Royal Insfitution of Great Britain. 217 



Friday, March 2ncl. 



Some observations on the Principles of the Structure of Lan- 

 guage, communicated by a Member of the Royal Institution, were 

 read and illustrated by Diagrams by Mr. Singer, the Principal 

 Librarian of the Royal Institution. An abstract of these observa- 

 tions, for which we are indebted to the author, will be found in the 

 present Number. (See page 163.) 



Friday, March 9th. 



Some observations upon Ship-building, illustrated by Models and 

 Drawings, were delivered in the Lecture Room, by Mr. Holds- 

 worth. The remarks offered this evening were merely preliminary 

 to a more extended discussion of the subject. 



In the Library, a portable gas lamp was exhibited, furnished 

 with the condensed gas obtained by the decomposition of resin, an 

 invention for which a patent has lately been obtained by Mr. F. 

 Daniell, and which promises to be of considerable importance in an 

 economical view. The gas is extremely free from smell, and 

 appears to surpass even oil gas in brilliancy. 



Proceedings of the Horticultural Society. 

 January 2nd, 1 827. 



A PAPER was read upon the grafting pears upon quince stocks. 

 The writer strongly called the attention of the Society to the im- 

 portance of this practice, and pointed out the great advantages 

 attending it. It is really surprising that English gardeners should 

 so long have neglected a practice which has long been followed in 

 France, and to which the excellence of French pears is, in a great 

 degree to be attributed. The quince used as a stock, has the pro- 

 perty of stunting the growth of pears, of forcing them to produce 

 bearing branches, instead of sterile ones, and of accelerating the 

 maturity of the fruit. No small garden should contain pear-trees 

 grafted in any other way, nor any large garden be without them 

 to a considerable extent. 



Various seeds were distributed to the members present, as is 

 the custom in this Society, and a number of different fruits were 

 exhibited. Of these the gloux morecsea and the bruni ranee, new 



