164
SOME INTERESTING PLANTS OF EPPING FOREST.
By JOSEPH ROSS.
[Read March 29th, 1941.]
THE existence of nurseries and gardens close to that part of
Epping Forest which lies between Chingford and Buck-
hurst Hill and Woodford, either at present or in the past, and
the presence of the Ching brook, have probably been factors in
the appearance of some unusual and alien plants in this neigh-
bourhood. On the Chingford side is a group of Willow-leaved
Spiraea (Spiraea salicifolia), Snowberry (Symphoricarpus racemosus)
and Barberry (Berberis vulgaris) ; there is not much Barberry
here, but elsewhere in the Forest a well grown bush is hidden in
a thicket and another bush forms part of a hedge. Gardens may
have been responsible for the plants of Solomon's Seal (Polygo-
natum multiflorum) which Mr. B. T. Ward found in 1940 and
which recurred in the following year. The occurrence of the
American Blackberry close to the Ching brook is probably due
to birds, because not far away another plant of the species
straggles down from a pollard oak. In the thicket not far off
is a group of Raspberry canes (Rubus idaeus), a plant which
possibly has been more frequently met with in the last few years.
By the side of the Ching grow two aliens, Claytonia alsinoides,
and the small-flowered Balsam (Impatiens parviflora); both these
plants are well protected by bushes and nettles, but though
safe from human interference they may be crushed out by other
plants. In the brook grows the Canadian Water-weed (Elodea
canadensis).
At three points near the Ching, Blue Meadow Cranesbill
(Geranium pratense) has grown and flowered. At one spot it
was particularly well protected, but the surrounding growth
seems to have been too strong for it and it did not appear in
1941. A plant came up on the other side of the stream and
flowered ; it soon attracted attention, and like most of the
other blooms was not allowed to seed. In one moist spot
associated with this handsome Cranesbill is the fragrant Meadow
Sweet (Spiraea Ulmaria). At a bend of the brook in Spring
can be seen the flowers of Butter-bur (Petasites ovatus), to be
followed later by the large leaves. Here the Butter-bur flowers
in 1941 numbered a hundred spikes ; each year many of the
flowers are attacked, and without having seen the enemy at work
I am inclined to attribute the damage to rabbits. Comfrey
(Symphytum officinale) grows well at two points. Each summer
fine large plants of Hemlock Water Dropwort (Oenanthe crocata)
flourish by the brook until they attract too vigorous human attention.
Hemlock (Conium maculatum) has increased recently ; amongst