CHAP. CIV.

BETULA'cEAi. jf'LNUS.

1683

the most melancholy of deciduous trees. The loose negligent manner inwhich its dark dull green leaves are distributed over its branches, gives thetree a dishevelled appearance, as if it were careless about itself; and, if theweeping willow is to be considered as representing outward and simulatedgrief, the alder, we should say, forms a good emblem of the grief of the heart.

M O’er the swift waters of the running streamThe willow waves its light and graceful form,

Mingling a transient shadow' with the gleamOf the bright sunshine—like a passing storm :

Emblem of grief, which, elegant, refined,

Is more of outward show than of the mind.

O’er the dark pond, whose sullen bosom showsNo curling waves to greet the passing breeze,

The rigid alder its stiff image throws,

Gloomy and sad, as though it scorn’d to please :

Emblem of woe, too great to be express’d,

Which broods in silence, and corrodes the breast.”

The motion of the alder tree corresponds with its form; being slight andpartial, owing to its rigidity, and not graceful and extending to the whole tree,like that of the willows and Lombardy poplars. Let the reader only imaginea pond with its margin varied by alders, and the same pond varied by willows;and then reflect on the difference in the impressions which the change of eachmakes upon his mind. The common alder can never, with propriety, beplanted in artificial scenery, where the object is to imitate nature in an ar-tistical manner, or, in other words, so as to preserve the character of art.The reason is, the alder is so well known as an indigenous tree, that theartificial scenery in which it appears is immediately lowered to a fac-simileimitation of, or identification with, nature. Where either the geometrical orany other gardenesque method of planting is adopted, however, this principledoes not apply ; nor will it hold good in the case of planting any of themore striking varieties of the species; for example, the cut-leaved alder, whichforms a very interesting tree, and is very fit for planting in artificial scenery,because it is never found wild in Britain, and, from its habit of growth, aswell as from the form of its leaves, is in no danger of ever being mistaken forthe common alder.

Poetical and mythological Allusions. Homer, Virgil, and other poets ofantiquity, frequently mention the alder. Homer often alludes to it in hisdescriptions of scenery: —

- - « From out the cover’d rock,

In living rills a gushing fountain broke :

Around it and above, for ever green,

The bushy alders form’d a shady scene.” Odyssey , book ix.

And again: —

Where silver alders, in high arches twined,

Drink the cool stream, and tremble in the wind. ” Ibid., book xvii.

Some poets, when treating of the fable of the Heliades, assert that thesisters of Phaethon were turned into alders instead of poplars. Virgil, in onehis Eclogues says,—

** The sisters, mourning for their brother’s loss,

Their bodies hid in bark, and furr’d with moss,

How each a rising alder now appears,

And o’er the Po distils her gummy tears.” Dryden’s Virgil , eel. vi.

Cowley has adopted the same fable: —

“ The Phaethonian alder next took place:

Still sensible of the burnt youth’s disgrace,

She loves the purling streams, and often laves

Beneath the floods, and wantons with the waves.” Plants , book v.

Virgil, in another passage, alludes to the bark of the alder being full ofclefts : —

“ As alders in the spring their boles extend,

And heave so fiercely, that their bark they rend.”

5 R 3

Dryden’s Virgil, eel. x.