THK KXISTINc; FLOWERINC PLANTS OF EI'l'ING FOREST. y 



Aira caryophyllea Linn. High Beach. 

 A. prsecox, Linn. Rather common. 

 Melica uniflora, Retz. Lark's Wood, «S:c. 

 Festuca loliacea, Curtis (non Huds). Walthamstow. 

 Lolium temulentum, Linn. Chingford. 

 Agropyron repens, v. barbata, Douval-Jouve. Near Epping, 

 and just outside our area near Chigwell. 



A few evident Aliens have been met with during my botanical 

 explorations in the Forest. 



Claytonia perfoliata, Don., has been established in one spot 

 near Walthamstow for quite fifteen years. It should perhaps be 

 promoted to the ranks of " denizen." 



Geranium striatum, Linn., has flowered regularly for twelve 

 years under the cover of brambles. As it is not far from a house, it 

 is probably a garden outcast. 



Amelanchier canadensis has to my knowledge been es- 

 tablished as long as the preceding, near Woodford. As its blossoms 

 are much pulled by children, it does not increase in size. 



The two plants before mentioned, Stratiotes and Damasoniiein, 

 should also in my opinion be classed with these Aliens. 



All true lovers of nature will strive to preserve from extermination 

 the floral and other treasures of our grand hunting ground. The 

 Essex Field Club has done good service in this way by again and 

 again raising its voice against destruction and spoliation. But the 

 Forest has not only suffered from the ignorant and selfish plunderer, 

 who plucks its blossoms only to throw them down as they wither, or 

 digs up its plants by the roots to languish for a short time in London 

 gardens ; it has been damaged, from our point of view, by those who 

 profess to conserve it. In a district whose flora and fauna depend 

 to a considerable extent upon the existence of bogs and ponds, over 

 drainage may do irreparable mischief. The pond-hunter is painfully 

 conscious of the loss of good things from this cause in the southern 

 part of the Forest, and most of the bogs have been intersected by 

 straight drains. In one of the best bogs in the centre of the district 

 there was, a few years since, an abundance of fine Drosera and a 

 little of Lycopodium inundatum. On visiting it a year or two after, 

 it had been drained, and I could find no trace of the latter ; the 

 spot on which it grew was dry and hard. The " Sundews " too, 



