[ 63 ] 
ALDERS. 
Amentaceæ. 
COMMON ALDER. 
Acnus serrulata. A. stipulis ovalibus , obtusis ; foliis duplicato-serratis, ovali- 
bus, acutis. 
This species of Alder is found in the Northern, Middle, and Western 
States, and is every where designated by the name of Common Alder. It 
frequently grows along the sides of brooks, and abounds still more in places 
covered with stagnant water. Its ordinary size is 8 or 10 feet in height, 
and about 2 inches in diameter, though often it is less. Its leaves are of 
a beautiful green, about 2 inches long, oval, distinctly sulcated on the sur- 
face, and doubly denticulated at the edge. 
This shrub blooms in January : the sexes are separate upon the same 
stock. The barren flowers are disposed, like those of the Birch, around a 
common axis, in flexible pendulous aments about 2 inches long. The fer- 
tile flowers are in the form of small, oval bodies, garnished with a dull red, 
fringe : they are converted into small, scaly cones, which open, when arrived 
at maturity, to release the minute, flat seeds. 
The wood of the Common Alder, when first laid open, is wide, and it 
becomes reddish by contact with the air : its resemblance in this respect 
to the analogous European species, Alnus glutinosa, leads me to believe 
that they are alike also in the properties of their bark. 
The Common Alder is too small to be applicable to any use in the arts : 
from its inferiority of size, it will probably one day give place to the Euro- 
pean Alder. 
PLATE LXXY. 
Common Alder , with a leaf of the natural size. Fig. 1 , A fertile and a bar- 
ren ament. Fig. 2, A cone at maturity. Fig. 3. Seeds. 
