305 
ON THE HABITS AND PECULIARITIES OF BRITISH PLANTS, 
AND ON THE DERIVATIONS OF THEIR LATIN NAMES. 
By T. B. Hall. 
(Continued from p. 186.) 
Alnus. —From al, near, and lan, edge of a river, Celt., on account of its habitat. 
Aimes glutinosa , Common Alder, Owler, Scotch Eller.—The Alder flourishes 
best in low marshy situations, in which it is frequently planted to make hedges. 
It will not live in a chalky soil. It is easily propagated by seeds, but not by 
slips or cuttings. Grass grows well beneath its shade. The wood is soft and 
brittle; endures a long time under water, and therefore is used for pipes and 
piles, and to lay under the foundations of buildings situated upon bogs. According 
to Vitruvius, the ancients were well acquainted with the imperishable nature 
of this timber, when used for piles in swamps or under water; in such situations 
it becomes black as 6 ebony, and almost as hard as iron. The Rialto of Venice is 
thus founded; nor has its use been neglected in the Netherlands. The branches 
may be cut for poles every five or six years. Women’s shoe-heels, ploughmen’s 
clogs, cogs for mill-wrights, various articles of the turner, and in the High¬ 
lands handsome chairs, are made of it. The bark yields a red colour, and, with 
the addition of copperas, a black. It is also used to dye brown, particularly 
thread. It is principally used by fishermen to stain their nets. The country 
people in Scotland often make their own shoes; and, following the example of 
their forefathers, to avoid the tax upon leather, privately tan hides with the bark 
of Birch and Alder. Various passages in the ancient classics seem to intimate 
that the trunks of Alder-trees were among the first converted into boats. 
Martyn ingeniously surmises that one of these trees, hollowed by age, might 
have fallen into the water, and so given the first idea of navigation. In the 
Highlands of Scotland, near Dundonald, says Pennant, the boughs cut in the 
summer, spread over the fields, and left during the winter to rot, are found to 
answer as a manure. In March the ground is cleared of the undecayed parts, 
and then ploughed. The fresh-gathered leaves are covered with a glutinous 
liquor, which concretes into a spurious manna. They are sometimes strewed upon 
floors to destroy Fleas, which are said to be entangled in the tenaceous fluid, as 
birds are by birdlime. The catkins dye green. The whole plant is astringent. 
It affords food to many kinds of Moths and other insects, as Orchestes Alni , 
Psylla Alni, Adimonia Alni, Livia Alni, and Tenthredo luctuosa Alni, of which 
latter Barbut says:— u this pretty, quiet, melancholy fly is often fatally en¬ 
tangled in the clammy juice that oozes from the leaves. Its colours are chiefly 
yellow and brown, body black.” Of vegetable parasites, Erineum alneum , 
Grev. Scot. Crypt., 157,2.; c< convex, dotted, in irregular patches ; white, chang- 
