1686 ARBORETUM AND FRUTICETUM. PART III. 



surface of the soil. Dn llamel obtained abundance of plants by strewing soil 

 over the surface of the ground under a seed-bearing alder tree in autumn, after 



the seed had dropped. When the seed is sown in autumn, the plants will 

 come up the following spring; and, when it is sown in spring, they will gene- 

 rall) come up in the course of five or six weeks after sowing. Spring sowings 

 should be made much thicker than autumnal sowings ; because many of the 

 seeds, unless they have been very carefully excluded from the air, lose their 

 vital power during winter. The plants from spring-sown seeds will attain the 

 height of from 3 in. to (> in. the first summer. The second year they will be 

 double or treble that height ; and in three or four years, if properly treated, they 

 will be oft. or 6 ft. high. The nursery culture and after-management in 

 plantations have nothing peculiar in them ; except that, when full-grown 

 trees are to be cut down, it is advisable to disbark them a year before; a 

 practice as old as the time of Evelyn. When alders are cut down as coppice- 

 wood, in spring, when the sap is in motion, care should be taken that the cuts 

 are not made later than March ; and that they are in a sloping direction upwards. 

 If, at this season, the cuts are made downwards, the section which remains 

 on the stool will be so far fractured as, by the exudation of the sap, and the 

 admission of the weather, no longer to throw up vigorous shoots, and it will 

 decay in a few years. 



Accidents, Insects, and Diseases. The alder is liable to few accidents from 

 high winds : but the Adimoniaalni Fab. deposits its eggs on the young buds; 

 and the larva* are frequently so abundant, as to consume the leaves almost 

 entirely. There is also a small worm, the caterpillar of some coleopterous 

 insect, which penetrates through the bark into the wood, and ultimately 

 destroys the trees. (Diet, des Faux, &c.) This is probably the Callidium 

 alni Fab., one of the longicorn beetles. A small species of jumping weevil 

 (Orchestes alni Leach) also attacks the leaves, as well as Phyllobius alni Fab., 

 belonging to the same family, and Galeruca lineola Fab. (the Chrysomela 

 grisea alni, fern., of De Geer). Amongst lepidopterous insects, Cerura vinula, 

 PygmVa bucephala, Notodonta dromedarius, Lophopteryx camelina, Orgyia 

 antiqua, Zeuzera ae'sculi, Porthesia chrysorrhce x a, all belonging to the Linnasan 

 JJombyces; Apatela /eporina, Acronycta alni and psi (or dagger moths), 

 belonging to the iVoctuidae ; Geometra ulmaria, Drepana falcataria, and se- 

 veral Tbrtricidaj and Tineidac, feed, in the larva state, upon the alder. Some 

 of these being, however, general feeders, are not so injurious as the others. 



Statistics. Recorded Trees. The finest alder trees which Mitchell ever saw were probably the 

 same as those alluded toby Gilpin (p.l(>82.«, in the Bishop of Durham's park, at Bishop- Auckland, where 

 a tree, in 1818, had a trunk which measured 11 ft. in circumference. It grew upon a knoll on a. 

 swamp. The finest alder poles the same author ever ob- 

 served were in Arnold's Vale, below Sheffield Place, Sussex : 

 in 1815, these were from ft) ft. to 70 ft. high. The alders on 

 the banks of the river Findhorn have been already men- 

 tioned. 



/ inline Trees. In England, in the environs of London, 

 at Hani Mouse, Essex, A. g. emarginata is 15 ft. high, the 

 diameter of the trunk 2 ft. 1 in., and of the head 28 ft. ; art 

 Syon, A. g. laciniata [Jig. 1542.1 If 63ft high,thediameter of 

 the trunk .jft., and of the bead S3 ft ; at Kenwood, Ham])- 

 \i in I- 1, uitcd, the .species is ft) ft. high, thediameter 

 of the trunk 2 ft. 10 in., and of the head 60ft In Devon. 

 ■X Kittefton.it is 56ft high, with a trunk 'J ft. Jin. 

 in diameter : in Dorsetshire, at Melbury l'ark, 100 years 



planted, tin ft high, the diameter of the trunk 



I it ,.,,,.iot the hi id 16 ft ; and //. g laciniata is 60 ft high: 

 in Somer-.etihire, at Ncttlccombc, the species i.s 36ft high f 

 th'- diameter of tin- trunk '.; ft. ID in,, and of the head M ft.; 

 in Surrey, ;it I'arnham Cattle, 60 years planted, it is .00ft. 

 hiKh ; at Wol,um farm, //. g. laciiuala if 70 ft high, diameter of the trunk 4 ft., and of the head 

 ' \\ ( (dean, A. g. laciniata, 12 years planted, If 32 ft, high ; in Berkshire, at Bear 



Wood, 12 years planted, the species is V) ft. high, j in Hiickinghauishiro, at Temple House, 10 years 



planted, it if 50ft high i in Cambridgetbire, In the Cambridge Botanic Garden, it if 50ft high, 

 the diameter of the trunk 2ft, On , and "i the head 36ft; In Denbighshire, at Llanbede Hall, it is 



jgh, the diameter of the trunk 3ft, and of' flic head 34ft: in Herefordshire, at Kastnor 



nted, it if '.mi high i In Hertfordshire, at Chefhunt, 8 years planted, it is 



tnd 10 years planted, it i.s 20ft, high i 111 Lancashire, at Latham lions e, 50 years planted, 



it high, tin- diametei of the trunk 8ft., and of the head 52ft j A. g. laciniata, 20 years 



!t high: in \/e\a tci hire, al El vaf ton Castle, the fpeciet if 89ft. high, with a trunk 



, at Doddington P planted, it is 41 ft. high: in Monmouthshire, 



ii i planted, ll li I5fl high; In Northamptonshire, at Wakefield Lodge, 



