lO THE AREA OF EPPING FOREST FOR FAUNISTIC PURPOSES. 



were fewer in number and much reduced in size ; most of them 

 could be covered by a sixpence, and anyone could have plucked 

 them without soiling his boots. The last time I saw the Ivy-leaved 

 Campanula a straight cutting had been made through the middle of 

 the spot on which it grew. During wet seasons no apparent harm is 

 done, but two or three dry seasons would bring home to us the 

 extent of the damage. 



[The Club as a body (as well as many individual members) has 

 repeatedly protested in the strongest manner against the practice 

 of deep drainage in the Forest, but without impressing the 

 pDvvers that be. Our only hope apparently lies in the great expense 

 of attempting this work, which must be constantly renewed to he 

 effectual. We say "attempting" advisedly, for most fortunately the 

 treading of the cattle, the natural disintegration of the soft banks, 

 the growth of plants, and the drifting of leaves, soon fill up the ugly 

 straight ditches and completely close them unless they are cleared 

 every few seasons. The arguments against the attempts at deep 

 drainage on the Forest were well stated by Dr. M. C. Cooke in a 

 paper published in the Appendix to volume iii. of the " Proceedings 

 of the Essex Field Club," and which has since been published in a 

 separate pamphlet entitled " Papers and Memorials issued by the 

 Essex Field Club on the Protection of Wild Animals and Plants and 

 the Present Condition and Future Management of Epping Forest " 

 1883).— Ed.] 



THE AREA OF EPPING FOREST FOR 

 FAUNISTIC PURPOSES. 



By WILLIAM COLE, F.E.S. 

 [With Map, Plate I.] 



T N compiling lists of the Flora and Fauna of Epping Forest a 

 difficulty at once arises concerning the area which should be in- 

 cluded in our purview so as to afford some defined district for 

 natural history- purposes. To regard only those parts now actually 

 covered with wood and under the control of the Conservators as 

 Epping Forest would be so clearly an artificial limitation as to be at 

 once rejected. There are many parcels of land contiguous to the 

 forest as now legally defined by the Arbitrator, which are still covered 

 with trees, or which have been replanted as private woods and 

 pleasure grounds. Plants, or insects and other animals may still 

 live there in a perfectly wild state, and are therefore deserving of 

 recognition as members of the flora or fauna of the forest. It is also 

 a well-known fact that woodland species may linger for many years 



