Pedunculate Oakwood T7 



still bear testimony to this extensive industry. In the 

 absence of a proper system of forestry the result has been 

 that the woods have mostly degenerated very seriously, 

 and really good standard trees are now the exception. 



The dominant tree is Quercus Robur L. (= Q. peduncu- 

 lata Ehr.), which is the characteristic English tree of heavy 

 and medium damp soils, though it also occurs freely on 

 deep sands. 



In the south of England and the Midlands the great 

 majority of the oakwoods are in the form of copse 

 (coppice- with-standards), the standards being generally 

 oaks, and the coppice hazel, oak, ash, birch, etc. The 

 standard oaks are generally far apart, so that their 

 crowns do not touch and no close canopy is formed, but 

 each tree has a free branching habit. This is supposed to 

 be a relic of the old method of growing oak, which aimed 

 at producing curved timber and " knee-pieces," useful in 

 shipbuilding, as opposed to the long straight timber 

 produced by trees grown in close canopy. In several 

 of the various statutes designed to check the rapid 

 exhaustion of the English oakwoods during the later 

 Middle Ages, it is decreed that in coppicing " twelve 

 standels " should be left to the acre, a number which 

 would leave ample room for each tree to develop its 

 full crown without interfering with its neighbours. The 

 shade cast by the standard oaks in such a wood is not 

 nearly so deep as that cast by oaks grown in close 

 canopy, and the shrub-layer has thus plenty of light to 

 develop fully (Plate I b). 



In many of the existing copsewoods there are less than 

 twelve oaks to the acre — some consist simply of coppice 

 with an occasional standard, some of coppice alone. Many 

 of these woods are very degenerate owing to their careless 

 exploitation. When the soil is left exposed to the sun and 

 wind, by excessive felling of standards or clearing of 

 coppice, the humus layer is destroyed, and the soil either 



