THE 



ESSEX NATURALIST: 



REINC. THE 



3ournal of tbc iBd^ey lficl^ Club 



FOR 1892. 



THE EXISTING FLOWERING PLANTS OF 

 EPPING FOREST. 



By J. T. POWELL. 



With Map, Plate I. 



[Read September 2Sih, /SSg ; Revised /Sg/.] 



TOY this title I wish to imply that the plants existing to-day in the 

 "^ Forest are but a remnant, though a considerable remnant, of 

 the former flora ; that, of the species recorded by Warner in his 

 " Plantae Woodfordienses " of 1771, and even of those noted by 

 Edward Foster and other botanists in the early part of the present 

 century, a good number are probably extinct. 



How large is this surviving remnant ? This is not an easy 

 question to answer. One pair of eyes, occupied only on odd half 

 holiday.s, may, over this large area, miss many things. This is 

 perhaps why, although I have botanised over the district for the last 

 eighteen years, I have not found some fifty or more of the species 

 included in the tolerably full list given in Mr. Buxton's capital book 

 on the Forest. Still, something fresh turns up almost every season. 

 For example, not until 1889 did I find Rhaninus fraii^^ula, which I 

 had long sought, in E. Foster's station (Snaresbrook), where it may 

 still be correctly reported " not common." 



Until recently I was in some doubt as to what might fairly be 

 considered the boundaries of the Forest for natural history pur- 

 p<;ses, and confined my researches strictly within the limits of the 

 portions preserved to the public. Latterly, however, I have gone 

 somewhat over these limits, working down the slopes, wherever 



K 



