CATKIN-BEARING TRIBE 149 



Latin Alnuft, French Aulne, and Spanish Alno, are thought to be abridged 

 from Alor amne, "I am nourished by the stream" ; and the Alder and Eller 

 have probably the same origin. The Alderkars of our ancestors were spots 

 where Alders grew ; and Mr. Forby says that in Norfolk the word Car signi- 

 fies a wood or grove, in a moist soil, generally of Alders. In the Anglo-Latin 

 Dictionary Ker is given for Alder, and " where treys growyn be a water or a 

 fenne." Mr. Albert Way remarks, "Camden, in his 'Remains,' explains 

 Car as signifying 'a low watere-place where Alders do grow.'" He adds, 

 that John Crane, of Norton Subeors, Norwich, bequeathed to his wife, in 

 1484, "All the londes, merys, marysses, alderkars, &c., in Noi-ton." On the 

 Hereford side of the county of Salop the Alder is called the Orl. 



The Alder is a common tree by water-sides throughout Europe, and is 

 more truly aquatic than any other extra-tropical tree, flourishing in soils too 

 moist for even the willow and the poplar. It occurs occasionally as a shrub 

 on the moTuitains, but on its native moist grassy slopes it becomes a goodly 

 tree, sometimes fifty or sixty feet high. The lai-gest Alder in England is one 

 near a rivulet at Haverland, in Norfolk. 



We can hardly describe the Alder as a handsome tree. Its rifted trunk 

 is dark, and its foliage too heavy to move much in the wind ; so that it offers 

 less variations of light and shadow, as well as of tint, than most trees. 

 Gilpin, however, considers it picturesque, and says : " He that would see the 

 Alder in perfection, must follow the banks of the Mole, in Surrey, through 

 the sweet vales of Dorking and Mickleham, into the groves of Esher. The 

 Mole, indeed, is far from being a beautiful river ; it is a silent and sluggish 

 stream ; but what variety it has it owes chiefly to the Alders which every- 

 where fringe its meadows, and in many places form very pleasing scenes." 

 The foliage has this advantage, that long after the willow-boughs are bare, 

 and seem to serve as a harp over which the winds of winter may play, the 

 Alder-bough is scarcely losing a leaf from the green mass. The foliage is 

 glutinous, and if we put a leaf in the mouth, we might fancy we were biting 

 a thin layer of indiarubbei\ The surface is so clammy that small insects 

 are caught by it. "The said leaves," says an old herbalist, "gathered while 

 the morning dew is upon them, and brought into a chamber troubled with 

 fleas, will gather them thereunto, which being suddenly cast out, will rid the 

 chamber of those troublesome bedfellows." These leaves when in bud are. 

 completely wrapped up in two oblong whitish stipules, which, as the leaves 

 burst open, are scattered by the wind around the tree. 



Our fathers found many medicinal virtues in the Alder, and the bark is 

 undoubtedly astringent and tonic. It is thought to be as eificacious as the 

 Peruvian-bark, if about twice the quantity be taken ; and a decoction used as 

 a gargle in sore-throat is very useful. But the value of the old application 

 of the leaves is somewhat doubtful. The decoction of Alder-leaf was con- 

 sidered "excellent against burnings and inflammations." The leaves were 

 applied to wounds, and were recommended to be placed beneath the " feet of 

 the weary traveller," who was promised a "great refreshing" by the appli- 

 cation. The leaves and young shoots are eaten by cows, goats, horses, and 

 sheep, but are not very attractive to these animals. Linnoeus says, that 

 when they eat them, their tongues are turned black. 



