chap. civ. £etula n ce;e. ^'lnus. 1683 



the most melancholy of deciduous trees. The loose negligent manner in 

 which its dark dull green leaves are distributed over its branches, gives the 

 tree a dishevelled appearance, as if it were careless about itself; and, if the 

 weeping willow is to be considered as representing outward and simulated 

 grief, the alder, we should say, forms a good emblem of the grief of the heart. 



" O'er the swift waters of the running stream 



The willow waves its light and graceful form, 

 Mingling a transient shadow with the gleam 



Of the bright sunshine — like a passing storm : 

 Emblem of grief, which, elegant, refined, 

 Is more of outward show than of the mind. 

 O'er the dark pond, whose sullen bosom shows 



No curling waves to greet the passing breeze, 

 The rigid alder its stiff image throws, 



Gloomy and sad, as though it scorn'd to please : 

 Emblem of woe, too great to be express'd, 

 Which broods in silence, and corrodes the breast." 



The motion of the alder tree corresponds with its form ; being slight and 

 partial, owing to its rigidity, and not graceful and extending to the whole tree, 

 like that of the willows and Lombardy poplars. Let the reader only imagine 

 a pond with its margin varied by alders, and the same pond varied by willows ; 

 and then reflect on the difference in the impressions which the change of each 

 makes upon his mind. The common alder can never, with propriety, be 

 planted in artificial scenery, where the object is to imitate nature in an ar- 

 tistical manner, or, in other words, so as to preserve the character of art. 

 The reason is, the alder is so well known as an indigenous tree, that the 

 artificial scenery in which it appears is immediately lowered to a fac-simile 

 imitation of, or identification with, nature. Where either the geometrical or 

 any other gardenesque method of planting is adopted, however, this principle 

 does not apply ; nor will it hold good in the case of planting any of the 

 more striking varieties of the species ; for example, the cut-leaved alder, which 

 forms a very interesting tree, and is very fit for planting in artificial scenery, 

 because it is never found wild in Britain, and, from its habit of growth, as- 

 well as from the form of its leaves, is in no danger of ever being mistaken foi 

 the common alder. 



Poetical and mythological Allusions. Homer, Virgil, and other poets of 

 antiquity, frequently mention the alder. Homer often alludes to it in his 

 descriptions of scenery : — 



" From out the cover'd rock, 



In living rills a gushing fountain broke : 



Around it and above, for ever green, 



The bushy alders form'd a shady scene." Odyssey, book ix. 



And again : — 



" Where silver alders, in high arches twined, 

 Drink the cool stream, and tremble in the wind. " Ibid., book xvii. 



Some poets, when treating of the fable of the Heliades, assert that the 

 sisters of Phaethon were turned into alders instead of poplars. Virgil, in one 

 his Eclogues says, — 



" The sisters, mourning for their brother's loss, 

 Their bodies hid in bark, and furr'd with moss, 

 How each a rising alder now appears, 

 And o'er the Po distils her gummy tears." DRyDEN'a Virgil, eel. vi. 



Cowley has adopted the same fable : — 



" The Phaethonian alder next took place : 

 Still sensible of the burnt youth's disgrace, 

 She loves the purling streams, and often laves 

 Beneath the floods, and wantons with the waves." Plants, book v. 



Virgil, in another passage, alludes to the bark of the alder being full of 

 clefts : — 



" As alders in the spring their boles, extend, 

 And heave so fiercely, that their bark they rend." 



Drvden's Virgil, ccl. v, 

 5 R 3 



