COPSE, or COPPICE, a natural wood or plantation, of which the trees are cut over from time to time, without being allowed to attain the size of timber trees, sending up new shoots from their roots or stools. Some kinds of trees—as the firs—are incapable of being treated in this manner, refusing t c tend up new shoots; but many—as the oak, birch, chestnut, ash, elm, maple, alder, hazel, and willow—very readily do so, at least if they have not been allowed to attain too considerable a size before being cut over. C. woods are sometimes planted chiefly to vary and beautify the landscape, but more generally with a view to profit, either owing to great local demand for their produce, or to peculiarities of soil and situation. It often happens that, owing to scantiness of soil or to unfavorable subsoil, oaks and other trees, after growing vigorously for a number of years, are arrested, and remain almost stationary in their growth. In such circum stances, it is advantageous to cut them over early, and to treat the plantation as a C., the former vigor being again manifested in the young shoots, and the land yielding in this way a greater return to its owner. Oak is much planted as C. wood, in consequence of the demand for its bark: in some parts of Herefordshire, the trees are cut over every twelve years; but in the Highlands of Scotland, twenty-five or thirty years are often necessary for sufficient growth, nor is the bark thought to have attained its highest per fection till the stems are of this age. The largest pieces of the wood are used for making wheg,l-spokes, and for other purposes of timber; the smaller portions for charcoal and Ash is sometimes planted as C., with a view to the employment of the wood
for handles of implements. hurdles, hoops, etc., the wood of the ash, even when very young, being highly valued for strength and elasticity. Chestnut copses are planted in England to supply hop-poles. Hazel is a very common C. wood, being in great demand for making crates, etc. Besides the cultivation of differeni kinds of willow or osier for basket-making, in which they are cut over annually, sonic of the species are cultivated as C., and cut every five, six, or seven years, for hoops, crates, etc.; the species which is deemed most suitable of all being salix caprea. See WILitow. In some countries, C. wood is particularly valued for the regular supply of fuel which it affords.
In cutting C. wood, care is taken to dress the stools so that water may not lodge in them and cause them to rot. Thu size to which the stems 'are allowed to attain before being cut, and the frequency of cutting, differ according to the different kinds, and the uses intended. Stems more than 4 in. thick are generally cut with the saw, but smaller stems with a curved bill, cutting upwards. Extensive copses are sometimes divided into portions, of which one is cut every year.
a genus of plants of the natural order ranuneutaeem. C trifoliata is a native of the n. of Europe, Siberia, Greenland, Iceland, and North America. It grows in swamps. From its long, thread-like, golden-yellow rhizomes, it derives the name of golden thread, Its leaves have three wedge-shaped leaflets, and its leafless stems bear each a solitary, rather pretty white flower.