EXISTING TREES AND SHRUBS OF EPPING FOREST. 381
Pyrus aria, Ehrh. White Beam.
One tree in the midst of a thorn bush on Warren Hill,
Loughton. I will not venture to name the sub-species. There
are many young trees in the nurseries, but not of the same
sub-species as this one, which is also too old to have come
from that source.
Pyrus aucuparia, Gaertn. Mountain Ash, or Rowan Tree.
Scattered all about the forest, but, so far as I have noticed,
never more than a few inches thick. It is certainly increasing,
and there is no doubt that its presence is entirely clue to seeds
brought by birds from the surrounding gardens.
Crataegus oxyacantha, L. Hawthorn, or "May."
With the blackthorn in the damp parts and the holly in the
gravelly districts, the hawthorn forms the bulk of the under-
growth. Sub-sp. oxyacanthoides, with two styles, is fairly common.
I have not noticed any flowers or fruit with three styles, but have
not searched very carefully. There is considerable variation in
the leaves of this sub-species, but much more in the case of
monogyna, the one-styled sub-species, which abounds in the forest.
One extreme form has a great many thorns and small deeply-cut
leaves, with the narrow basal lobes well separated from the rest
of the leaf, while another form bears fewer thorns and broad leaves
much less lobed. Between these extremes are other forms con-
necting them. The fruit also varies in size and shape.
Ribes rubrum, L. Wild Currant.
I found one small plant early this year in the forest near the
10th mile-stone on the Epping New Road, but it has now dis-
appeared (September, 1898). Possibly it was a garden escape.
Hedera helix, L. Ivy.
Everywhere, particularly in moist places. When trailing on
the ground its leaves are lobed and of moderate size. Sometimes
we find it with slender brittle stern, closely pressed to the trunk
of a pollard, and leaves small more deeply divided and delicately
marked. In a good soil it climbs high and develops a luxuriant
growth of dark green glossy leaves, whose lobes are less marked
or disappear altogether, saving only the terminal point.
Cornus sanguinea, L. Cornel, Dogwood.
Common in the Ching Valley and other moist parts. Its red
twigs and (in the autumn) blood-red leaves render this the most
conspicuous shrub of the thickets.