92 TPtEES 



dye used in making inlv. Willow and alder make the best 

 charcoal for gunpowder. Warty excrescences on old 

 trees and twisted roots furnished the inlayer with small 

 but beautifully veined and very hard pieces, beautiful 

 in veneer work when polished. In America the black 

 alder is often met in horticultural varieties. The daintiest 

 are the cut-leaved forms, of which imperialism with leaves 

 fingered like a white oak, is a good example. 



One of the best uses to which alders are put in Europe 

 is planting in hedges along borders of streams, where their 

 closely interlacing roots hold the banks from crumbling 

 and keep the current clear in midstream. No English 

 landscape is more beautiful than one through which a little 

 river winds, its banks and the boggy spots tributary to it 

 softened by billows of living green. "He who would see 

 the alder in perfection must follow the banks of the Mole 

 and Surrey through the sweet vales of Dorking and Wickle- 

 ham." 



Seaside Alder 



A. maritima, Nutt. 



The seaside alder shares with the witch hazel the pe- 

 culiar distinction of bearing its flowers and ripening its 

 fruit simultaneously in the fall of the year. The alder 

 comes first, hanging out its golden catkins in clusters on 

 the ends of the season's shoots in August and September. 

 Nothing is left of them when the witch hazel scatters its 

 dainty stars along the twigs in October and November. 

 The seaside alder follows stream borders near but not 

 actually on the seacoast, through eastern Delaware and 

 Maryland, but ranges comfortably on drier soil as far west 

 as Oklahoma and is hardy in gardens and parks as far 



