1()86 AUBORETUM AND FRUTICETUM. PART 111. 



surface of tlie soil. Dii Hamcl obtaiiicil abiiiulaiice of plants by strewing soil 

 over tlic surface of the ground under a .seed-bearing alder tree in autunui, 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 uj) in the course of five or six weeks after sowing. Spring sowings 

 should be made nuich thicker than autunuud sowings ; because many of the 

 seeds, uidess 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 3ui. to in. the first sununer. 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 G ft. 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 old as the time of Evelyn. When alders are cut down as coppice- 

 wood, in spring, when the sap is in motion, care shoukl 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 

 (.lecay in a few years. 



Acndrnls, Imrch, and Diseases. The alder is liable to few accidents from 

 high winds : but the Adimonia alni Fah. deposits its eggs on the young buds; 

 and the larva- 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. (Diet, des Emu; Sec.) This is probably the Callidium 

 alni Fab., one of the longicorn beetles. A small species of jumping weevil 

 (Orchestes alni Leach) also attacks the leaves, as well as Phyllobius alni Fab., 

 belonging to the same family, and Galcruca lineola Fab. (the Chrysomela 

 grisea alni, fern., of De Geer). Amongst lepidopterous insects, Cerura vinula, 

 Pyga^'ra bucephala, Notodonta r/romedarius, Lophopteryx ramelina, Orgyia 

 aiitiqua, Zeuzera ie'sculi, Porthesia chrysorrhce\i, all belonging to the Linnajan 

 i?6mbyces; Apatela /eporina, Acronycta alni and psi (or dagger moths), 

 belonging to the ..Voctuidfe ; (xeometra ulmuria, Drepana falcatiiria, and se- 

 veral Tortriciilae and Tineida;, 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. 1("*.'.), in the Bishop of Durham's park, at Bishop. Auckland. where 

 a tree, in ISIS, had a trunk which measured 11 11. in circumference. It grew upon a knoU ou a 

 «wamp. The finest alder poles the same author ever ob- i - i,i 



served were in .\rnold's Vale, below Sheltield I'lace, Sussex : .9>^ ■ i.>«-'- 



in ISl;'), these were from ft) ft. to 7U ft. hiKh. The alders on 

 the banks of the river Findhorn have been already men- 

 tioned. 



Existing Trees. In England, in the environs of Ix)ndon, 

 at Ham House, Essex, A. g. emarginjLta is l.")ft. high, the 

 diameter of the trunk ii ft. + in., and of the head '2S ft. ; at 

 Syon, yJ.g. laciniita [Jig. \.'A'2.) is a; ft. high, the diameter of 

 the trunk 3 ft, and of the head H.) ft. ; at Kenwood, Hamp. 

 stead, 60 years planted, the species is Sift, high, the diameter 

 of the trunk 'J (l. 10 in., and of the head (50 ft. In Devon- 

 shire, at Killerton, it is 56 ft. high, with a trunk Sft.S in. 

 in diameter : in Dorsetshire, at Melbury Park, 100 yeai> 

 planted, the species is .")Oft. high, the diameter of the trunk 

 3 fl., and of the head -ki fl. ; and,-/, g laciniilta is .'io ft. high: 

 in Somersetshire, at Nettlecombe, the species is Mtt high , 

 the diameter of the trunk '2 fl, 10 in., and of the head 32 ft ; 

 in Surrey, at Farnham Castle, 50 years planted, it is 5011. 



high; at Woburn Farm, A. g. laciniata is 70 ft. high, dianutcr oi (iit- lrull^ ► ii, ^md of the head 

 (V) ft ; in .Sussex, at Westdean, A. g. Iacinii\t3, 1'J years planted, is J'J ft high : in Berkshire, at Bear 

 Wood, 12 years planted, the species is +0 ft. high. ; in Buckinghamshire, at Temple House, 40 years 

 planteil, it is .'iOft. high ; in Cambridgeshire, in the Cambridge Botanic Ciarden, it is 50 fl. high, 

 the diameter of the trunk i.' (t. 5 in., and of the head :'A't tX ; in Denbighshire, at Llanbede Hall, it is 

 .5-Vft. high, the diameter of the trunk 3fl., and of the head Sift. \ in Herefordshire, at Eastnor 

 Ca.»tle, 18 years planteil, it is 60 ft. high : in Hertfordshire, at Cheshunt, 8 years planted, it is 

 30 ft. high ; and 10 years planted, it is a) ft. high : in Lancashire, at Latham House, 50 years planted, 

 it is 58 ft. high, the diametei of the trunk ,1 (I., and of the head 52 ft. ; A. g. lariniiit.i, 20 years 

 plantetl, is Xi fl. high : in I.K?icestershire, at Elvaston Ca.stle, the species is 89 It, high, with a trunk 

 2 fl. 7 in. in diameter ; at Doddington Park, ;55 years planted, it is 41 ft. high ; in Monmouthshire, 

 »t Dowlait House, 12 years planted, it is 35ft, high ; in Northamptonshire, at Wakefield Lodge, 



->-i. 



