The Oregon or red alder is found in the far west, in Washington, Oregon and in the mountains of California down to Santa Barbara. It grows along streams, on canyon sides, and up on the mountains beyond the spruces. On Puget Sound the tree sometimes reaches the height of 80 feet. The bark is smooth and grayish, the leaves dark green. The wood is red-brown in color and is sometimes used for furniture.
The white alder also belongs to the west, borders mountain streams from Idaho down toward the Mexican line. It, too, is a tall tree for an alder. Very early in the year it puts forth great yellow catkins, at this season specially conspicuous and attractive. In the spring the unfolding leaves are covered with white hairs and the young shoots have a white crust. The bark is rough and dark brown in color.
The lanceleaf alder grows on high lands in Arizona and New Mexico. The paperleaf alder is another species found in the mountains of the west.
The seaside alder, an attractive small tree, is found fringing stream and pond in Delaware, Maryland and the Indian Territory. It is from 15 to 30 feet in height, its bark light brown, the leaves a gleaming dark green above, paler beneath. A feature of this tree is the beautiful yellow catkins with which it decks itself in September.
Plants of other orders are popularly called alders. Mention may be made of the winterberry or black alder, common on low grounds, closely related to the American holly, bearing thick-clustered coral-red berries, these appearing in September. The sweet pepperbush or white alder, a shrub in late summer adorned with fragrant white blossoms, grows along the New England coast.
Al′derman, Edwin Anderson (1861), American educator and president of the University of Virginia, was born at Wilmington, N. C., and educated at the University of his native state. Of the latter, in 1896–99, he was president, when he became head of Tulane University at New Orleans, La., subsequently removing to Charlottesville, Va., to take the presidential chair at the University of Virginia.
Aldrich (awl′drĭch), Nelson Wilmarth, U. S. Senator (Republican) from Rhode Island, born at Foster, R. I. For six years he was a member of the Providence Common Council, in two of which he acted as president. In 1875 he was a member of the Rhode Island General Assembly and in the latter was elected speaker of the state House of Representatives. In 1878 he was returned to the Federal Congress and in 1880 was re-elected, but in the following year resigned to take a seat in the Senate. He was successively elected to the Senate (in the years 1886, 1892 and 1905), and became one of the most forceful and efficient members of that body. He had charge of the tariff bill passed in 1909. He was also chairman of the commission appointed to revise the monetary system of the country.
Aldrich (awl′drĭch), Thomas Bailey, an American poet and novelist, was born in
T. B. ALDRICH
Portsmouth, New Hampshire, November 11, 1836. Between the years 1881 and 1890 he was editor of the Atlantic Monthly. He has written The Stillwater Tragedy, Story of a Bad Boy, Marjorie Daw, Prudence Palfrey, Judith and Holofernes and several volumes of poems. He died March 19, 1907.
Ale. See Beer.
Alemanni (ä′lā-măn′nē) (meaning “all men”), a union of several tribes, who lived in the heart of Germany. They were attacked at different times in their history by nine Roman generals or emperors. They were defeated time and again, but never conquered. They were at last united with the Suevi into the dukedom of Alemannia, and thereafter their history is included in the history of Germany.
Aleppo (ä-lěp′pō), a city of Syria, is built over the ancient city of Berœa. It is surrounded by a stone wall forty feet high and three and a half miles long. In an earthquake which occurred in 1822 two-thirds of the people were swallowed up. Outside the city beautiful gardens stretch for 12 miles to the southeast. The “boil of Aleppo” is a cancer that breaks out on the faces of children and lasts a year, leaving a scar for life, by which a citizen of the place can be easily recognized. Population, 210,000.
Aleutian Islands or Catharine Archipelago, a group of over 150 islands, volcanic as well as rocky in their foundation, which extend southwestward from the Alaskan peninsula across the northern Pacific and between the latter ocean and Bering Sea. They are populated by a hardy race, between 2,000 and 3,000 in number, allied to the Eskimo stock, who subsist chiefly on seals and fish. There is little agriculture, for the soil is thin and poor, and the vegetation is stunted and insignificant. The islands, which form part of Alaska and with that northwestern peninsula belong to the United States, were discovered early in the eighteenth century by Bering, the Danish navigator. The inhabitants as a rule are of a low order of
