THE ALDER. 



115 



tons in weight, to reach the soil. The black birch of 

 America has been imported into this country. It is 

 compact and rather handsome, but it soon decays. 

 Birch makes very good charcoal. 



Alder Alnus glutinota. 



The Jllder (Jllnus glutinosa) is not so handsome a 

 tree as the birch, and the timber is not applicable to 

 so many useful purposes. The alder is a native of 

 almost every part of . Europe. It thrives best in 

 marshy situations, and by the margins of lakes and 

 rivers, where it is generally a large shrub rather than 

 a tree. As its shade rather improves than injures 

 the grass, coppices of it afford good wintering for the 

 out-door stock on mountain grazings. 



The bark of the alder contains a good deal of 

 tannin ; and the young shoots dye a yellow or cinna- 

 mon colour, the wood a brown, and the catkins of the 

 flowers a green. The twigs of the alder are brittle, 

 and so is the stem when green. In that state it is 

 more easily worked than any other timber. When 

 of considerable size, the timber of one of the varieties 



