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succeeded in this country, where, however, it is little known, the only trees in cultivation’ that we know of being three thriving specimens which are growing near the lake in Kew Gardens. The largest of these is now 40 feet by 2 feet 3 inches in girth. They were raised from seed sent by Mr. R.E. Ellis of the Indian Forest Department in 1882. (A.H.)
ALNUS MARITIMA
- Alnus maritima, Nuttall, Sylva, i. 34 (1842); Sargent, Garden and Forest, iv. 268, t. 47 (1891), Silva N. Amer. ix. 81, t. 458 (1896), and Trees N. Amer. 215 (1905); Winkler, Betulaceæ, 114 (1904).
- Alnus oblongata, Regel, Mém. Soc. Nat. Mosc. xiii, 171 (1861) (in part).
- Betula-Alnus maritima, Marshall, Arb. Am. 20 (1785).
A tree attaining in America 30 feet in height and 1 foot in girth. Bark smooth, greyish-brown. Young branchlets slightly pubescent, three-angled at the tip. Leaves (Plate 268, Fig. 11) in cultivated specimens 2½ inches long, 1¾ inch wide, some- what larger in wild specimens, ovate or obovate, cuneate at the base ; acute, slightly acuminate, or rounded at the apex; nerves, eight to twelve pairs, running to the margin ; margin not lobulate, remotely serrate in the upper two-thirds with minute incurved glandular teeth ; upper surface dark green, shining, glabrous ; lower surface light green, glabrous; petioles ½ inch, slightly pubescent. Buds minute, stalked, ovoid, glabrous, slightly glandular.
Flowers appearing in July on the branches of the year, and opening in September. Staminate catkins in scurfy pubescent racemes in the axils of the upper leaves. Pistillate catkins usually solitary from the axils of the lower leaves. Cones ripening in the following September, so that both flowers and ripe fruit occur simultaneously on the tree, ovoid, ⅝ inch long; nutlet obovate, narrowed and apiculate at the apex, with a thin membranous border.
This alder grows on the banks of streams and ponds in Delaware and Maryland, usually near, but not immediately upon the sea-coast, as its name would seem to imply. However, it abounds on the banks of the Nanticoke and Wicomico rivers in Maryland, near the high-water mark. What appears to be the same species was collected by Hall on the Red River in Indian Territory.
It was introduced into cultivation by Thomas Meehan, who sent it in 1878 to the Arnold Arboretum, where it is tolerably hardy, flowering and fruiting freely, though it was killed to the ground in 1885. There are now two trees, about 6 feet high, growing in the nursery at Kew, which were sent by Prof. Sargent in 1899. These flower in September, and produce fruit in quantity. (A.H.)
1 Mr. A.B. Jackson has lately seen a tree at Grayswood, Haslemere, which is 18 feet high and 9 inches in girth.