305 



ON THE HABITS AND PECULIARITIES OF BRITISH PLANTS, 

 AND ON THE DERIVATIONS OF THEIR LATIN NAMES. 



By T. B. Hall. 



(Continued from p. 186.) 

 Alnus. — From al, near, and Ian, edge of a river, Celt., on account of its habitat. 

 Alnus glutinosa, Common Alder, Owler, Scotch Eller. — The Alder flourishes 

 best in low marshy situations, in which it is frequently planted to make hedges. 

 It will not live in a chalky soil. It is easily propagated by seeds, but not by 

 slips or cuttings. Grass grows well beneath its shade. The wood is soft and 

 brittle ; endures a long time under water, and therefore is used for pipes and 

 piles, and to lay under the foundations of buildings situated upon bogs. According 

 to Vitruvius, the ancients were well acquainted with the imperishable nature 

 of this timber, when used for piles in swamps or under water ; in such situations 

 it becomes black as ebony, and almost as hard as iron. The Rialto of Venice is 

 thus founded ; nor has its use been neglected in the Netherlands. The branches 

 may be cut for poles every five or six years. Women's shoe-heels, ploughmen's 

 clogs, cogs for mill- wrights, various articles of the turner, and in the High- 

 lands handsome chairs, are made of it. The bark yields a red colour, and, with 

 the addition of copperas, a black. It is also used to dye brown, particularly 

 thread. It is principally used by fishermen to stain their nets. The country 

 people in Scotland often make their own shoes ; and, following the example of 

 their forefathers, to avoid the tax upon leather, privately tan hides with the bark 

 of Birch and Alder. Various passages in the ancient classics seem to intimate 

 that the trunks of Alder-trees were among the first converted into boats. 

 Martyn ingeniously surmises that one of these trees, hollowed by age, might 

 have fallen into the water, and so given the first idea of navigation. In the 

 Highlands of Scotland, near Dundonald, says Pennant, the boughs cut in the 

 summer, spread over the fields, and left during the winter to rot, are found to 

 answer as a manure. In March the ground is cleared of the undecayed parts, 

 and then ploughed. The fresh-gathered leaves are covered with a glutinous 

 liquor, which concretes into a spurious manna. They are sometimes strewed upon 

 floors to destroy Fleas, which are said to be entangled in the tenaceous fluid, as 

 birds are by birdlime. The catkins dye green. The whole plant is astringent. 

 It affords food to many kinds of Moths and other insects, as Orchestes Alni y 

 Psylla Alni, Adimonia Alni, Livia Alni, and Tenthredo luctuosa Alni, of which 

 latter Barbut says : — " this pretty, quiet, melancholy fly is often fatally en- 

 tangled in the clammy juice that oozes from the leaves. Its colours are chiefly 

 yellow and brown, body black." Of vegetable parasites, Erineum alneum, 

 Grsv. Scot. Crypt., 1 57,2. ; " convex, dotted, in irregular patches ; white, chang- 



