216 OUR COPSES AS THET AEE. 



Seedlings of the various species are produced in copses 

 under the most various conditions. Those of the soft woods and of 

 other species with light seeds come up as soon as the exploitation 

 of a oonipe uncovers the ground ; while those of beech and oak 

 usually make their appearance under the cover of an old underwood 

 a few years before it is felled, this being of certain occurrence when 

 such underwood is tall and the reserve numerous. Then, again, 

 animals help to disseminate a fairly large quantity of acorns and 

 beechmast, and in consequence scattered seedlings of oak and beech 

 are not unfrequently to be met with under old underwood. But 

 seedlings of the hardwoods often disappear, if not wholly, still very 

 generally, from causes which affect each different species in a special 

 manner. Beech seedlings, which stand well under cover, die off as 

 soon as they are exposed to the sun, unless they have already at- 

 tained a certain age and size. The young oak seedling, on the 

 contrary, requires plenty of light ; but it grows slowly during the 

 first few years even in the open, and it disappears the moment it is 

 overtopped by young coppice regrowth possessing dense foliage, 

 like the stool clumps of the hornbeam and the lime. Herein we 

 see a fruitful cause of the paucity of young standards of the more 

 valuable species in so many of our copses. 



The peduncled and sessile-flowered oaks are our two forest species, 

 which have been specially selected for growing as standards over 

 copse. These two species are often found standing side by side in 

 the forest ; but, as a general rule, the first flourishes chiefly in the 

 wet, deep and rich clays common to lowlying, level situations, 

 while the second delights in less clayey land and in the gravelly 

 soils of our plains and hills. It is also an established fact that in 

 nearly every copse that is in a flourishing state the underwood is 

 composed of mixed species, a notable proportion of them consistino- 

 of such trees as exercise a fertilising effect on the soil by reason of 

 their abundant foliage and are able to maintain themselves alive and 

 prosper under the spare crowns of the peduncled oak, and even 

 under the fairly dense cover of its sessile-flowered congener. 



The faults attributed to oaks grown as coppice standards are 

 (i) that they do not possess the same length of bole as trees grown 

 continuously in leaf-canopy ; (ii) that they are more liable to be 

 misshappen than high forest trees ; and (iii) that they are more 



