Alder

“ The same security of life pervades every woody shrub: the alder and the birch have their catkins all ready for the first day of spring, and the sweet-fern has even now filled with fragrance its folded blossom. ”

“ The alder is one of the prettiest trees and shrubs in the winter. It is evidently so full of life with its conspicuously pretty red catkins dangling from it on all sides. It seems to dread the winter less than other plants. It has a certain heyday and cheery look, less stiff than most, with more of the flexible grace of summer. With those dangling clusters of red catkins which it switches in the face of winter, it brags for all vegetation. ”

“ One of the best uses to which alders are put in Europe is planting in hedges along borders of streams, where their closely interlacing roots hold the banks from crumbling and keep the current clear in midstream. No English landscape is more beautiful than one through which a little river winds, its banks and the boggy spots tributary to it softened by billows of living green. "He who would see the alder in perfection must follow the banks of the Mole and Surrey through the sweet vales of Dorking and Wickleham." ”

“ I stand by the wall at the east base of the hill, looking into the alder meadow lately cut off. I am peculiarly attracted by its red-brown maze, seen in this bright sun and mild southwest wind. It has expression in it as a familiar freckled face. Methinks it is about waking up, though it still slumbers. I see the still, smooth pools of water in its midst almost free from ice, and seem to hear the sound of the water soaking into it, as it were, its voice. . . . . Even the shade is agreeable to-day. You hear the buzzing of a fly from time to time, and see the black speck zig-zag by. ”

“ We have seen it contrasting its tender green and its delicate leaves with the brighter and deeper masses of the holly and the alder. We have seen it growing under the shelter, though not under the shade, of some stately oak, embodying the idea of beauty protected by strength. Our eyes have often caught the motion of the busy mill-wheel, over which its blossoms were clustering. ”

“ When summer wanes, they will be a scattered family, each member shifting for himself. Some still haunt the alder thicket where they first saw light, whose netted shadows of bare branches have thickened about them to continued shade of leafage, in whose midday twilight the red flame of the cardinal flower burns as a beacon set to guide the dusky wanderer home. ”

“ Now, if we and all human beings were to leave this pasture for a few hundred years, would not those alders increase into a wood? Would they not kill the grass, and spread right and left, seeding themselves more and more as the grass died, and left the ground bare, till they met the oaks and beeches coming down the hill? And then would begin a great fight, for years and years, between oak and beech against alder and willow. ”

“ Nor does this melancholy tree gladden the waterside with any brightness of blossom; the male and female catkins, appearing before the leaves, are dull, brownish yellow; beautiful objects under a lens, but contributing little to cheer the wayfarer, save as being sure harbingers of summer days. These flowers are followed by cones, which are green at first, but, turning black when ripe, only serve to deepen the gloom. Nevertheless, an alder copse in February and early March has a quiet beauty all its own. ”

“ The alder, as I descend into the glen, gives me notice that the first frost has visited him, as it always does, before others, to warn him that it has arrived to claim every leaf of the forest as its own. Oh, the country is the place for peace, health, beauty, and innocence. ”

“ Not long after, the alders in the swamp unfold their clusters of drooping aments which have been on the tree stiff and rigid throughout the winter. Thousands of little tails are thus mysteriously hung out on the alder twigs to sway gently in the breeze, turning from a reddish hue to a sulphur-yellow as they expand and become powdered with pollen. Born into a frosty world when the feeble sun is still distant and cold, the March flowers are a link between winter and spring. But Nature has certainly relaxed her features ”

“ Beyond the marshes, undulating country swells gently to picturesque and distant woods; square church-towers peep above the trees. There are cornfields and patches of turnip surrounding the ruddy buildings of many a happy homestead. Hour after hour we silently move between margins gay with the bold purple loosestrife, the free-blossoming willow-herb, the fragrant meadow-sweet, and the dark glossy-leaved alder, which never thrives so well as when its feet are in the water, and which seems to be most strong in the sap when other trees are on the verge of decay. ”

