76 
THE ESSEX NATURALIST. 
in a field by Mrs. Moyers house, Leyton April 1799, also some in 
a field at the back of Leytonstone May 1799 in FI. Have doubts 
whether ever found actually wild," a commentary on blue paper, 
written and signed by William Pamplin, 8 but not dated, which 
runs : 
“ N.B. About 1780 or perhaps a little later my Grandfather 
and my Father wrought in the Garden of this Mrs. Moyer at 
Leyton—and my Father has frequently mentioned the circum¬ 
stance here referred to by Mr. Forster—viz., this particular 
field was completely overrun by quantities of the Common 
Daffodil and moreover that in labouring to eradicate them as 
ordered by his employer he has often left off work with his hand 
sorely blistered. Also he has told me that he had supplied from 
this source specimens for the Forsters when they first began 
collecting for their Herbaria in boyhood." 
Here, then, we have direct evidence that to William Pamplin’s 
knowledge one of the three brothers Forster was the author of 
the manuscript annotations. 
G. S. Gibson tell us, in his “ Flora of Essex," 1862, that when, 
in 1843,he conceived the idea of compiling this work, he wrote 
to Edward Forster on the subject. Forster replied that he had 
himself collected considerable materials for such a Flora, and was 
in process of arranging them. Indeed, Forster informed him 
that he had, at one time, entertained the idea of printing a second 
edition of Warner’s “ Plantas Woodfordienses." But Gibson 
assures us that after Edward Forster’s death no “ prepared 
manuscript " was found among his papers, although elsewhere 
he speaks of “ manuscripts of the late Edward Forster contain¬ 
ing botanical memoranda extending over a period of more than 
sixty years." As a matter of fact, Edward Forster published 
nothing in separate form. 
I have examined, by favour of Dr. Rendle, a selection of 
Edward Forster’s plants now merged in the General British 
Herbarium at the British Museum (Natural History), and there can 
be no reasonable doubt that the handwriting on the herbarium 
.3 William Pamplin (1806-1899), a native of Chelsea, was, during his earlier vears, in partner¬ 
ship as a nurseryman with his lather at Chelsea, his lather having formerly carried on a s imilar 
nursery business with his father at Walthamstow. At the age of 33, William undertook a botani¬ 
cal bookselling business at 45, Frith Street, Soho, and published among other works, Sir W. J. 
Hooker’s “Species Filicum,” in 1846 and Gibson’s “Flora of Essex,” in 1862; in the latter 
year he retired to North Wales, where he died some 37 years later. He was an indefatigable 
botanist, and was for 69 years an Associate of the Linnean Society. His autograph (dated 1850), 
occurs in a copy of Deering’s “ Catalogus Stirpium,” 1738, in the Club’s Library. 
He it was who gathered the rare fern, Cystopteris alpina, from Leyton in 1835. (See post). 
