July 29, 1S96.] 



Garden and Forest. 



301 



GARDEN AND FOREST. 



PUBLISHED WEEKLY BY 



THE GARDEN AND FOREST PUBLISHING CO. 



Office: Tribune Building, New York. 



Conducted by Professor C. S. Sargent. 



entered as second-class matter at the post-office AT NEW YORK, N. V. 



NEW YORK, WEDNESDAY, JULY 29, 1896. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



PAGE. 



Editorial Article : — Epping Forest 301 



Plant Names of Indian Origin. — V IV. R. Gerard. 302 



Delights of a Rough Garden D. H. R. Goodale. 303 



Plant Notes : — Viburnum cassinoides. (With figure.) 304 



Cultural Department : — The Hardy Plant Border Edward J. Canning. 305 



Some Good Annuals Robert Cameron. 306 



The Propagation of Tender Plants IV. H. Taplin. 307 



Chrysanthemums T. D. Hatfield. 307 



The Globe Artichoke E. O. Orpet. 307 



Floating Plants, Clerodendron foetidum G. W. Oliver. 308 



Correspondence : — Edible Barberries IV. 308 



Privacy in Suburban Life Architect 309 



Recent Publications 309 



Notes 310 



Illustration : — Viburnum cassinoides, Fig. 41 305 



Epping Forest. 



FORESTS in English law, according to Blackstone, are 

 " waste grounds belonging to the king, replenished 

 with all manner of chase or venery, which are under the 

 king's protection for the sake of his recreation and delight." 

 Three hundred years ago Man wood wrote : "A forest is a 

 certain territory of wooddy grounds and fruitful pastures 

 priviledged for wild beasts and foules of forest, chase, and 

 warren, to rest and abide in in the safe protection of the 

 king and for his princely delight and pleasure." In this 

 legal sense and in the colloquial language of former times 

 in England, trees were only incidents, and not essentials, of 

 a forest. Of course, forests were largely wood-clad, but the 

 trees were considered of use chiefly as a game cover just 

 as the pasturage was valued for the support of the game. 

 In England at the present day, as in our own country and 

 in other European countries, the terms "forests" and 

 " forestry " are applied to stretches of woodland which 

 produce fuel, timber and what are known as forest 

 products, and a forest need not be a game preserve. 



What is now known as Epping Forest is the remnant of 

 a once extensive royal hunting-ground which embraced a 

 large portion of the county of Essex. It was gradually 

 reduced as portions of it were disafforested until, in 1640, 

 it embraced some 60,000 acres, 12,000 being unenclosed 

 wastes and woods, and the remainder to some extent cul- 

 tivated, but subordinated to the hunting rights of the 

 crown. As suburban land increased in value and the 

 utilitarian spirit of the age began to consider it a crime to 

 allow land to lie idle which might be cultivated, the bounda- 

 ries were gradually contracted until in 1850 there were 

 only 6,000 acres which were not fenced in, and during the 

 next twenty years, under some injudicious legislation, half 

 of this was enclosed and more or less built upon. About i860 

 several persons of influence organized a Commons Preser- 

 vation Society to resist encroachments upon open spaces 

 belonging to the people, and began to take action in regard 

 to the common land about London, and after a legal 

 contest which lasted fifteen years the courts decided the 

 case in favor of the Corporation of London, which had 

 been fighting the battle for the society and the people, with 



the final result that 5,542 acres were saved for the people 

 to be theirs by inalienable right for recreation and enjoy- 

 ment forever. 



As it now exists, Epping Forest is a longand comparatively 

 narrow stretch of rolling woodland and grassy spaces not 

 enclosed, and in many places pastured on by the cattle of 

 the commoners who still hold this right. The interesting 

 fact in relation to this great pleasure-ground and the many 

 small outlying spaces that belong to it is that within an 

 hour's ride of the heart of the city of London this long 

 stretch of wild woodland remains devoted to public use. 

 The act which put the forest under the management of the 

 Epping Forest Committee, which consists of twelve mem- 

 bers of the Court of Common Council and four verderers 

 resident within the forest and elected by the commoners, 

 provides that "the Conservators shall at all times, as far as 

 possible, preserve the natural aspect of the forest." This 

 injunction accords entirely with a very strenuous public 

 opinion which holds that the Forest shall "remain a forest 

 and not be civilized into a park." To this end the Forest 

 contains scarcely any roads except the regular county 

 traffic roads which traverse it ; there are no gravelled or 

 asphalt paths, no trim borders, no exotic shrubs or trees. 

 There is a Green Ride, which is a turf wood-road travers- 

 ing the forest, and visitors can wander at will through the 

 groves and thickets, but they will find no attempt to 

 sophisticate the landscape. The natural underwood grows 

 at will among the trees, the native sedges and grasses are 

 left about the fringes of the little ponds, the shrubbery by 

 the wayside consists of Wild Roses, Broom and indigenous 

 bushes. Shy dark-brown fallow deer can be seen occa- 

 sionally in the dense cover, and the beautiful little roe deer 

 also makes its home in the thick woods, and generally 

 the place is as untamed as nature can make it. To 

 one driving along the main road the dense undergrowth 

 on the forest border looks quite impenetrable, but, once 

 within it, there is no difficulty in walking among the trees, 

 although one can easily get lost in the woods almost within 

 the sound of the roar of London. The visitor who canters 

 over the Green Ride in company with some one who 

 knows the forest thoroughly, especially if he has the good 

 fortune to be guided by Mr. McKenzie, the Superintendent, 

 who succeeded his father in the position and who knows 

 every foot of it and all its varied beauties, can pass days 

 of delight in exploring its many attractions. As the result 

 of careful study, points have been selected on high ground, 

 where by cutting away a few trees broad and refreshing 

 views across the forest can be secured, and there are ele- 

 vations which command smiling pastoral landscapes in 

 Essex on the north and east and Hertford on the west, while 

 from one point at least the dome of St. Paul's can be seen 

 hanging against the southern sky, while the base of the 

 cathedral and all the city lies hidden in the mist. 



To Americans accustomed to the luxuriance and variety 

 of our own forest growth the Epping woods are somewhat 

 disappointing at first, because they are made up of so few- 

 species, and still more so because the trees over such large 

 areas have been pollarded — that is, cut back, branch and 

 stem, every fifteen years to seven feet from the ground to 

 furnish fuel for the commoners. This mutilation of the 

 trees has now been discontinued, of course, but when kit 

 to themselves these pollards become shock-headed speci- 

 mens which have little beauty. Of course, there are many 

 fairly good trees, although none of them match the vener- 

 able Oaks of Sherwood or the Beeches of Burnham. In 

 High Beech, Monk Wood and some other parts of the 

 forest, groves of good trees rise above the level of the 

 others which have been unsparingly robbed of their tops 

 for generations. In spite of its maltreatment, however, the 

 great central mass of the forest, which lies in a single 

 block some four miles long and covers four thousand 

 acres, is a wild and beautiful wood of 1 h. Horn- 



beam, Crab, Maple, Thorn, Birch and Holly, and one can 

 find unalloyed pleasure in riding along its bridle-paths or 

 wandering through its intricate by-ways. The names 



