54 Plant-life of the Oxford District 



In the former case, scarcely dignified as High Forest, large trees are 

 grown in open canopy for timber and billet-wood, the undergrowth of 

 minor trees being reduced or absent, as the last stage of residual standards 

 or overwood. Trees were extracted as required, and regeneration appar- 

 ently left to nature, as the last went. In such case a high light-canopy 

 was long maintained, and the herbaceous ground-flora remained under very 

 uniform conditions. Suggestive examples of tall-coppice are retained at 

 Bagley (Middle Copse, Milestone Piece), Sidlings Copse (Wick), Marley 

 Plantation (Wytham), and Stow Wood. The character of the undergrowth 

 varies with the nature of the trees of high-forest : under Oak it becomes 

 mainly Bracken and Brambles. Under Beech the ground is practically bare 

 (Wytham). 



Underwood expresses wooded areas growing minor trees, more definitely 

 cropped in a rotation of 9-10 years or more ; the old stools being allowed 

 to regenerate, and the gaps made good by replanting. The trees are 

 utilized for poles, hurdles, fuel, bean-sticks, and a large number of subsidiary 

 purposes. 1 This includes minor copses utilized for agricultural necessities, 

 and large areas of residual woodland (Bagley Wood) are still in this condi- 

 tion. The state of the underwood varies according to the main crop, 

 whether pure or mixed, and the nature of the soil. The growth of the 

 herbaceous ground-flora also varies with the main-crop and the water-content 

 of the soil, and is considerably affected by clear-felling and the first years 

 of regeneration. Where the canopy is closely maintained and there is little 

 water-content, the ground-flora may practically disappear; this being the 

 ideal of the forester. 



Admirable examples of the difference in classes of underwood are afforded 



by tracts of Bagley Wood, of comparatively recent planting. 2 



(1) Sycamore coppice, giving clean-grown poles (25 ft.). The summer 

 canopy is particularly dense, and the undergrowth gives nothing but a fairly 

 pure growth of Scilla nutans, flowering before the leaves are on the trees. 

 (Felling commenced 1922 ; previously cut 1895.) 



(2) Alder coppice, at an optimum on the sides of damp gullies, giving clean 

 pole-growth, 30-40 ft., very different from the stunted trees of river-margin 

 and swamp-ditches. The undergrowth is mainly ferns (Pteris and Lastraea 

 dilatata\ 



(3) Birch coppice, on gravel and drier soils, giving similar tall poles and 

 light canopy (40 ft.) ; the undergrowth being chiefly Bracken. 



(4) Willow and Poplar coppice, on swampy bottoms of alluvium or clay, 

 covering a damp undergrowth of Pteris, Nettles, and Mercurialis (Bottom 

 Copse, Bagley; Headington Wick Copse). Cut also in 9 years rotation, cleaned 

 and re-set 



Osier beds give a special case, at an optimum on irrigated land, and cut 

 with annual cropping, in close-tufted growth which admits of little undergrowth. 

 Local examples are very poor. 



(5) Hazel coppice is widely distributed; the low trees with surface-root 

 system doing well on clay where little else will grow ; examples on Kimeridge 



1 Woods (1921), The Rural Industries round Oxford, p. 79, Underwood Industries. Under- 

 woods are sold or auctioned to small dealers for cutting (leaving the standards) at so much the pole : 

 cf. (1921) Nnneham Wood of good trees, cut at 12 years, sold at is. gd. per pole, giving fine poles 

 to 20 ft. of Birch, Poplar, Maple, Chestnut, Oak and Hazel. Faggots find a ready sale at 6d. each. 

 After paying for careful cutting, to avoid damaging the stools, and transport, there is little profit in 

 the business. Radley Great Wood, of poor stag-headed Oaks with Ash and Sycamore over Hazel, 

 sold at lod. per pole. Brasenose Wood of poorest Oak over thin coppice at 6d. per pole, =^4 per 

 acre. Bagley Wood, old Oak coppice, cut 1921, 1922, fetched 6 per acre. 



2 Bagley \Yood was enclosed about 1840 ; hedges were made delimiting the roads, tracts in the 

 woodland cleared as rides, and the whole reorganized. These various coppices apparently represent 

 plantings on areas cleared at that time, together with many isolated patches of Larch, Spruce, 

 Chestnut, etc., making good gaps in the general canopy. Later plantings of Larch, and Forest 

 Plots (1907), follow the lines of more modern sylviculture. 



