Appendix No. 1. 
xxi 
as one of the first European authorities on the Cryptogamia; Professor 
Boulger as a botanist and forester ; and Mr. Harting, Editor of a leading 
biological magazine, as a naturalist and sportsman, in support of the 
claims of our native animals and birds to the protection of all humane 
and patriotic persons.— Ed.] 
I. 
The Evils of Deep-drainage from the Naturalist’s point of view. 
By M. C. Cooke, M.A., LL.D., A.L.S., &c. 
Many of those who are interested in the study of Natural History, 
resident in and around the metropolis, have long been accustomed to visit 
Epping Forest in pursuit of that study, and have often been delighted 
with the numerous forms of life which that wild and natural haunt has 
furnished to them. They are nevertheless alarmed lest the Conservators 
should be induced to follow the baneful example of the custodians of other 
localities, and resort to deep-drainage, and other so-called improvements, 
whereby the natural character of the Forest will be greatly injured, and 
certain animals and plants irretrievably exterminated. Under this feeling, 
they are induced to remind all those who control the destinies of the 
Forest that there is no apparent necessity for reducing the humidity of 
the soil in the interests of the ordinary visitors to the Forest; that any 
alteration in this direction must, of necessity, by altering the conditions 
under which they have long flourished, be fatal to all the flowering plants 
which only grow in moist situations, of which many are now natives of 
the Forest. Artificial disturbance of these natural conditions will not only 
destroy the plants themselves, but as these plants are many of them the 
favourite food of certain species of insects, the disappearance of the food- 
plants will also be accompanied by the extermination of the insects feeding 
upon them; such insects, in most cases, refusing to subsist on other plants. 
The result of such artificial disturbance would therefore be to change the 
character of the fauna and flora of the Forest, which it was hoped would 
be maintained “as nearly as possible in its natural condition.” More 
serious consequences are apprehended from any diminution or abolition 
of the boggy pools, ponds and ditches, which are now numerous in the 
Forest. It is calculated, at a low estimate, that not less than 500 different 
and distinct species of microscopically minute animals and plants inhabit 
the stagnant waters collected in the small pools and boggy jilaces in the 
Forest. In these days, when so many persons confine their biological 
studies almost entirely to these minute organisms, it is a subject of general 
regret that almost every year they are compelled to go farther and farther 
from London in search of the subjects of their investigations. The 
abolition of waste ground and the drainage of all stagnant pools, in the 
interests either of the builder, the cultivator of the soil, or often through 
lack of special knowledge on the part of the “ Conservators of open 
spaces,” have extirpated many of the most interesting organisms, which 
but a few years ago were abundant. Under these circumstances, it is but 
a small thing that the biologists of London and its vicinity ask of the 
Conservators of Epping Forest, but to them it is one of vital importance 
as far as the utility of the Forest is concerned. They ask that the Forest 
should be maintained literally as much as possible in its natural con¬ 
dition; that all drainage systems, which tend to alter completely the 
natural conditions of the Forest and its surroundings, may be abandoned; 
that no attempt be made to “ improve ” such places as Wanstead Flats, 
by reducing, limiting, or filling up the pools, and thereby “improving ” 
some hundreds of living species of animals and plants off the face of the 
