The Alders 



Alder wood serves many cheap and common uses: for sabots 

 and clogs, and wooden heels; truncheons, kneading troughs, 

 barrel staves, bobbins, trays, hop poles, and the like. The 

 bark and cones yield tannin used in tanning leather and in medi- 

 cine, and a yellow dye which is also used in the making of ink. 

 The best charcoal for gunpowder is made from willow and alder. 

 Warty excrescences on old trees and twisted roots furnish the 

 inlayer with small but beautifully veined and very hard pieces. 

 Articles made of this once brought high prices. 



One of the best uses to which alder is put is planting in 

 hedg^es along borders of streams where their roots, closely inter- 

 lacing, hold the banks against crumbling. 



The black alder is most often met in horticultural forms in 

 America. There is a variety with large, shining leaves and red 

 veins and petioles. The daintiest varieties are those with finely 

 cut leaves, of which imperialis, with fingered leaves like the white 

 oak, is a good example. 



The Hoary or Speckled Alder {Alnus incana, Willd.), 

 native of both hemispheres, is a handsome tree of medium size 

 in Europe and Asia, but it rarely rises above a shrub in America. 

 It is second only to the black alder, from which it is easily dis- 

 tinguished, for its branches are speckled with white spots. Its 

 leaves are pointed and lined with a hoary bloom; and there is 

 nothing glutinous about the opening leaves and shoots. The 

 wood is very similar to that of the other species. 



Two Japanese species of alder have come into American 

 gardens, both vigorous, large-leaved trees, of good size and 

 excellent habit. Alnus Japonica has a pyramidal head of shining 

 dark green io\\2ige; Alnus tindoria is round headed, with handsome 

 foliage, and is proving hardy and rapid of growth in New England. 

 A cardinal merit of these cultivated alders is that they thrive in 

 ordinary garden soil. 



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