s of alder-wood. Though invaluable for water-pipes, pump-barrels,
foundations for bridges, &c., alder-wood is of little use on dry land
unless it can be kept _perfectly_ dry. Wooden vessels and sabots,
however, are made of it.

Alders are chiefly grown in little woods. Planted by the side of rivers,
too, their tough and creeping roots bind and support the banks.
Alder-coppices are very valuable to the makers of--gunpowder! Every five
or six years the little alders are cut down and burned to charcoal, and
the charcoal of alder-wood is reckoned particularly good by gunpowder
manufacturers.

The Aspen, or Trembling Poplar (_Populus tremula_), like the alder, is
fond of damp situations. It has also a white soft wood, used by the
turner and engraver, and for such small articles as clogs, butchers'
trays, &c, &c.

The quivering of its leaves is a favourite topic with poets, and there
is a curious old Highland superstition that the Cross of Christ was made
of aspen-wood, and that thenceforward the tree could never rest.

In "little woods" it may be cut every seven or eight years for faggots,
and at fifteen or twenty years old for poles.

The Beech (_Fagus sylvatica_). With this beautiful tree all our young
readers must be familiar. There may be those whose minds are not quite
clear about wych-elms and sycamores, but the appearance of the
beech-tree is too strongly marked to allow of any confusion on the
subject.

The beech is spoken of by Greek and Roman writers, and old writers on
British agriculture count it among the four timber trees indigenous to
England: the beech, the oak, the ash, and the elm.

It is said, however, not to be a native of Scotland or Ireland. It
attains its full growth in from sixty to eighty years, but is believed
to live to be as old as two hundred. The timber is not so valuable as
that of the other three British trees, but it is used for a great
variety of purposes. Like the alder, it will bear the action of water
well, and has thus been used for piles, flood-gates, mill-wheels, &c. It
is largely used by cabinet-makers for house furniture. It is employed
also by carriage-makers and turners, and for various small articles,
from rolling-pins to croquet-balls. The dried leaves are used in
Switzerland to fill beds with, and very nice such beds must be! Long ago
they were used for this purpose in England. Evelyn says that they remain
sweet and elastic for seven or eight years, by which time a straw