iv TEMPERATE FOREST REGIONS 93 



It must be remembered, too, that a proportion of bog 

 and swamp and damp hollows, are essential parts of the 

 " natural aspect " of every great forest tract. It is in 

 and around such places that many trees and shrubs 

 grow most luxuriantly; it is such spots that will be 

 haunted by interesting birds and rare insects ; and there 

 alone many of the gems of our native flora may still be 

 found. Every naturalist searches for such spots as his 

 best hunting-grounds. Every lover of nature finds them 

 interesting and enjoyable. Here the wanderer from the 

 great city may perchance find such lovely flowers as the 

 fringed buck-bean, the delicate bog pimpernell and creep- 

 ing campanula, the insect-catching sundew, and the pretty 

 spotted orchises. 1 These and many other choice plants 

 would be exterminated if, by too severe drainage, all such 

 wet places were made dry ; the marsh birds and rare 

 insects which haunted them would disappear, and thus 

 a chief source of recreation and enjoyment to that numerous 

 and yearly-increasing class who delight in wild flowers, 

 and birds, and insects, would be seriously interfered with. 



There is also a wider and more general point of view 

 from which it may be important to survey this question of 

 drainage. Epping Forest lies within the area of scanty 

 rainfall, which extends over much of the eastern part of 

 England, and as its surface consists largely of gravel, 

 the rain-water rapidly passes away, and thus tends to 

 create an aridity not favourable to luxuriant vegetation. 

 Now, every marsh and bog and swampy flat acts as a 

 natural reservoir, retaining a part of the rainfall, and 

 permanently moistening both the atmosphere and the 

 surrounding soil. In order to improve the climate and 

 foster the vegetation of the forest, it should be the 

 object of its conservators to retain as much as possible of 

 the rainfall-water within the area under their jurisdiction. 

 The forest streams might be dammed up at intervals, so as 



1 Besides those above mentioned, the following rare or interesting 

 marsh or bog plants inhabit Epping Forest : marsh St. John's wort 

 (Hypericum Elodes}, opposite-leaved golden saxifrage (Chrysosplenium 

 opfwsitifolium) red cranberry (Vaccinium oxycoccos), bladderwort 

 ( Utricularia vulgaris), water-violet (ffottonia palustris], and the royal 

 fern (Osmunda regali*), but this last is, perhaps, extinct. 



