384 EXISTING TREES AND SHRUBS OF EPPING FOREST.
Quercus robur, L. Oak.
Grows everywhere throughout the forest on moist as well as
dry ground. It is, however, more plentiful on the heavy clays,
because the beech is not there to smother it. The oak is extremely
variable, nearly thirty forms having been described as found in
Britain. These varieties are generally grouped, very loosely, into
three—pubescens, sessiliflora, and pedunculata. I have not yet met
with an example of pubescens large enough to be called even a
sapling, but I have found several small shrubby specimens near
Earl's Path, bearing rough hairy leaves—a character not tem-
porary, but lasting throughout the year.
Mr. Buxton states that the oak which abounds in the forest
is sessiliflora, having acorns without footstalks, and Mr. J. T.
Powell, in the Essex Naturalist, Vol. VI,, page 7, supports
this view. On the other hand, Warner in 1771 described the
"Oak Tree with Acorns on short footstalks" (i.e., opposed to long
footstalks) as "Found on the Forest between Muncombe and The
Bald Faced Stag: not common." My own experience is that
acorns on stalks as long or longer than themselves are vastly
more numerous than stalkless and short-stalked acorns put
together. I do not believe that a single tree could be found
bearing only stalkless acorns, for the length of fruit stalk, as well
as the leaf stalk and the shape of the leaf, vary not only on different
trees, but on each individual tree. The shape of the acorn is
perhaps the most constant character. I have seen on a tree,
whose leaves had long petioles (1/2 inch), fruit stalks varying from
1/2, inch to 8 inches, the majority being about 11/2 to 2 inches long.
While a tree, whose leaves had shorter petioles, shewed fruit
stalks varying chiefly from 1/8 inch or less to 1/2 inch, and, within
easy reach, one of 2 inches. Such variations in fruit stalks and
leaves are the rule, but I have no hesitation in stating that the
great mass of oaks in the forest may be broadly classed under
pedunculata.
Fagus sylvatica, L. Beech.
This, our most beautiful tree, is happily very plentiful on all
the high ground, but it does not like cold wet soils such as we
find in the bottom of the Ching Valley and the lower part of
Lord's Bushes. Throughout the central portion of Epping Forest,
where the soil is very mixed, plentiful beeches and old gravel
workings generally occur together.