THE HEART OF THE COPSE 125 



broods of chaffinches are often reared in a nest largely built 

 of poplar or sallow down, and redpoles sometimes build 

 almost exclusively of this soft fluff. These showers of down 

 in late spring are a regular feature in the copses on wet soil, 

 where aspens and poplars often replace to a great extent the 

 oaks grown as standards on drier land. They come when the 

 last marsh marigold blossoms are fading in the overshadowed 

 ditches. In drier copses the female sallow sheds a denser 

 down, which falls closer to its lowly boughs than the wefts 

 from the tall white poplars. Since most copses are merely 

 old woods modified by culture, there is a considerable variety 

 in the trees that compose them on different soils. Wet 

 copses largely consist of alder, of which the stems are allowed 

 to grow to a considerable thickness, and are then used chiefly 

 for rails. Aspens and white poplars rise singly or in clumps 

 above, while a part of the copse is often set aside as an osier 

 bed. Sandy and gravelly copses chiefly grow chestnut and 

 birch and scrubby oak, while alder buckthorn also occurs 

 most frequently on this kind of soil. As usual, a chalk soil 

 is the richest in various species. Besides the staple growths 

 of hazel and ash, which make the most useful form of under- 

 growth wherever they will grow, the copses are brightened 

 in May by many wild flowering shrubs. The common 

 guelder-rose or wayfaring tree and the water-guelder spread 

 their large disks of flower on slender stems, and the white- 

 beam blossom opens on more substantial boughs. Wild 

 cherry blooms on tall trees and shrubby bushes ; the two 

 varieties are often regarded as different species. Crab-trees 

 are commoner on a chalk soil than elsewhere, though they 

 are less restricted to it than several other flowering shrubs. 

 Common buckthorn blooms in thick clusters of yellowish 

 green blossoms, and spindle-wood in duller green stars. 

 Elder is weeded out of well-tended copses, as its spreading 



