218 ALNUS. 



observes, " much of the bold resolute character of the 

 oak ;" and though the deep and dusky green of its foliage 

 has been objected to as investing it with a melancholy 

 aspect, we think that this gives character to the tree, 

 and enhances its interest ; and even if its foliage be less 

 generally pleasing than tints of a lighter and livelier hue, 

 the defect, if allowed to be one, is compensated by the 

 retention of its leaves to a very late period of the year, 

 as it is frequently quite green long after the other trees 

 of the forest have become entirely denuded. 



Favourable, however, as our opinion of the Alder may 

 appear to be, viewing it as an ornamental tree, and much 

 as we should regret its disappearance from scenery where 

 it is an expected and natural attendant, we are far from 

 advocating its cultivation upon an extended scale, or as 

 a profitable timber-tree ; on the contrary, we advise the 

 planter to be chary in admitting it into his grounds, and 

 when he does, always under certain precautions and in 

 limited numbers. In many treatises on planting we find 

 the Alder mentioned, and recommended as a proper plant 

 to fill up moist tracts in woods and artificial plantations ; 

 but the authors who thus recommend it, seem not to have 

 been aware that in so doing they were giving directions 

 which, if adopted, would soon convert into a complete morass 

 or bog, ground that otherwise by draining and planting 

 with trees of a different nature might be rendered com- 

 paratively dry and productive. Such, however, is the 

 nature of the Alder, that wherever planted it attracts and 

 retains the moisture around it. This effect is occasioned 

 by the nature of its roots which are chiefly composed 

 of a huge mass of small fibres, whose capillary attraction 

 is always in action, and prevents the escape of the re- 

 dundant water in the vicinity of the plants. This pro- 



