AN INQUIRY INTO THE CAUSES OF THE
DEATH OF BIRCH TREES IN EPPING
FOREST AND ELSEWHERE.
By ROBERT PAULSON.
[Read October 6th, 1900.]
At the Cryptogamic Meeting of the Essex Field Club held
on Saturday, Oct. 28th, 1899, a question was raised respecting
the death of several birch trees in different parts of the Forest
area, and as the data for a satisfactory explanation were not
forthcoming, the following notes have been made with the view
of placing a report before the Club.
On first visiting (Nov., 1899) those parts of the Forest
where birch trees are abundant, it appeared that only a small
percentage of them had died or were diseased, but this was
owing to the fact that the observations were made during the
late autumn, when it was difficult to determine which trees had
really been attacked. In the early summer of this year it
became quite evident that the infected area was a wide one,
that many trees were diseased, and that by far the worst locality
was that in which dead trees were first observed, viz., in the
N.W. portion of Lord's Bushes, Buckhurst Hill.
A glance at the map (exhibited at the meeting) which has
been marked with a series of red dots to indicate the areas of
infection, shows that a great part of the Forest has suffered ;
indeed, wherever the birches have been examined, there have
been found signs of the disease. Trees either dying or dead
may be seen at Lord's Bushes, on portion of ground just beyond
the Old Toll-house, Buckhurst Hill, in private grounds opposite
the Bald Faced Stag, in the Church-yard Buckhurst Hill, at
Trap's Hill, Strawberry Hill, High Beach, Wake Arms, Long
Running, and at Ambresbury Banks.
During last autumn the older and possibly weaker trees
were attacked, while during this summer trees of all ages have
developed the disease. The Forest birches are not alone in this
respect ; trees may be seen around London in various stages of
decay, but the Forest area appears to have been one of the
first in which the disease showed itself in this destructive form.