Johns. Gerarde, p. 1477. — Evelyn’s Sylva, (2nd ed.) p. 83. — Betula Alnus Eng 
Bot. t. 1508.— Linn. Sp. PI. v. ii. p. 1394, a.— Huds. FI. Angl. (2nd ed.) p. 416.— 
Sm. FI. Brit, v.iii. p. 1013. — Lightf. FI. Scot. v. ii. p.576. — Sihth. FI. Oxon. p. 
64. — Abb. FI. Bedf. p. 207. — Davies’ Welsh Bot. p. 89. — Purt. Midi. FI. v. ii. p. 
454. — Relh. FI. Cant. (3rd ed.) p. 390. — Hunt. Evel. Silva, p. 240, with a plate. 
Localitifs. — In wet meadows, moist grounds, and on the banks of rivers, 
lakes, and pools ; frequent. 
A Tree. — Flowers in March and April. 
From 30 to 40 feet high. Trunk frequently crooked, with a dark 
brown, or blackish bark, which in old trees is often full of clefts. 
Branches crooked, spreading, round, smooth, glutinous when young. 
Leaves alternate, on channelled leaf-stalks (petioles), roundish, 
very much resembling those of the Hasel-nut, blunt, or lopped at 
the end, wavy, serrated, plaited, somewhat glutinous, smooth, of a 
dark shining green above, paler underneath, with one rib, and 
many transverse parallel veins which are downy at their origin. 
Stipulas oblong, entire, soon falling off. Flowers in catkins (aments), 
on branched peduncles. Stamenif erous catkins (fig. 1.) long, cy- 
lindrical, drooping, each floret with a calyx and corolla, the latter 
deeply 4-cleft (see fig. 2). Stamens (see fig. 2.) 4, on very short 
filaments. Pistillif erous catkins ( fi sr. 3.) short, egg-shaped, red, 
each floret with a simple perianth (a calyx only) ; scales (see f. 4.) 
red, permanent, forming a short, egg-shaped cone, something like 
that of a Pinus or Fir-tree. 
The following varieties of this tree are enumerated in Mr. Lou- 
don’s Hortus Britannicus, p. 378, as being cultivated in the gardens 
of Britain. 1. The fringed-leaved (laciniata) : Loud. Arhor. Brit, 
t. 230. 2. The variegated-leaved (foliis variegatis). 3. The Oak- 
leaved (quercifolia). 4. The cut-leaved (incisa). 5. The emargi- 
nate (emarginata) . 
The common Alder is recommended for making hedges by the sides of streams 
and in low damp situations, where the thorn or quick (Crata'gus oxyacantha, 
folio and plate 418.) will make little or no progress. The wood of this tree is 
valued for works exposed to the action of water, especially such as are constantly 
submerged. It is said that the celebrated and ancient bridge, called the Rialto, 
at Venice, is built on A Ider-piles ; as are also many larce edifices at Amsterdam. 
Before the iron manufacture was so much improved, Alder was in great request 
for water-pipes, on account of the ease with which it can be perforated when 
gieen ; it is also valuable as affording one of the best charcoals, said by some 
persons to be superior to willow, for the manufacture of gunpowder; and no 
other wood forms carbon that answers so well for galvanic experiments, Alder- 
charcoal being always preferred for the points that connect the poles of Voltaic 
batteries, and other similar apparatus. The wood is also useful for making 
clogs, pattens, and other articles ; and with it the Highlanders are said to make 
chairs, which are very handsome, and have the colour of mahogany. The bark 
and leaves are employed in dying, in tanning leather, and for staining fisher- 
men’s nets, their astringent quality adapting them for these uses. The bark is 
employed in decoction as a gargle in telaxations of the mucous membrane of the 
fauces; and in double the dose of cinchona it has been administered with suc- 
cess in cases of ague. The fresh gathered leaves, which are covered with a 
glutinous liquor, are, by some people, strewed upon their floors to destroy fleas; 
the fleas are said to be entangled in that tenaceous liquor, as birds are in bird- 
lime. — The Alder is not only a native of Europe, but also of Asia from the White 
Sea to Mount Caucasus ; in boggy grounds, and on the banks of rivers. 
The following parasitic fungi are frequent on the leaves of this tree in the vi- 
cinity of Oxford. 
1. Erineum alneum, Grev. Scot. Cryp. FI. t. 157. f. 2. — Baxt. St. Crypt. 
Oxon. N°. 93. This is a beautiful species, sometimes occupying nearly the 
whole of the under side of the leaf. I have observed it only in Christ Church 
Meadow, and in Magdalen College Water-walks. Summer and Autumn. 
2. Dothidea alnea, Gr.Scot. Cr. FI. 1. 146. f. 2. — Hook. Br. FI. v. ii.pt. 2. p.288. 
3. Ery’siphe penicil/ata, var. A Ini. Link, in Willd. Sp. PI. v. vi. pt. 1. p. 1 13. 
