92 POLLARDS AND HOW TO TREAT THEM; WITH SPECIAL
We may also indulge the hope that, when more general interest
is aroused, and the importance of such work is better understood,
it may be possible to obtain funds for the establishment of a
Biological Station, where many interesting problems of the life-
history of marine forms, and original research, may be carried on.
I should not like to conclude without putting in a word for the
men, especially John Bacon, who not only worked hard, but were
much interested in the various captures; and on the second trip,
when we had a roughish time, were literally, in spite of their oilskins,
wet through to the skin.
There was a good deal of hard work in managing the trawl, and
constant tacking, and we all had to eat and drink without ceremony;
our bottles got upset, the live stock swam about the cabin, and even
a fine pigeon pie poured out a generous libation of gravy on the floor.
Nor must I forget to mention the poor little dog, who could not
touch the dainty fare we laid before him, and kept in his kennel for
long stretches—except when we turned him out by a rough act of
ejectment.
POLLARDS AND HOW TO TREAT THEM ; WITH
SPECIAL REFERENCE TO THE HORN-
BEAMS IN EPPING FOREST.
By G. S. BOULGER, F.L.S., F.G.S., A.S.I., Vice-President.
[Read April 30th, 1892.]
IF in the spring we examine the stump of a horse-chestnut, or of
almost any broad-leaved tree which has been cut down, we find
just within the bark a ring of young leafy shoots. These shoots spring
from the "cambium" or growing layer, and, though they are of no
value in the horse-chestnut, in other species which do produce useful
coppice growth, as they are termed, it is customary to carefully avoid
tearing down the bark of the stump so as not to prevent their
formation. Beech and maple will produce such shoots, but not of
very strong growth; whilst oak, ash, chestnut, willows, poplars, and
hornbeam yield shoots of value. The Spanish chestnut is largely
grown as coppice, both as cover for game and for hop-poles.
Willows are felled level with the ground in our osier-beds, though
also treated as "pollards," i.e., having their main stem cut off higher