EPPING FOREST.
and with the saffron yellow of the birch and
maple ? No leaf-colouring can be found to surpass
this in brilliancy, unless it be in the gean tree or
wild cherry of Scotland, which I am endeavouring
to establish in some parts of the Forest. And yet
these beauties are mostly wasted on the desert air.
Let me then invite the cockney to extend his
migratory periods at both ends. In the following
list I have described only those trees which are
native to the soil. There are many others, such
as the horse chestnut, Spanish chestnut, poplar,
elm, walnut, sycamore, Scotch fir, willows of
various sorts, etc., of which a few individual
specimens may be found in the Forest; but as
they are not indigenous, but have either been
planted or have seeded themselves from cultivated
ground, I take no particular notice of them here.
I have also omitted the hazel, as, although we learn
that Gilbert de Ecclesia of Chingford " was obliged,
by the tenure of his lands, to find a man to gather
nuts for the lord of the manor," he would find it
impossible to fulfil his bargain at the present day.
The Oak (Quercus Robur).—There are two varieties of the com-
mon oak in England—sessiliflora and pedunculata. It is
the former which abounds in the Forest. It is distinguished
from the latter by the acorns being borne close to the
stalk instead of on footstalks, and by smaller foliage.
The largest trunk on the Forest ground stands just
within the enclosure by Fairmead Lodge. It has been
pollarded up to comparatively recent times, so that the
spread of branches is not great, but it has a grand rugged
stem 22 ft. 7 in. in circumference at 3 feet from the
ground. On the rising ground beyond Connaught Water
there is a fine tree of wide spread sometimes known as
Sotheby's but more generally as Grimston's Oak, so
named after the Hon. Robert Grimston, who first called
attention to it, and at whose suggestion a space was
cleared around it. There are many picturesque oak
pollards of great age in Lord's Bushes, but not only