SPECKLED ALDER 



The Speckled Alder crowds as near lo the water's 

 edge as it is possible to grow and then leans over as if 

 hoping to go farther. In midsummer its dark green 

 foliage fringes the northern watercourses and forms a 

 natural hedge. Its strong matted r(jots give stability 

 to the soft banks and keep the stream within hounds. 



Throughout the winter many of the slender stems 

 bear terminal clusters of stiff, c}dindrical, uncom})ro- 

 mising catkins which were formed the previous autumn, 

 and which without protection withstand the assaults of 

 frost and snow and ice. These catkins like the flower 

 buds of the Silver Maple respond to the first breath of 

 spring ; the stiff fibres relax, the scales open, and 

 clusters of long plumy tassels, royal in their purple 

 and gold, droop from every twig and branchlet. The 

 catkin-scales are a deep brownish purple and the an- 

 thers bear immense quantities of pollen which when 

 mature fall in clouds of golden dust. 



The fruit looks like a small pine cone ; each woody 

 scale protects a wood}^ seed-vessel which in time is 

 released as the little cone opens. The seeds aie dis- 

 charged in the autumn and early winter, but the cones 

 persist until the following summer. 



Lenticels appear more or less abundantly upon all 

 exogenous woody stems; upon manv quite as abun- 

 dantly as upon the Abuts inca)ia, but in comparison 

 with Alniis rngosa it bears a great many, whence the 

 common name Speckled Alder. 



In very young shoots of shrubs and trees there are 

 stomata or breathing pores which occur abundantly in 

 the epidermis, serving for the admission of air and the 

 escape of moisture ; while the green layer of the bark 



463 