“ If a maple or alder is unfortunate enough to slip its lower limbs into the freshet, dallying with it, their fate is sealed, for the water freezing that night takes fast hold of them like a vise, and when the water runs out from beneath, an irresistible weight brings them down to the ground and holds them there. ”

“ All those trembling half-thoughts of the sleep of the year and its awakening,—we have not escaped them by leaving the routine that brought them forth. We know when the first violets are blowing in the woods, and we paint for ourselves the tasselling of the alder and the red of maple-buds. ”

“ Beech and alder, with scrub of dwarf willow at their feet, cluster on the islets and climb the deepening valley westward; but in the glen stand aged trees, and on the crest of the slope haggard spruce firs still fight for life and mark, in their twisted and decaying timbers and perishing boughs, the torment of the unsleeping wind. Great is the contrast between these stricken ruins with death in their high tops, [80] and the sylva beneath sheltered by the granite hill. There beech and pine are prosperous and sleek compared with the unhappy, time-foundered wights above them ”

“ The ALDER, or OWLER (Betula alnus, Fig. 63) , is a tree which grows in wet situations, and is distinguished by its flower-stalks being branched, and its leaves being roundish, waved, serrated, and downy at the branching of the veins beneath. There are few means of better employing swampy and morassy grounds than by planting them with alders; for although the growth of these trees is not rapid, the uses to which they are applicable are such as amply to repay the loss of time requisite before they come to perfection. ”

“ To make the title of this book significant to you, I must transport you to a sylvan nook, far from the city's boundaries, where an old stone cottage peeps forth from the thick foliage. Down through the maple avenue you will take your pleasant route, past the willow and alder clumps, and the ancient mill, that hangs its idle arms listlessly by its sides—on and on, over the little style, and the rustic bridge, which spans the rivulet, until you reach the giant elm that spreads its broad branches far and wide. ”

“ The alnus, or alder-tree, is, properly speaking, another species of the Canada-birch. When suffered to grow in an open situation, it has an agreeable appearance. Whenever any soil be intended for pasture, the alder should by no means be encouraged, as it poisons the herbage, and renders the soil moist and rotten. ”

“ The alder-stump is populous still. Its core, now sapless, lifeless touchwood, is riddled through and through. Here moths-to-be, and flies-to-be, and beetles-to-be have spent their youth and fattened. Virtue still lingers in the roots, and, hidden by the forks and bends of them, quiet lives consume, or bide their time. Now and again a human hand "collects" them, now and again a mole, the skilfullest pupa hunter in the world. ”

“ In midmost of the stream, embraced in the weir’s shimmering arm-spread, a small island lay anchored, fringed close with willow and silver birch and alder. Reserved, shy, but full of significance, it hid whatever it might hold behind a veil, keeping it till the hour should come, and, with the hour, those who were called and chosen. ”

“ It was no where seen above the Wappatoo. The stem of the black alder arrives to a great size. It is simple, branching, and diffuse: the bark is smooth, of a light colour, with white spreading spots, resembling those of the beech: the leaf, fructification, &c. resemble precisely those of the common alder of our country; the shrubs grow separately from different roots, and not in clusters, like those of the United States. The black alder does not cast its leaf until the first of December. It is sometimes found growing to the height of sixty or seventy feet, and is from two to four in diameter. ”

“ The earliest familiar token of the coming season is the expansion of the stiff catkins of the alder into soft, drooping tresses. These are so sensitive, that, if you pluck them at almost any time during the winter, a day's bright sunshine will make them open in a glass of water, and thus they eagerly yield to every moment of April warmth. The blossom of the birch is more delicate, that of the willow more showy, but the alders come first. They cluster and dance everywhere upon the bare boughs above the watercourses; the blackness of the buds is softened into rich brown and yellow ”

