220 



ALNUS. 



in moss water to prevent the access of the small beetle 

 (AnoMum striatum), which would otherwise soon attack, 

 and perforate it with its galleries. 



In Scotland and the north of England it is frequently 

 made into chairs and tables, the latter of which, when 

 formed of the planks of old and knotty trees, are very 

 beautiful, exhibiting, as Sir T. D. Lauder expresses it, 

 " all the beauty of the curled maple, with the advantage 

 of presenting a deep rich reddish tint." Its principal 

 value, however, at present, is for sawing up into herring- 

 barrel staves, for which the demand is yearly increasing, 

 and for this purpose it is annually felled to a great extent 

 upon all the banks of the Highland rivers. Bog Alder, 

 or wood that has lain long in peat mosses, is as black 

 as ebony, for which it is often substituted, but it may 

 be detected by its want of lustre. 



The wood when standing is white, but the moment 

 it is cut into, the surface of the wound becomes of a 

 deep red, which gradually fades into a flesh colour, which 

 it ever afterwards retains. The bark contains a large 

 percentage of tannin, and is used by the tanner with 

 that of other trees ; it is also employed for dyeing shades 

 of red, brown, and yellow, and with copperas, (sulphate 

 of iron,) produces a good black. As we have already 

 observed, the charcoal of the Alder is very valuable, 

 and considered one of the best in the manufacture of 

 gunpowder ; on this account it is cultivated as a coppice 

 wood, or in holts by the proprietors of the various gun- 

 powder manufactories, and cut over every five or six 

 years. The ramification of the Alder is stiff and un- 

 yielding, and in very large and old trees assumes, in 

 some degree, the appearance of that of the oak ; the young 

 shoots in saplings, and when in vigorous growth are trian- 



