LONDON PLANTS 19 



to may be o£ alien origin. But they are the colonists who have found 

 in theii' new home a congenial soil and climate, and have maintained 

 themselves, with the assistance of cultivation, so long that the historv 

 of their introduction is not nov; traceable. Their obvious inability to 

 hold their own, in competition with the native flora of primitive un- 

 broken ground like the Forest, is a strong presumption of their foreign 

 origin, however. But among aliens of recent introduction we are 

 unlikely to find many species of sufficient adaptability to secure their 

 position. Those capable of colonisation have mostly gained their place 

 long ago. Therefore, within the Forest area, where cultivation and 

 disturbance of the soil have fortunately ceased, very few of the modern 

 casuals are likely to survive their first year. 



" Among the undoubtedly native and widely spread sylvestral and 

 ericetal species, there are a few so sparingly represented in the Forest flora 

 that one imagines there must be some special reasons for their scarcity. 

 In some cases the reason is obvious. There is a story, likely enough, 

 that the Hazel was rooted out to prevent the disturbance of the King's 

 deer by nutting parties from London. The proximit}'^ of London is 

 also doubtless accountable for the disappearance of so striking a plant 

 as the Foxglove, and the Primrose has almost met the same fate ; 

 though it mvist be remembered that the Primrose is a plant of damp 

 woodland, and was probably always scarce in the main block in the 

 Forest, between Fairmead Plain and Ej^ping. In the damp Lower 

 Forest beyond Epping it is still plentiful enough. But the same 

 cause can scarcely account for the almost total absence of the Wood- 

 ruff, the Wood Spurge {Euphorhia amygdaloides) — which is common 

 enough in Hainault a few miles away — the inconspicuous moisture- 

 loving Chrysospleniums, and the two woodland grasses. Milium and 

 Melica. Again, wh}- is the Purple Heather entirely confined to a few 

 spots on the gravel near Snaresbrook ? The sandy ground aljout High 

 Beach and the ' Wake Arms ' would seem to be quite suitable for it. 

 On all the expanse of heather and gorse-clad common the parasitic 

 Dodder is, so far as I am aware, quite absent. Even the little 

 Germander Speedwell is remarkably scarce, and though its flowers 

 are bright enough it is hardly likelj^ to have been uprooted as has thfe 

 Primrose. Is it possible that the nearness of London has reacted on 

 some of these species through the pollution of the atmosphere, which 

 is often only too evident ? I think there is no doubt that the scarcity 

 of lichens on the Forest trees is largely due to this cause." 



In addition to those already mentioned, the following" are named 

 by Mr. Rogers as among the most interesting species still to be found 

 in the Forest: — 



" Drosera rotunclifolia is scarce, but by no means extinct on moist 

 peaty ground near the ' Wake Arms.' Hypericum elodes occurs in some 

 of the northern bogs. Limnanthemum peltatum, perhaps the rarest 

 British species in the Forest, is well established in a large pool near 

 Ambresbury Banks. Rhaimius Frangula is to be found near the 

 Eagle Pond, Snaresbrook: B. catharficus near the Connaught 

 Waters. A few trees of Pyrus torminalls are scattered through 

 the woodland. Campanula hederacea is a western and northern 

 species, but has an outlying station in the Forest between Thevdon 



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