240 



A DISCOURSE 



CHAP. XIX. 



The ALB E B"", 

 BOOK I. 1. AlNUS, the ALDER, is of all other the most faithful lover of 



ground they attract the moisture from it^ and injure it. They are propa- 



According to the system of the celebrated Linnseus, this tree is classed with the Birch, 

 under the title of BETULA ( alnus ) pedunculis ramosis. The common Alder. 



This tree belongs to llie class and order Monoecia Tetrandria, there being male and female 

 flowers separately on the saitie plant, the male having four stamina. The catkins are formed 

 about the sixteenth of September, and the flowers are in full blow about the twenty-sixth 

 of March. The leaves begin to open about the seventh of April; 



The Alder is generally planted for coppice- wood, to be cut do'vfrn every ninth or tenth 

 year for poles. These coppices are raised either from truncheons or young-trees, the 

 latter of which is greatly preferable. In order to obtain a quantity of trees for this 

 purpose, some suckers should be taken out of the meadows where the Alder-trees grow. 

 These should be planted on a prepared piece of ground, and afterwards headed down for 

 stools. By the succeeding autumn they will have shot out many young branches, which 

 may be laid in the ground ; and by that time twelvemonth they will have taken root, 

 when they should be removed from the stools> and planted in rows, to acquire a sufficient 

 height to be above the weeds, when planted in the places where they are to remain. 

 In one or two years they will be strong enough to be planted out for good. If the coppice 

 is to stand upon boggy or watery ground, they may be removed from the nursery, and 

 planted three feet asunder, the holes having been previously prepared to receive them. 

 Here they may stand for six or seven years ; when every other tree should be taken away, 

 and the rest cut down for stools. The stools will then be six feet asunder ; and as each 

 stool will throw out many young branches for poles, they ought not to stand at a nearer 

 distance. Every ninth or tenth year will afford a fall of these trees for poles ; and in per- 

 forming this operation, they should be taken off smooth and fine, so that the stool may not 

 be damaged, or hindered from producing a fresh cvopi. 



The other less eligible method, though perhaps least expensive, is performed by planting 

 truncheons thi-ee feet long. Two of the feet must be thrust into the ground, having first 

 widened a hole with a crow, or some such instrument, to preserve the bark from being 

 rubbed off in planting. These should be set at the distance of one yard. But, at the time 

 of the first fall, the planter must not expect to remove every other tree, for many of the 

 truncheons will not grow ; neither have I ever seen a coppice, raised in this way, so luxuriant 

 and beautiful as when raised from regular plants. 



watery and boggy places, and those most despised weeping parts, or 

 water -galls of forests ; — crassisque paludibus ALni ; for, in better and drier 



