1686 ARBORETUM AND FRUTICETUM. PART III. 
surface of the soil. Du Hamel obtained abundance of plants by strewing soil 
over the surface of the ground under a seed-bearing alder tree in autumn, after 
the seed had dropped. When the seed is sown in autumn, the plants will 
come up the following spring; and,‘when it is sown in spring, they will gene- 
rally come up in the course of five or six weeks after sowing. Spring sowings 
should be made much thicker than autumnal sowings; because many of the 
seeds, unless they have been very carefully excluded from the air, lose their 
vital power during winter. The plants from spring-sown seeds will attain the 
height of from 3 in. to 6 in. the first summer. The second year they will be 
double or treble that height ; and in three or four years, if properly treated, they 
will be 5 ft. or 6ft. high. The nursery culture and after-management in 
plantations have nothing peculiar in them; except that, when full-grown 
trees are to be cut down, it is advisable to disbark them a year before; a 
practice as oldas the time of Evelyn. When alders are cut down as coppice- 
wood, in spring, when the sap is in motion, care should be taken that the cuts 
are not made later than March; and that they are in a sloping direction upwards. 
If, at this season, the cuts are made downwards, the section which remains 
on the stool will be so far fractured as, by the exudation of the sap, and the 
admission of the weather, no longer to throw up vigorous shoots, and it will 
decay in a few years. 
Accidents, Insects, and Diseases. The alder is liable to few accidents from 
high winds : but the Adimonia alni Fad. deposits its eggs on the young buds ; 
and the larvee are frequently so abundant, as to consume the leaves almost 
entirely. There is also a small worm, the caterpillar of some coleopterous 
insect, which penetrates through the bark into the wood, and ultimately 
destroys the trees. (Dict. des Haux, &c.) This is probably the Callidium 
alni Fab., one of the longicorn beetles. A small species of jumping weevil 
(Orchéstes alni Leach) also attacks the leaves, as well as Phyllobius alni Fad., 
belonging to the same family, and Galeria linéola Fad. (the Chrysomela 
grisea alni, fem., of De Geer). Amongst lepidopterous insects, Cerura vinula, 
Pygez‘ra bucéphala, Notodénta dromedarius, Lophdépteryx camelina, Orgyia 
antiqua, Zeuzera z’sculi, Porthésia chrysorrhce’a, all belonging to the Linnzan 
Bombyces; Apatéla /eporina, Acronfcta alni and psi (or dagger moths), 
‘belonging to the Noctiide ; Geométra ulmaria, Drépana falcataria, and se- 
veral Jortricide and Tinéida, feed, in the larva state, upon the alder. Some 
of these being, however, general feeders, are not so injurious as the others. 
Statistics. Recorded Trees. The finest alder trees which Mitchell ever saw were probably the 
same as those alluded to by Gilpin (p.1682.), in the Bishop of Durham’s park, at Bishop- Auckland,where 
a tree, in 1818, had atrunk which measured 11 ft. in circumference. It grew upon a knoll on a 
swamp. The finest alder poles the same author ever ob- J “ 
served were in Arnold’s Vale, below Sheffield Place, Sussex : > Bere 1542 
in 1815, these were from 60 ft. to 70 ft. high. The alders on bettas. 
the banks of the river Findhorn have been already men- “a 
tioned. 
Existing Trees. In England, in the environs of London, 
at Ham House, Essex, 4. g. emarginata is 15 ft. high, the 
diameter of the trunk 2 ft.4in., and of the head 28 ft.; at 
Syon, A. g. laciniata ( fig. 1542.) is 63 ft. high, the diameter of 
the trunk 3ft., and of the head 63 ft. ; at Kenwood, Hamp- 
stead, 60 years planted, the species is 60 ft. high, the diameter 
of the trunk 2 ft. 10 in., and of the head 60 ft. In Devon- 
shire, at Killerton, it is 56 ft. high, with a trunk 3ft. 3in. 
in diameter: in Dorsetshire, at Melbury Park, 100 years 
planted, the species is 50 ft. high, the diameter of the trunk 
3 ft., and of the head 46 ft. ; and d4.g. laciniata is 50 ft. high: 
in Somersetshire, at Nettlecombe, the species is 35ft. high, . 
the diameter of the trunk 2 ft. 10 in., and of the head 32 ft.; = 
in Surrey, at Farnham Castle, 50 years planted, it is 50 ft. ; 
high; at Woburn Farm, 4. g. laciniata is 70 ft. high, diameter of the trunk 4 ft., and of the head 
65 ft. ; in Sussex, at Westdean, 4. g. laciniata, 12 years planted, is 32 ft. high ; in Berkshire, at Bear 
Wood, 12 years planted, the species is 40 ft. high. ; in Buckinghamshire, at Temple House, 40 years 
planted, it is 50 ft. high ; in Cambridgeshire, in the Cambridge Botanic Garden, it is 50 ft. high, 
the diameter of the trunk 2ft,5in., and of the head 56ft; in Denbighshire, at Llanbede Hall, it is 
54ft. high, the diameter of the trunk 3ft., and of the head 34ft.; in Herefordshire, at Eastnor 
Castle, 18 years planted, it is 60ft. high; in Hertfordshire, at Cheshunt, 8 years planted, it is 
20 ft. high ; and 10 years planted, it is 20 ft. high: in Lancashire, at Latham House, 50 years planted, 
it is 58 ft. high, the diameter of the trunk 3ft., and of the head 52ft.; A. g. lacinidta, 20 years 
planted, is 36 ft. high : in Leicestershire, at Elvaston Castle, the species is 89 ft. high, with a trunk 
2 ft. 7in. in diameter ; at Doddington Park, 35 years planted, it is 41 ft. high: .in Monmouthshire, 
at Dowlais House, 12 years planted, it is 35ft. high; in Northamptonshire, at Wakefield Lodge, 
