ALDER, HORNBEAM, HAZEL 51 



On the banks of streams and ponds we 

 find the Alder (Alnusglutinosa), Plate I., Fig. 5. 

 Its leaf is large and of a dark-green colour, and 

 it bears a hard, black fruit. Though usually 

 of no great size, it reaches thirty or forty 

 feet under favourable conditions. The timber 

 is well suited for work exposed to the action 

 of water, and is in some demand in Scotland 

 for smoking fish. If a notch is cut in a twig, 

 the white wound speedily becomes red. It 

 produces a very fine charcoal, used in the 

 preparation of gunpowder. 



The Hornbeam ( Carpinus betulus), Plate I., 

 Fig. 6, may be passed by as a beech, if 

 regarded carelessly. The leaves, however, are 

 rough on the underside, and notched at the 

 edges with double teeth, while the bark is 

 smooth grey, spotted with white. The timber 

 is very hard indeed, like horn whence 

 probably the name of the tree is derived. 

 It makes good fuel. 



The last-named tree is often called the 

 'witch hazel.' The true Hazel (Cvrylus 

 avellana), Plate I., Fig. 7, is of much smaller 

 growth. It is frequently a mere bush, and 

 seldom exceeds thirty feet, but its nuts endear 



