SEASIDE ALDER.
A. maritinza, Nutt.
The seaside alder shares with the witch hazel the pe culiar distinction of bearing its flowers and ripening its fruit simultaneously in the fall of the year. The alder comes first, hanging out its golden catkins in clusters on the ends of the season's shoots in August and September. Nothing is left of them when the witch hazel scatters its dainty stars along the twigs in October and November.
The seaside alder follows stream borders near but not actually on the seacoast, through eastern Delaware and Maryland, but ranges comfortably on drier soil as far west as Oklahoma and is hardy in gardens and parks as far north as Boston, where it blooms profusely and is much admired for both flowers and glossy foliage through the late summer.