“ The alder, poplar, and willow, are the principal trees which they employ; and they always begin their operations on the trunk, at nearly two feet above the ground; nor do they ever desist from the process till its fall is completed. They sit instead of stand, at this labour, and while reducing the tree to the ground, derive a pleasure at once from the success of their toils, and from the gratification of their palate and appetite by the bark, which is a favourite species of food to them, as well as the young and tender parts of the wood itself. ”

“ The alder is readily propagated by seeds, but throws up root-suckers abundantly. It is important as coppice-wood on marshy ground. The wood is soft, white when first cut and turning to pale red; the knots are beautifully mottled. Under water the wood is very durable, and it is therefore used for piles. The supports of the Rialto at Venice, and many buildings at Amsterdam, are of alder-wood. Furniture is sometimes made from the wood, and it supplies excellent charcoal for gunpowder. ”

“ The wood of the alder, which is in great demand for machinery, is frequently wrought into cogs for mill-wheels, and is peculiarly adapted for all kinds of work which are to be constantly kept in water. It is consequently used for pumps, sluices, pipes, drains, and conduits of different description, and for the foundation of buildings situated in swamps. The water pipes which are laid under the streets of many of our large towns are made of alder ”

“ The wood is used by turners, etc.; the bark by dyers and tanners. In the U. S. the species of alder are usually shrubs or small trees. Black alder. (a) A European shrub (Rhamnus frangula) ; Alder buckthorn. (b) An American species of holly (Ilex verticillata) , bearing red berries.
ALDER; ALLER Al"der, Al"ler, a. Etym: [From ealra, alra, gen. pl. of AS. eal. The d is excrescent.]
Defn: Of all; — used in composition; as, alderbest, best of all, alderwisest, wisest of all. [Obs.] Chaucer.
ALDER FLY
Al"der fly.
1. Any of numerous neuropterous insects of the genus Sialis or allied genera. ”

“ Herder was probably misled by the fact that the Danish word elle signifies not only elf, but also alder tree (Ger. Erle) . His mistake at any rate has been perpetuated by both English and French translators, who speak of a “king of the alders,” “un roi des aunes,” and find an explanation of the myth in the tree-worship of early times, or in the vapoury emanations that hang like weird phantoms round the alder trees at night. ”

“ Under her direction the common alder thrives at the water’s edge, whilst its fellow species live on the mountain slope. These and similar operations are carried on daily around us, and we know but little of the wherefore and the how. ”

“ If running water does not carry seeds to new grounds they lie beneath the parent tree. The wood of white alder is five pounds lighter per cubic foot than red alder. Its structure is less satisfactory. Medullary rays are irregular, some being thin as those of sweet birch, while others are as broad as rays of chestnut oak. Those of large size seem to be scattered at haphazard, and are so irregular and uncertain that no dependence can be placed in them for figure. Trees are largely sapwood, which is nearly white when freshly cut, but it quickly turns brown; heartwood is pale, yellowish-brown. ”

“ Alders are chiefly grown in little woods. Planted by the side of rivers, too, their tough and creeping roots bind and support the banks. Alder-coppices are very valuable to the makers of—gunpowder! Every five or six years the little alders are cut down and burned to charcoal, and the charcoal of alder-wood is reckoned particularly good by gunpowder manufacturers. ”

“ The pine, the pitch-tree, and the alder are employed for making hollow pipes for the conveyance of water, and when buried in the earth will last for many years. If, however, they are not well covered over, they will very soon rot; and the resistance they offer to decay will increase in a most surprising degree if the outer surface as well is left in contact with the water. ”

“ Alders and willows grow about my Eden, and wild plum and crab-apple trees are snowy with bloom and faintly sweet; underneath these is a tangle of low bushes, wild-flowers, tall weeds, and vines. Through this wall of green came a pleasant sound of bubbling waters, gushing from the roots of a group of alders just above me, a pure little rill of it sliding down the hillside, under bending briers, tall grasses, and nodding rushes. ”