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A tree attaining 80 feet in height and to feet in girth. Bark greyish or whitish, thin, roughened by minute wart-like excrescences. Young branchlets glabrous, three-angled at the tip, scarcely viscid except at the beginning of the season. Leaves (Plate 268, Fig. 16) about 4 or 5 inches long and 2½ inches wide, ovate or elliptical, rounded or cuneate at the base, acute at the apex ; nerves, about 15 pairs, each running straight and parallel to the apex of a lobule, which is furnished with minute gland-tipped serrations; margin slightly revolute and ciliate ; upper surface dark green, slightly pubescent; lower surface whitish or greyish, covered with a minute brown pubescence; petiole, ¾ inch, with a few scattered hairs. Buds beaked at the apex, glabrous, stalked. Stipules ovate, acute, tomentose, ⅛ to ¼ inch long.

Flowers opening in spring before the leaves. Staminate catkins, three to six in a raceme, 4 to 6 inches long when fully opened. Cones, three to six in a raceme, ½ to 1 inch long, with truncate scales, much thickened at the apex; nutlet orbicular or obovate, surrounded by a membranous wing.

This species can only be confused with A. incana, from which it differs in the glabrous branchlets and the usually larger leaves with revolute margins. The buds also differ, those of A. rubra being elongated, pointed, and glabrous, whilst those of A. incana are shorter, rounded at the apex, and pubescent.

Alnus rubra, according to Sargent, ranges from Sitka, where it often clothes mountain-sides to elevations of 3000 feet above the sea, southwards through the islands and coast ranges of British Columbia, and through western Washington and Oregon, and the cañons of the Californian coast ranges, to the Santa Inez mountains near Santa Barbara. It grows to its largest size in the neighbourhood of Puget Sound, where it commonly fringes the banks of streams and grows in wet places.’

This species was introduced into cultivation a few years ago, and there are two trees in Kew Gardens about 15 feet in height. Elwes has raised seedlings from these trees, which grow very rapidly in heavy soil at Colesborne, but being planted in a situation very subject to late frosts, have suffered on several occasions, when the grey and common alders standing near were quite untouched.

The wood is light, soft, brittle, and not strong, but close-grained and takes a fine polish; and is now largely used in Washington and Oregon for making furniture. (A.H.)

1 In Vancouver Island, the stem and branches are often covered with Polypodium falcatum, the creeping rhizomes of which find anchorage in its moss-covered bark. Cf. Postelsia, 1906, p. 76. A figure of the tree, growing in a moist part of the forest and surrounded by devil’s club (Echinopanax horridum), is given in Piper, Flora of the State of Washington, plate vii. (1906).