AMENTIFER 2. 1793 
the axils of the veins beneath. Nut lenticular, bordered, but without 
a membranous wing. 
Var. «, genuina. 
Leaves slightly Jobed or repand and irregularly dentate-serrate, 
Var. 8, incisa. 
Leayes deeply cut. 
By the sides of streams and ponds, and in damp woods. Common, 
and generally distributed. Var. 6 in Wigtonshire (Dr. Balfour) and 
Black Mountain, near Belfast (Mr. 5. A. Stewart). 
England, Scotland, Ireland. Tree. Spring. 
A small tree, or often merely a bush, but occasionally reaching a 
height of 50 to 60 feet, with olive-grey bark, rather rough on old trunks, 
but smooth on the spreading branches. Leaves rather shortly stalked, 
2 to 4 inches long; the lateral veins few, running straight from the 
midrib to the margin. Stipules ovate, deciduous. Male catkins appear- 
ing in autumn in racemes opposite the terminal leaf of the shoot, with 
the peduncles and pedicels rough with glutinous elevations; catkins 
at length pendulous, 2 to 4 inches long; catkin-scales roundish, dull 
red, glutinous when young: anthers yellowish. Female catkins ap- 
pearing after the male, but before the latter open, truly terminal, in 
racemes like the male; stigmas red. Catkins in fruit becoming cone- 
like, } to 3 inch long, with dark brown woody scales. Nut 35 inch 
long, pale brown. Leaves shining deep green, paler beneath, slightly 
plicate. 
Common Alder. 
French, Aulne glutineuz. German, Gemeine Erle. Eller. 
The alder grows in the most swampy wet situations, where but few other trees will 
thrive. It is found throughout Europe, in Asia, Africa, and also in North America. 
According to Virgil, the alder formed the first material tor boat-building, and Lucan 
recommends it for that purpose. At the present day it is extensively used in Flanders 
and Holland for forming piles of bridges and dykes; for the wood, though soft, is of 
great durability in water. Mitchell observes that woodmen have nearly the samo 
adage for alder poles when peeled for rafters as those of the midland counties have for 
willows and poplars :— 
“Thatch me well, and keep me dry, 
Heart of oak I will defy.” 
“ Stakes of alder,” he says, ‘ will not stand twelve months, nor will the timber do for 
posts or anything else, when it is in contact with the ground, except under water ;”’ and 
he recommends it as linings for stone carts and wheelbarrows that are in constant use, 
“because, being soft, though it may bruise, it does not split by the stones being tumbled 
in.” Wood of alder which has lain for a long time in peat bogs becomes as black as ebony, 
and this process prevents its liability to destruction from the rayages of a small beetle 
AA 2 
