BIRCH GROVES OF EPPING FOREST. 81
are given in it for the botanical districts VI. and VII., which
adjoin the Essex border. The nearest recorded localities to
Essex are: Hampstead Heath and Bishop's Wood, which are
approximately eight and a half miles south-west of Chingford.
As regards Hertfordshire, Pryor, in the County Flora, writes,
"Betula alba, locally abundant, but by no means generally
plentiful." Both species grew in Northaw woods which are
eleven miles west of Epping town; they are too far north for
the autumn equinoctial gales to carry seed into the Forest area.
Mr. William Cole, the founder of this Club, has stated in
conversation, and in a recent letter, that in 1870, when living
on the borders of the Forest, he frequently had to walk long
distances to obtain young birch leaves for feeding the larvae
which he was then breeding. A more than ordinary depletion
of birches may have been brought about by using birch branches
for binding the faggots made of lopped portions of the horn-
beam and other trees.
With reference to the historical evidence that a small number
of birches existed in the Forest through all the period of which
we have any knowledge, two names seem to need special mention.
They are (1) Birch Hall, (2) Birching Coppice, west of Coopersale.
The name Birch Hall is that of the estate just east of Oak Hill,
but outside the present Forest boundary. The name dates
back at least to the time of Henry VIII, Birching Coppice sug-
gests that birches were grown there for a long period.
The result of experiments within animal proof enclosures
made by the Conservators after the Forest was reserved for the
public, was that all kinds of forest trees came up on the cleared
spaces, but birch seedlings were so especially numerous that it
was necessary to pluck up large numbers of them. It would,
for our purpose, have been of more scientific value to have left
some of the enclosures absolutely untouched by man. This
would have shown whether the great number of birches could
exist for many years.
A rough estimate of the present number of birches in the
Forest, made a few months ago, worked out at not less than
20,000, but the figures are of little importance except for com-
parison with the very small number growing on the same area
fifty years ago. The estimated number was arrived at by
the following method, which was carried out at, (1) High Beach,