4:0 HOUGH'S AMERICAN WOODS. 



in color. Flowers expand in early spring with or before the leaves (or rarely in 

 autumn) in pedunculate aments, formed during the summer or autumn of the 

 previous season, from the axils of leaves or bracts and remaining naked and erect, 

 monoecious, apetalous, sessile, one to six together beneath the peltate short-stalked 

 scales of the ament. Stauiinate aments long, pendulous and generally in pani- 

 cles, the scales of the ament usually 2-4-ttowered, the flowers subtended by 

 minute bractlets adnate to the base of the scale ; calyx usually 4-parted; 

 stamens of the same number or exceptionally half as many as the calyx-lobes 

 and opposite them, filaments erect with introrse 2-celled anthers longitudinally 

 dehiscent. Pistillate aments erect from axils below those producing the staminate 

 aments, ovoid or oblong, scales fleshy and beneath each are usually two flowers 

 subtended by minute bractlets, these aments becoming in Fruit ovoid, oblong or 

 subglobose strobiles with scales thickened at apex, woody and closely imbricated 

 over the minute brown compressed nutlets slightly or not at all winged, tipped 

 with the remnants of thd style and containing a single suspended exalbuminous 

 seed. The strobiles persist for a time after liberating the seed, with truncate 

 thickened scales divergent. 



Genus consists of trees and shrubs with astringent bark, watery juice and soft 

 wood very durable in water. Alnus is the ancient Latin name of the Alder. 



217. ALNUS OREGONA, NUTT.* 

 OREGON ALDER, RED ALDER. 



Ger., Oregonische Erie ; Fr. Aune d? Oregon; Sp., Aliso de Oregon. 



SPECIFIC CHARACTERS: Leaves from 3-5 in. long, ovate or elliptical, acute at 

 apex, abruptly wedge-shaped or rounded at base, crenately lobed, the lobes min- 

 utely glandular dentate, dark green and glabrous or nearly so and with impressed 

 veins above, rusty pubescent and with prominent veins and veinlets beneath; 

 petioles ^-f in. in length, orange colored and slighly grooved; branchlets more or 

 less hoary tomentose; winter buds about | in. long, dark red, scurfy pubescent. 

 Flowers open in very early spring, before the leaves, the stamenate in aments from 

 4-6 in long when fully expanded, arranged in terminal racemes, red-stemmed. 

 They appear the previous summer and remain dormant during the winter, then 

 about 1^ in. long and |- in. thick, covered with closely appressed dark reddish 

 brown lustrous scales. Scales of ament when in flower reddish yellow, ovate, 

 acute, glabrous; calyx yellow and with four rounded lobes; stamens four, rather 

 longer than the calyx lobes and with yellow anthers. Pistillate aments from ^-^ 

 in. long and T T in. thick, in stout racemes, and with dark red scales; styles red. 

 Fruit cones %-l in. long, round-ovoid to oblong with stout orange- colored 

 peduncles about in. long and truncate scales thickened at apex; nutlets obovate 

 or orbicular with narrow membranaceous wings. 



The Red Alder occasionally attains the height of 70 or 80 ft. (22 m.) 

 and 3 ft. (0.90 m.) in diameter of trunk, but generally is a considerably 

 smaller tree. When growing apart from other trees it developes a 

 narrow ovoid head of rather slender branches. The bark of trunk is 

 thin, scarcely more than J in. in thickness, smooth excepting for very 

 slight transverse ridges and excrescences and is of a more or less 

 mottled pale gray color or often nearly white. 



HABITAT. The Red Alder ranges from the vicinity of Sitka in 

 Alaska southward in the coast region to the Santa Inez mountains in 

 California, preferring the moist soil along the courses of streams and 

 reaching its best development in western Oregon and Washington. 



* Alnvs rnlirn, Bong.ird. 



