172 THE FRUITS OF THE COUNTRY-SIDE 



ultimately become woody, very like diminutive fir-cones, 

 and remain on the tree long after the seeds are shed.' It 

 is in this stage of their history that we see them represented 

 in the lower portion of our drawing. The rich red of 

 their earlier days becomes ultimately a dull brownish-black. 

 The wood of the alder is almost imperishable if kept 

 continuously under damp conditions. This valuable property 

 was well known to the ancients, as passages in Virgil, 

 Vitruvius, and other classic authors, abundantly testify. The 

 Dutch have largely employed it in their watery land, 

 both in their dykes and as the substructure on which much 

 of Amsterdam and other of their towns are reared. Venice, 

 again, rises from its lagoon on foundations that are largely 

 piles of alder. Its wood, too, makes exceptionally good 

 charcoal, so that it is largely cultivated for the manufacture 

 of gunpowder. When the wood is of any considerable 

 size, it is in repute with the cabinet-makers, as it is 

 beautifully veined, and under ordinary conditions takes its 

 share in various rustic requirements. The whole plant Is 

 very astringent, and its bark has in consequence been used 

 in tanning leather, and for the preservation of fishing-nets 

 and cordage, and has had some little repute for dyeing 

 purposes,- though in these latter days more efficient 

 materials are readily available. It was held to be of virtue 

 as a tonic in the treatment of agues and intermittent fevers, 



' The blossome or floures are like the aglets of the Birch tree : which 

 being vaded, there foUoweth a scaly fruit closely growing together, as big 

 as a Pigeons egge, which toward Autumne doth open and the seed falleth 

 out and is lost. — Gerard. 



2 The barke is much vsed of poore country Diers, for the dying of 

 course cloth, cappes, hose, and such like into a black colour, whereunto it 

 serveth very well. — Gerard. 



