148 AMENTACE^ 



is rare in the Lowlands. It is in Britain, as well as in some parts of Northern 

 Europe, a low shrub, rarely more than two feet high ; but in Russia and 

 Siberia, where it is a common plant, it reaches, when growing in wet places, 

 the height of six feet, and when cultivated assumes an erect form, and 

 becomes somewhat taller. Small as is the shrub in Lapland, it is of great 

 importance, serving for fuel, couches, and also for dyeing yellow. Its boughs 

 are burnt to chase away by their smoke the gnats which so trouble the rein- 

 deer ; and a fungus which grows upon it is used by the Lapland doctors in 

 some painful disorders. The ptarmigan, one of the most impoitant sources 

 of Lapland commerce, is supported by its catkins. The fertile catkins grow 

 at the extremity of its branches. 



3. Alder (Jlnus). 



Common Alder (A. glatindsa). — Leaves roundish, blunt, wavy, serrated, 

 glutinous, with a wedge-shaped base ; axils of the veins downy beneath ; 

 barren catkins long and drooping ; fertile ones short, remaining long on the 

 tree ; perennial. Most persons love to wander where the stream is winding 

 its way through grass and flowers. The child goes there for the minnows, 

 the naturalist seeks there some of the sprightliest birds and brightest insects, 

 and the botanist lingers there for the richest profusion of flowers. The 

 lover of nature and the poet delight to listen to the gentle songs of winds 

 and waters, and waving willows and Alders, and to mark the truth of the 

 poet's description of the stream : 



" It flows tlirongli flowering meads, 

 Gladdening the herds which on its margin browse ; 



Its quiet bounty feeds 

 The Alders that o'ershade it with their boughs. 



' ' Gently it murmurs by 

 The village churchyard its low plaintive tone ; 



A dirge-like melody, 

 lor worth and beauty modest as its own. 



' ' More gaily now it sweeps 

 By the small school-house, in the sunshine briglit : 



And o'er the pebbles leaps. 

 Like happy hearts by holiday made light." 



As the mind recalls the riverside and its scenery, we remember the dark 

 green Alders, which so often contrast with the brighter or paler foliage of 

 the various kinds of willow. Its masses of somewhat heavy leaves remind 

 one, in form, of the foliage of the hazel, but though darker in tint, yet their 

 glossy surface reflects the light of the sun far differently ; and the young 

 shoots which encircle the base of the blackish rugged trunk are of the most 

 tender green. The Alder perpetuates the moisture of the soil, and does 

 not, like the ash, serve to drain it, yet grass grows and is rich and green 

 beneath its shadow. Many an old English name of town or village is derived 

 from this tree. In the North it is commonly called Eller, and the Anglo- 

 Saxons called it Ellyrtre, a name which we trace in the Elletraoe of the Danes, 

 the Elzehoome of the Dutch, and the Erlenhaume of the Germans. The town 

 of Ellerburne, in Yorkshire, doubtless derived its name from its growth of 

 Alders, as did EUerbeck, where Alders fringed the beck or stream. The 



