1680 ARBORETUM AND FRUTICETUM. PART III. 



Africa. According to Pursh, the common alder is also a native of North 

 America; in the interior of Canada, and on the north-west coast. The alder 

 was known to Homer and Theophrastus. (See p. 18.) According to Virgil, 

 it formed the first material for boats ; and Lucan recommends it as a wood 

 proper for ship-building. Virgil describes the proper situation for it, as on 

 the margin of still waters ; and Vitruvius recommends the wood for piles, 

 stating that the city of Ravenna was built on it. Aristotle mentions that 

 the alder was generally barren in Greece, and only fertile in the island of 

 Crete ; but it may be doubted whether he alludes to the same tree. In the 

 time of Theophrastus, the bark was used for dyeing leather ; and, in the days 

 of Pliny, the wood was employed for piles, which he calls " eternal ; " and for 

 pipes, for conveying water under ground, as it is at present. The same 

 author states that the tree was planted along the banks of rivers, to prevent 

 them, by its numerous roots and suckers, from being washed away during 

 extraordinary floods. Evelyn tells us that the celebrated bridge of the Rialto, 

 at Venice, was built on piles of this tree. It is still extensively used in 

 Flanders and Holland, for the purpose of forming piles. Boutcher, writing 

 in 1780, informs us that, between 1730 and 1750, "vast quantities of alder 

 plants were brought from Holland to Scotland, at a considerable price, and 

 unhappily for the owners, planted in large tracts of moist land, from which 

 no returns suitable to the labour and expense had been received." He adds 

 that he would greatly have preferred "poplars and abeles." (Treatise, &c., 

 p. 111.) 



Properties and Uses. Naturally, the leaves of the alder afford food to the 

 larvae of different species of moths, and other insects ; and the leaves and 

 young shoots are eaten by horses, cows, goats, and sheep, though they are 

 not fond of them; and they are refused by swine. Among the lepidopte- 

 rous insects may be mentioned several species of the genus Hipparchia 

 Fab. Saturnia Schrank. (See Magazine of Natural History, vol. viii. 

 p. 210., and vol. v. p. 251.) Clytus alni Fab., a coleopterous 

 insect, is common in the trunks of old alder trees. C. ^rietis 

 Fab., Cefambyx Anetis L., Sam. pi. 2. f. 25., and our jig. 154 J ., 

 is also common. The tongues of horses feeding upon the alder, 

 Linnaeus observes, are turned black ; and, on that account, it 

 is supposed by some persons to be unwholesome for them. 

 The uses to which the alder has been applied by man are 

 various. The wood, though soft, is of great durability in 

 water. It weighs, when green, 62 Ib. 6 oz. ; half-dry, 48 Ib. 

 8 oz. ; and quite dry, 39 Ib. 4 oz., per cubic foot ; thus losing 1541 



above a third of its weight by drying, while it shrinks about a twelfth part 

 of its bulk. In the Dictionnaire des Eaux et Forcts, the wood is said to 

 be unchangeable either in water or earth. It is used for all the various pur- 

 poses to which soft homogeneous woods are generally applied ; viz. for turnery, 

 sculpture, and cabinet-making; for wooden vessels, such as basins, plates, 

 and kneading-troughs ; for sabots, wooden soles to shoes and pattens, clogs for 

 women, and similar purposes. In France, sabots made of alder wood are 

 smoked, to render them hard and impervious to the larva of the beetle which 

 attacks that wood. The French, and also the Highlanders, are said to make 

 light chairs of the wood of this tree, which have the colour, though they have 

 not the grain, of mahogany. Sir Thomas Dick Lauder, speaking of the wood, 

 says, " It is extremely valuable, even when of a small size, for cutting up 

 into herring-barrel staves; and thus whole banks, in Scotland, have been 

 denuded every year of this species of timber. The old trees, which are full 

 of knots, cut up into planks, have all the beauty of the curled maple, with the 

 advantage of presenting a deep, rich, reddish tint; and, in this state, they make 

 most beautiful tables. It must be remembered, however, that the alder tim- 

 ber is liable to be perforated by a small beetle ; it should, therefore, if possible, 

 be prepared by immersing the logs in a large hole dug in a peat moss, and im- 

 pregnating the water of the hole with a quantity of lime. If this be done for 



