and
foreign, which are now beginning to bear fruit. Many seedlings
will doubtless spread through the Forest, so that in future years
there will be difficulty in deciding whether a particular shrub may
not owe its existence to these nurseries. It therefore behoves the
Essex Field Club to lose no time in cataloguing the trees and
shrubs now occurring in the forest, and I have therefore ventured
to make a beginning, in the hope that other members will add to
my list.
I have included only those species whose existence I have
verified during the last twelve months, and have limited my area
to that under the control of the Epping Forest Conservators, ex-
clusive of Wanstead and Higham Parks. I have, however, very
little botanical acquaintance with the extreme northern and
southern portions of this area.'
In Volume VI. of the Essex Naturalist is a list by Mr.
J. T. Powell of the rarer flowering plants found within the limits
of the forest as defined by the perambulation of Charles I., which
included 50,000 acres of land now private.
In Mr. E. N. Buxton's guide-book, Epping Forest, is a very
complete Flora, which, however, includes plants certainly not to
be found in the forest as we know it. Mr. Buxton also devotes a
chapter to the trees, but his list is not sufficiently full for our
purpose.
I shall say nothing about the Blackberries, the Roses, or the
Willows, as I know very little about them. Volumes III. and V.
of the Essex Naturalist contain notes of the Epping Forest
Rubi by Mr. J. T. Powell; and Professor Boulger has some
materials for a list of the Willows.
1 In reading this paper, Mr. Elliott's very restricted area must be constantly borne
in mind ; if my area (E.N., vi., 10) had been adopted several other species might have
been included, while many plants noted as rare by Mr. Elliott are fairly common in
lanes and fields near the official forest —W, Cole.