THE GREAT RED ALDER. 125 



degree, symmetrical ; they also maintain their broad leaves 

 so perfectly horizontal, and the spreading branches so nearly 

 so, as to afford one among the finest, most open, and airiesl 

 of canopies — what was designated of old as the dense "fat 

 shadows," beneath which the green grass and the tender herb 

 continued to flourish. They are. therefore, trees, or large 

 shrubs, with alternate deciduous leaves, at first plaited and 

 folded in short stalked buds, and protected by a single scale ; 

 aments on branched stalks, the male in long cylindric tags 

 or catkins pendulous; the female cone-like strobiles, short, 

 ovoid, and erect, becoming at length like redwood; cones 

 egg-like, consisting of wedge-form scales grown together, 

 fleshy and abiding, from green becoming ripe-brown, and 

 after shedding the small, cinnamon-brown parsnip-like seed, 

 becoming black and slightly open, not falling off with the 

 seed altogether. 



A few of these riverside trees, for variety, in parks, or por- 

 tions of avenues suited to their habits, and for fringing me- 

 andering streams, are remarkably ornamental, and also very 

 desirable on account of rapid growth, for the vigorous vivid 

 green, and evenly distributed verdure, so pleasing and agree- 

 ably tranquillizing when associated, like the willow, with its 

 own proper element, and, we may add, equally appropriate 

 for lawn or meadow. 



This large Red Alder, in age, also attains somewhat to the 

 bold, resolute, dignified, and picturesque port of the oak, for 

 which, at some little distance, it is not unfrequently mis- 

 taken; a nearer approach, however, reveals a livelier depth 

 of green, general egg-form, and doubly fine-toothed, feather- 

 veined foliage, and a much more airy spray. To our mind, 

 there is always a cheeriness of expression, which it seems 

 never to lose altogether, although this feature is more man- 

 ifest in its early growth and later prime; in short, the gen- 

 eral tone of the foliage is at all times of the free and easy 

 sort, and ever " wavers in the wind," perchance borders close 

 upon the negligent and the careless, more especially so in 

 partially retaining the deciduous leaves so very late in Au- 

 tumn, or early Winter, when they appear more disheveled, 

 simulating venerable age and its own apparent infirmities, 

 nevertheless well in keeping with surrounding scenery then 

 and there. Alders akin to the birch belong to the few, as we 

 see, who linger long and later by living rills, babbling brooks, 

 or deeper water ways that "go softly;" but at length she 

 modestly retires from manifest view and, deliberately dis- 

 mantled, rests with the close of the year. 



Dwelling only on the banks of living streams ; whenso- 

 ever the Pacific traveler, weary, thirsty, and fainting seeks 

 water, but finds none, deceived by poplars, myrtles, willows, 

 and the like, wont to grow by the brooks, if from afar he 



