Punishment in the wood (5)
I believe the answer is:
birch
'wood' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
I don't understand the rest of the clue.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for birch that I've seen before include "See 1" , "Flogging rod" , "Silver-white barked tree" , "Flog" , "Tree, maybe silver" .)