THE ALDER • 101 



it is recommended for wheelbarrows and stone-carts. 

 Old trees with wood full of knots, when cut into 

 planks, have all the beauty of the curled Maple, 

 with the colour, though not the grain, density, nor 

 lustre, of Mahogany. The wood is, however, liable 

 to the attacks of the larva of a small beetle, for 

 which reason sabots made of this wood in France 

 are hardened by smoking. It is also recommended 

 to immerse Alder logs for some months in peat to 

 which lime has been added, and to varnish any 

 furniture made from them. Being rich in tannin, 

 the wood, if left long in peat, becomes as black 

 as ebony, and when newly felled it takes a stain 

 readily, so as sometimes to be used as a substitute 

 for that wood ; but it is far too soft to admit of the 

 lustrous polish of so exceptionally dense a timber. 



As fuel the Alder is far inferior in heating 

 power to the Beech, but for this reason is useful 

 for purposes where a slow heat is wanted. By far 

 the chief use of the tree at the present day is for 

 gunpowder-charcoal, for which purpose it is grown 

 to a considerable extent, being only inferior to 

 the Alder Buckthorn — the so-called "Dogwood" — 

 (RhaTn'nus Fran'gula) and to the White Willow 

 {SaVix al'ba). It is treated as coppice, and cut down 

 every five or six years. The branches, which should 

 be about four inches in diameter, are, like the buds, 

 somewhat triangular in section, which gives a char- 

 acteristic form to their small pith. The charcoal of 

 the Alder is used for powder for heavy ordnance, 

 or for the commoner commercial kinds. 



The Alder is one of the woods which have of late 



