1196 XANTHIUM. [CLASS XXI, ORDER V> 
that of the young branches is used for tanning: itis also employed in- 
dying red, brown, and yellow, and with sulphates of iron black. As 
the branches increase in size the bark cracks, as alluded to in the 
following lines by Virgil :— 
“ As Alders in the spring their boles extend, 
And heave so fiercely that the bark they rend.” 
They contain less tanning matter, or rather it is less soluble. The 
flowers and buds possess the same properties, and are applied to 
similar uses, and the leaves are sometimes used for their astringent 
properties in decoctions, as well as gargles for relaxed throats. 
As an ornamental tree little can be said for it, and it is searcely or 
never planted in pleasure and ornamental grounds. It, however, 
affords in its own wild luxuriance a character somewhat peculiar to 
the country, giving to the river banks of the mountain or moor land 
scenery a dark melancholy appearance. In the following lines it is 
asserted by Virgil to be the trees into which the sisters of Heliades 
were turned by the gods for their affliction at the death of their 
brother Pheton on the banks of the river Po. 
“ The sisters mourning for their Brother's loss, 
Their bodies hid with bark and furr’d with moss, 
How each in rising Alder now appears, 
And o’er the Po distils her gummy tears.” 
The slender roots are split and worked in some parts of France 
into baskets, the larger ones for ornamental cabinet work. The 
leaves furnish food to the larva of numerous insects, and though 
eaten by horses, cows, goats, and sheep, it does not appear to be a 
favourite food with them. 
The Alder is remarkable as flourishing not only near, but we 
may almost say in water the best of any of our native trees. It is 
commonly distributed throughout the whole of Europe, but in the 
more northern parts it is diminished to a low shrub. It is found in 
the northern parts of Asia and Africa, and is also a native of North 
America, and not uncommon in the interior and on the North-west 
coast of Canada. 
ORDER V. 
PENTAN’DRIA. 5 STAMENS. 
——— 
GENUS XIII. XAN'THIUM.—Linn. Bur-weed. 
Nat. Ord. Composit'Ex. Juss. 
Gren. Cuan. Barren flowers several globose terminal heads, each 
head surrounded by an involucre, of a single row of scales, the 
