CHAP, xvin S Y L V A 155 



CHAPTER XVIII. 



Of the Alder. 



i. Alnus, the alder, (both conifera and julifera) is 

 of all other the most faithful lover of watery and 

 boggy places, and those most despis'd weeping parts, 



or water-galls of forests; c rassisque paludibus 



aim ; for in better and dryer ground they attract the 

 moisture from it, and injure it. They are propagated 

 of trunchions, and will come of seeds (for so they 

 raise them in Flanders, and make wonderful profit of 

 the plantations) like the poplar ; or of roots, (which I 

 prefer) the trunchions being set as big as the small 

 of ones leg, and in length about two foot ; whereof 

 one would be plunged in the mud. This profound 

 fixing of aquatick-trees being to preserve them steddy, 

 and from the concussions of the winds, and violence 

 of waters, in their liquid and slippery foundations. 

 They may be placed at four or five foot distance, and 

 when they have struck root, you may cut them, 

 which will cause them to spring in clumps, and to 

 shoot out into many useful poles. But if you plant 

 smaller sets, cut them not till they are arriv'd to some 

 competent bigness, and that in a proper season : Which 

 is, for all the aquaticks and soft woods, not till Winter 

 be well advanc'd, in regard of their pithy substance. 

 Therefore, such as you shall have occasion to make 

 use of before that period, ought to be well grown, 

 and fell'd with the earliest, and in the first quarter of 

 the increasing moon, that so the successive shoot 

 receive no prejudice : Some, before they fell, disbark 



