WOUNDS 



263 



These adventitious buds frequently produce vigorous stool-shoots 

 (Fig. 151), which, however, fail to become self-rooted, and suffer 

 from the advancing decomposition of the parent stool. The 

 stool-shoots that are formed from dormant eyes are much more 

 serviceable, and also more abundant. As it is very desirable 

 that these should become self-rooted, so that the new plants 

 may be unaffected by the health of the parent stool, it is an 

 advantage to have them as low down on the stool as possible. 

 For this reason coppice poles are cut as low as possible, and 

 in order to destroy all shoots that have 

 formed too high up on the stools, and thus 

 encourage the formation of deeper shoots, it 

 is a common practice in oak coppice to char 

 the stools by burning any ground vegetation. 



As the dormant eyes preserve their 

 vitality for only a limited period, no shoots 

 need be expected from old stools. The stools 

 of the older class of birches produce abun- 

 dant shoots, which however usually succumb 

 after a year or two. The reason for this 

 is that the extremely hard bark does not 

 yield to the growth in thickness of the 

 shoots whose base it envelops. The result 

 is that when, on account of the base of 

 the shoots being nipped by the bark, the 

 supply of water fails to keep pace with the 



accelerated transpiration, the shoots formed early in the year 

 succumb about midsummer. 



When young dicotyledonous trees that have become stunted 

 in growth are cut over close to the ground, the young shoots 

 often grow so satisfactorily and persistently that the plan is 

 frequently practised with good results as a cultural measure. 

 Although this matter has not yet been made the subject of 

 scientific investigation, it seems probable that after the tree has 

 been cut over the reserve materials present in the roots and 

 stool are utilized in stimulating root-growth, so that when the 

 roots have penetrated to a deeper, fresher, and richer layer of the 

 soil the plant continues to grow satisfactorily. Stunted oaks 

 that are situated on ground that is covered by weeds or heather 



FIG. 151. Shoots that 

 have formed from 

 adventitious buds on 

 the one-year-old cal- 

 lus of a beech-stool. 

 Natural size. 



