1680 ARBORETUM AND FRUTICETUM. PART III. 
Africa. According to Pursh, the common alder is also a native of North 
America; in the interior of Canada, and on the north-west coast. The alder 
was known to Homer and Theophrastus. (See p. 18.) According to Virgil, 
it formed the first material for boats; and Lucan recommends it as a wood 
proper for ship-building. Virgil describes the proper situation for it, as on 
the margin of still waters; and Vitruvius recommends the wood for piles, 
stating that the city of Ravenna was built on it. .Aristotle mentions that 
the alder was generally barren in Greece, and only fertile in the island of © 
Crete; but it may be doubted whether he alludes to the same tree. In the 
time of Theophrastus, the bark was used for dyeing leather ; and, in the days 
_ of Pliny, the wood was employed for piles, which he calls “ eternal ;” and for 
pipes, for conveying water under ground, as it is at present. The same 
author states that the tree was planted along the banks of rivers, to prevent 
them, by its numerous roots and suckers, from being washed away during 
extraordinary floods. Evelyn tells us that the celebrated bridge of the Rialto, 
at Venice, was built on piles of this tree. It is still extensively used in 
Flanders and Holland, for the purpose of forming piles. Boutcher, writing 
in 1780, informs us that, between 1730 and 1750, “vast quantities of alder 
plants were brought from Holland to Scotland, at a considerable price, and 
unhappily for the owners, planted in large tracts of moist land, from which 
no returns suitable to the labour and expense had been received.” He adds 
that he would greatly have preferred “poplars and abeles.” (Treatise, &c., 
. 111. 
. Jl he and Uses. Naturally, the leaves of the alder afford food to the 
larve of different species of moths, and other insects; and the leaves and 
young shoots are eaten by horses, cows, goats, and sheep, though they are 
not fond of them; and they are refused by swine. Among the lepidopte- 
rous insects may be mentioned several species of the genus Hipparchia 
Fab. Satirnia Schrank. (See Magazine of Natural History, vol. viii. 
p. 210., and vol. v. p. 251.) Clytus alni Fad., a coleopterous #~s - 
insect, is common in the trunks of old alder trees. C. Arietis 
Fab., Cerambyx Arietis L., Sam. pl. 2, f. 25., and our jig. 1541., 
is alsocommon. The tongues of horses feeding upon the alder, 
Linnzus observes, are turned black ; and, on that account, it 
is supposed by some persons to be unwholesome for them. 
The uses to which the alder has been applied by man are 
various. The wood, though soft, is of great durability in 
water. It weighs, when green, 621b. 60z.; half-dry, 48 lb. 
8 0z.; and quite dry, 39 lb. 4 0z., per cubic foot; thus losing 1541 
above a third of its weight by drying, while it shrinks about a twelfth part 
of its bulk. In the Dictionnaire des Eaux et Foréts, the wood is said to 
be unchangeable either in water or earth. It is used for all the various pur- 
poses to which soft homogeneous woods are generally applied ; viz. for turnery, 
sculpture, and cabinet-making; for wooden vessels, such as basins, plates, 
and kneading-troughs ; for sabots, wooden soles to shoes and pattens, clogs for 
women, and similar purposes. In France, sabots made of alder wood are 
smoked, to render them hard and impervious to the larva of the beetle which 
attacks that wood. The French, and also the Highlanders, are said to make 
light chairs of the wood of this tree, which have the colour, though they have 
not the grain, of mahogany. Sir Thomas Dick Lauder, speaking of the wood, 
says, “It is extremely valuable, even when of a small size, for cutting up 
into herring-barrel staves; and thus whole banks, in Scotland, have been 
denuded every year of this species of timber. The old trees, which are full 
of knots, cut up into planks, have all the beauty of the curled maple, with the 
advantage of presenting a deep, rich, reddish tint; and, in this state, they make 
most beautiful tables. It must be remembered, however, that the alder tim- 
ber is liable to be perforated by a small beetle ; it should, therefore, if possible, 
be prepared by immersing the logs in a large hole dug in a peat moss, and im- 
pregnating the water of the hole with a quantity of lime. If this be done for 
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