457 
was introduced in 1736, by Peter Collinson, Esq.* There are several varieties of this species, as 
1. Broad-leaved Virginian Birch. 2. Poplar-leaved Virginian Birch. 3. Paper Birch. 4. Brown 
Birch, &c. 
Species 3. Canada Birch . (Betula Lenta.) 
For an account of this tree, vide last Section, p. 389- 
Species 4. Common Alder. (Betula Alnus.) 
The common Alder appears generally as a shrub; it will however grow to a considerable tree* 
thirty-five or forty feet in height. The bark is blackish, in old trees full of clefts. The wood is red 
and brittle. The leaves are of a dark green colour, and a roundish figure, resembling those of the 
Hazel, crenate, smooth, in the common sort viscid to the touch; the nerves on the under side have 
spongy balls at the angles of their ramifications, as in the leaves of the lime-tree; the petioles are 
grooved above, and near an inch long; at the base of these are lanceolate, blunt stipules. The male 
catkins are cylindrical, appear in the autumn, and continue to the spring.* The females are of a 
short conical form, like a small fir cone.j- 
Many botanists, and among others Linnaeus himself, have separated the Alder from the Birch; 
but Linnaeus, in his later works, has joined them in the same genus; convinced, as he says, by the 
second and third species, that nature has placed no limits between them. Gaertner however keeps 
them distinct, and says that they differ not only in the fruit, but in the flower. 
This is native of Europe from Lapland to Gibraltar, and of Asia from the White Sea to 
Mount Caucasus, thrives in wet and boggy grounds, and on the banks of rivers; flowering with us 
in March and April. 
There is a long-leaved Alder from America, which grows to thirty feet in height, and merits a 
place in all plantations. The branches are slender, smooth, numerous, and dark brown or purple. 
The leaves are long and free from the clamminess of the common sort: they sometimes continue on 
the tree even in December, and it has then the appearance of an evergreen.J 
The wood of the Alder is valuable for piles, pipes, pumps, sluices, and in general for all works 
intended to be constantly under water. It is said to have been used under the Rialto at Venice; 
and we are told that the morasses about Ravenna were piled with it, in order to lay the foundations 
for building upon.§ In Flanders and Holland it is raised in abundance for this purpose. It serves 
also many domestic and rural uses, as for cart-wheels, spinning-wheels, milk-vessels, bowls, spoons, 
small trays, trenchers, and other turnery ware, troughs, handles of tools, clogs, pattens, wooden 
heels. The roots and knots furnish a beautiful veined wood for cabinets. The Scotch highlanders 
often make chairs of it, which are very handsome, and the colour of mahogany. The wood which 
has lain in bogs is black like ebony. It is very generally planted for coppice wood, to be cut down 
every ninth or tenth year for poles. And the branches make good charcoal. The bark is used by 
dyers, tanners, and leather-dressers; also by fishermen for their nets. Both this and the young 
shoots dye yellow, and with a little copperas a yellowish grey, very useful in the demi-tints, and 
shadows of flesh in tapestry. The shoots cut in March will dye a cinnamon colour; and a fine 
tawny, if they be dried and powdered. The fresh wood yields a dye the colour of rappee snuff. 
* Hort. Kew. 
T Lightf. and Pollich. 
5Z 
J Hunter's Evelyn. 
§ Ibid. 
