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THE FLORA OF WANSTEAD PARK DISTRICT.
By GULIELMA LISTER, F.L.S.
[Read 29th November, 1941.]
(With a folding Plate.)
IN these days of swiftly changing conditions it may be of
interest to have a record of the flowering plants now growing
in Wanstead Park, and in those parts near it which were formerly
under the. direction of the owners of Wanstead House. With the
invaluable assistance of Miss E. A. Greaves and Miss E. Prince,
I have compiled the following list of about three hundred plants.
The area dealt with is illustrated by the two accompanying
maps ; the earlier is a reproduction, much reduced, of a section
of Rocque's Survey of London (1745), taken from E. N. Buxton's
Epping Forest, ed. 1, 1885 ; the later map is of the same area
taken from the Directory to Leytonstone, Wanstead, &c., 1931.
Although nearly two hundred years elapsed between the
dates when the maps were made, the main features of the district
have altered little, owing to the preservation of Epping Forest
and Wanstead Park as open spaces for the enjoyment of the
public. The Green Man pond to the west, the Basin and the
chain of artificial waters, Lincoln Island pond, the Straight,
"the Serpentine pond," which includes the present Perch Pond
and Boating Lake, and the Shoulder of Mutton Pond are easily
recognised ; west of the last named was the Reservoir, close
to the present Blake Hall road, it has long been drained and
its bed is overgrown with tall oaks and birches ; the site of the
Great Lake, on whose island Lake House stood (the home for a
time of the poet Tom Hood), has been filled in and built over.
For convenience of reference to the list of plants given later
I have divided the area into six sections, each of which I propose
to describe briefly and to designate with a distinctive letter.
Section P : Wanstead Park proper, i.e., the part closed to the
public at night, and also including the part always free of
access lying between the Boating pond and the Blake Hall
road. Section W : The Warren Estate. Section C: The
Grave-yard of St. Mary's Church. Section G : The Links of
the Wanstead Golf Club. Section B : Bushwood and the
Forest land around it. Section F : The Grave-yard of the
Society of Friends.