the Caucasus, and in the provinces of Asterabad and Ghilan in Persia, where Dr. Stapf informs me that he has seen large trees south of the Caspian Sea.
It is closely allied to, if not identical with Alnus orientalis, Decaisne, a native of Asia Minor and Cyprus. The latter has not been introduced, so far as we know, into English or continental gardens.
It was known in cultivation a good many years ago in France, as Gay records? a tree 30 feet high growing at Verriéres in 1861 ; but we are unaware of the exact date of its introduction into England. It appears to grow as well and to be as hardy in England as A. cordata; and a fine tree, growing near the lake in Kew Gardens, is 52 feet high and 4 feet 10 inches in girth. There is a small specimen at Aldenham. (A.H.)
ALNUS FIRMA
- Alnus firma, Siebold et Zuccarini, Abh. Akad. München, iv. 3. p. 230 (1845); Sargent, Forest Flora Japan, 63 (1894); Winkler, Betulaceæ, 102 (1904).
- Alnus Sieboldiana, Matsumura, Journ. Coll. Sci. Tokyo, xvi. 5, p. 3 (1902).
- Alnus yasha, Matsumura, op. cit. p. 4 (1902).
- Alnus pendula, Matsumura, op. cit. p. 6 (1902).
- Alnus multinervis, Schneider, Laubholzkunde, 123 (1904).
A tree, attaining in Japan a height of 30 feet, but usually smaller. Young branchlets three-angled at the tip, pubescent. Leaves (Plate 268, Fig. 2) about 4 inches long and 1¾ inch broad, plicate; nerves deeply immersed above and very prominent beneath, about fifteen to eighteen pairs, running parallel and straight to the margin; ovate-lanceolate, rounded and unequal at the base, acuminate at the apex; upper surface dark green, shining, glabrous; lower surface light green, pubescent, the pubescence strongest on the midrib and nerves; margin finely and regularly serrate, ciliate; petiole ½ inch, pilose; stipules often persistent, ovate- lanceolate, ½ inch long, membranous, glabrous. Buds sessile, conical, long-pointed, curved, green, glabrous, with two external scales.
Flowers appearing in spring. Staminate catkins terminal or lateral, 1 to 2½ inches long. Pistillate catkins, one, two, or three to five, arising from one bud. Cones, solitary or racemose, variable in size, ½ to 1 inch long, in the different varieties. Nutlets, obovate-oblong or sub-rhomboid with a membranous wing..
This alder displays great variation in Japan, no less than three distinct species being recognised by Matsumura and Schneider. These appear to be geographical varieties:—
1, Var. multinervis, Regel in Bull. Soc. Nat. Mosc. xxxviii. 2. 423 (1865), and in DC. Prod. xvi. 2, p. 183 (1868). Alnus pendula, Matsumura. Alnus multinervis Schneider.
Branchlets pubescent. Leaves with numerous lateral nerves, eighteen pairs or more. Cones in pendulous racemes, 3⁄5 inch long. This form is the
1 Note with a specimen in Kew Herbarium. This tree is not mentioned in Hortus Vilmorinianus (1906).
