306 HABITS AND LATIN NAMES OF BRITISH PLANTS. 



ing to purple and brown," is frequently found on the leaves ; also Xyloma alneum, 

 " single, roundish, crowded, black ;" and Dothidea alnea, figured in Grev. Scot. 

 Crypt, 146,2. Horses, Cows, Goats, and Sheep browse on Alder. Swine refuse 

 it. The leaves, when eaten by Cows, are reputed to increase their milk. If 

 planted in a low meadow, the ground surrounding it will become boggy ; whereas 

 if Ash be planted, the roots of which penetrate a great way, and run near the 

 surface, the ground will become firm and dry. In Japan the cones are used to 

 dye black, and sold ready dried. The branches serve to make charcoal, and the 

 knots of the trunk are beautifully veined, and used by cabinet-makers. Theo- 

 phrastus mentions the uses of the bark for dying skins, as does Pliny the 

 durability of the wood for piles and water-pipes. Mr. Gray asserts the inner 

 bark to be purgative. Some of the largest trees of this description in England 

 are reported by Gilpin to grow at Bishop's-Aukland, Durham. From their 

 indestructibility in moisture, and natural situation, few trees are more frequently 

 discovered beneath the surface of the earth than the Alder. The wonderful 

 appearances of prostrate forests of different kinds of trees occasionally presented 

 to view, have induced many interesting speculations as to their history. 



Alopecurus. — AKwrn^v^os, from A\wm%, a Fox, and a§x, a tail, in allusion to 

 the form of the spike. 



Alopecurus pratensis, Meadow Fox-tail Grass. — This is one of our very best 

 Grasses for permanent pasture, being early, plentiful in produce, and grateful to 

 cattle in general. It has the power of vegetating very quickly, and will bear to 

 be cut twice a year to advantage. It naturally prefers a moist soil, and is best 

 adapted for the improvement of such wet meadows as have been drained of their 

 superfluous moisture, where, if due attention be paid in its introduction, it soon 

 forms itself into a close thick turf, and from its rapidity of growth will maintain 

 itself against many of the more powerfully creeping kinds. Mr. Sinclair informs 

 us, in his very excellent and valuable work, Hortus Gramineus Woburnensis, 

 that this Grass forms part of the produce of all the richest pastures he had 

 examined in Lincolnshire, Devonshire, and in the Vale of Aylesbury ; and that 

 he found it still more prevalent in Mr. Westcar's celebrated pastures at Creslew 

 than in those of Lincolnshire and Devonshire. 



For a curious account of the larva of a species of Fly which feeds upon the 

 seeds, and is again fed upon and kept within bounds by Cimex campestris, see 

 Withering's note, and Baxter's British Flowering Plants. 



Alopecurus agrestis, Slender Fox-tail Grass. — A very troublesome weed in 

 many places amongst Wheat, and execrated by the farmers under the name of 

 u Black Bent," or " Spear-grass." It is most prevalent in beggared soils, and will 

 bear to be cut down repeatedly in the same season. The best remedy is careful 

 husbandry, and bringing the land into " good heart." The herbage is compara- 



