Sweden, Norway, Russia, Denmark, Bosnia, and Montenegro. These hybrids are intermediate in the characters of the leaves and fruit; and so far as we know, are not in cultivation in England.
A hybrid? between A. glutinosa and A. serrulata has also arisen in cultivation in Silesia and Brandenburg.
Distribution
The common alder is distributed through nearly the whole of Europe, Siberia, Western Asia, and North Africa. In Europe, its northerly limit extends from lat. 63° 52’ in southern Norway at Anderoen, to lat. 63° 20’ on the west side of the Gulf of Bothnia in Sweden, reaching Uleaborg in Finland in lat. 65°, where, however, it only exists as a shrub, and is continued through the interior of Finland and Russia along the parallel of 62°. In Siberia, its distribution is not accurately known ; but it occurs in the Ural and Altai mountains, and in the district around Lake Baikal. Its southern limit, commencing in the province of Talysch in the Caucasus, between 39° and 4o° lat., extends through Asia Minor and Greece to Sicily, where it reaches at Catania, lat. 37° 25’, its most southerly point in Europe. It occurs in Spain and Portugal, as far south as the Sierra Morena, about lat. 38°. It is also distributed through the mountains of Algeria and Morocco. A variety,’ recorded for Japan, is probably a distinct species.
According to Sir Herbert Maxwell® the Anglo-Saxon name for alder was a/y, in Norse olr (now, according to Schübeler, aar, older, and or); and the Gaelic name fearn, the names surviving in place names such as Allerton, Allerbeck, Ellerslie, Balfern, Farnie, Glenfarne.
It is generally distributed throughout the British Isles, growing usually on river banks, along the sides of lakes, and in wet or marshy places; and ascends in the Grampians to 1600 feet.
It is common throughout France, in similar situations, and ascends to 5700 feet in the Pyrenees. Although most usual on siliceous soils, it grows on chalk in Champagne; and in Germany, has been shown to be indifferent to the mineral constituents of the soil, provided a sufficient quantity of moisture is present. It is met with as pure woods, on peat-bogs and marshy places, in north Germany, in the Baltic provinces and Lithuania in Russia, and also in Hungary ; but more usually is mixed with birch and aspen, and more rarely grows in company with other hard- woods. It ascends in the mountains of Norway to 1100 feet, in the Central Alps in Switzerland to 3200 feet, and in the Carpathians to 3800 feet. The alder is susceptible to late frosts and is injured by cold dry winds, and on this account thrives best in the colder parts of Europe on slopes with a westerly aspect.
It is naturalised in various localities in the eastern United States, particularly in southern New York and in New Jersey. It succeeds well in North America, when
1 A. glutinosa × serrulata; A. silesiaca, Fiek. Cf. Schneider, loc. cit.
2 Var. japonica, Matsumura, Journ. Coll. Sci. Tokyo, xvi. 2, p. 9 (1902).
3 Green’s Encyclopedia of Agriculture, i. 62.
