SILVA OF NORTH AMERICA. BETULACE, 
82 
do not enlarge, but early in the spring begin to grow, and attain their full size at midsummer, when they 
are broadly ovate, rounded and depressed at the base, gradually narrowed to the rather obtuse apex, 
about five eighths of an inch long and half an inch broad, with thin broadly obovate dark green and 
very lustrous scales slightly thickened and crenately lobed at the apex, which is now often tinged with 
brown and from which the withered styles still protrude; they are borne on stout glandular pubescent 
peduncles about a third of an inch in length, and turn dark reddish brown or nearly black and open 
late in the autumn, remaining on the branches until after the flowers unfold in the following year. 
The nut is oblong-obovate, gradually narrowed, and apiculate at the apex, with a thin membranaceous 
border. 
Alnus maritima inhabits the banks of streams and ponds in the southern part of the peninsula of 
Delaware and Maryland, growing usually near but not immediately upon the seacoast; it also occurs 
in the centre of the peninsula, being abundant on the banks of the Nanticoke River near Seaford, 
Delaware, where it flourishes with the Sour Gum, the Red Maple, the Bald Cypress, the White Cedar, 
and other swamp trees at the head of tide-water, and on the Wicomico River near Salisbury in Mary- 
land. It also grows on the banks of the Red River in the Indian Territory." 
The wood of Alnus maritima is light, soft, and close-grained ; it is light brown, with thick hardly 
distinguishable sapwood, and contains numerous broad conspicuous medullary rays. The specific 
gravity of the absolutely dry wood is 0.4996, a cubic foot weighing 31.13 pounds. 
Alnus maritima was introduced into cultivation by Mr. Thomas Meehan,’ by whom it was sent in 
1878 to the Arnold Arboretum, where it is hardy and flowers and fruits abundantly. Its brilliant 
foliage and its bright golden staminate aments, hanging in September from the ends of the slender 
leafy branches, make it at that season of the year an attractive ornament for parks and gardens. 
1 Alnus maritima was discovered on the Red River on July 10, 
1872, by Mr. Elihu Hall (Plante Texane, No. 612). 
2 Thomas Meehan was born at Potter’s Bar, a village near Barnet 
on the borders of Middlesex, England, on the 4th of March, 1826. 
From his father, who for nearly half a century was gardener to 
Colonel Francis Vernon-Harcourt at the Castle of St. Clare in the 
Isle of Wight, he learned the art of gardening, and then, after two 
years’ service in the Royal Gardens at Kew, came to America in his 
twenty-second year on the invitation of Mr. Robert Buist, the Phila- 
delphia florist. In 1853 Mr. Meehan established the nursery in 
Germantown which he still carries on and which has been a most 
important factor in increasing the cultivation of American trees and 
shrubs. For fifteen years Mr. Meehan was one of the editors of 
Forney’s Press, and for many years the editor of The Gardener’s 
Monthly, the principal horticultural journal of its time in the 
United States. In 1878 he began the publication of the Native 
Flowers and Ferns of the United States, a work illustrated with 
chromo-lithographs, of which four volumes appeared. This in 1891 
was followed by Meehan’s Monthly, A Magazine of Horticulture, 
Botany, and Kindred Subjects. Mr. Meehan has long taken a promi- 
nent part in the management of the affairs of his adopted city, 
serving as one of the Board of School Directors and as a member 
of the City Councils ; and it is through his intelligence and zeal that 
Philadelphia has secured the small parks which are now scattered 
through the city. Active also in the management of the Academy 
of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, the records of Mr. Meehan’s 
numerous observations upon the habits of plants are found scat- 
tered through the printed pages of its Proceedings. For many 
years he served the State Board of Agriculture as professor of 
botany. Mr. Meehan has taken a permanent place in the horti- 
culture of the second half of the nineteenth century in his adopted 
country. 
EXPLANATION OF THE PLATE. 
Pirate CCCCLVIII. Atnus MARITIMA. 
A nut, enlarged. 
ONAPMTP OD & 
. A flowering and fruiting branch, natural size. 
. Staminate flowers with their scale, side view, enlarged. 
. Pistillate flowers with their scale, front view, enlarged. 
. Scale of a strobile, rear view, enlarged. 
- Scale of a strobile, front view, with nuts, enlarged. 
. Vertical section of a nut, enlarged. 
. A winter branch, natural size. 
