are liitly to prove a greet .national Advantage, I37 



*' P. S. On looking over the oaks again, I. think the iron oaks carry up the thicknefs of 

 their buts a good deal better, cateris paribus, than the others ; and therefore they have five 

 or fix times the quantity of wood in them. 



" There are but two beeches, and they arc both outfide trees, and therefore larger than 

 they othcrwife would be. The circumference of the two was 12 feet 4 inches; average, 

 6 feet 2 inches. 



" Spanifh chefnuts, No. Circumference. 



Feet. Inches. 



6 31 3 



8 u- 34 3 



4 24 3 



18 • ■■■.. 18) 89 9 



Average circumference 4 1 1 J nearly." 



N. B. Mr. Bablngton fays, " that there are gates and pales on the premifes at Hillerfdon, 

 which have been made of the iron oak ; and that, as far as he can judge, the wood appears 

 as hard and as tough as that of the common oak." 



It has always been confidered, that when men have planted oak, they have not planted 

 for themfelves, or for their children, but for dillant poflerity ; and even they could never 

 be repaid where land bore any annual value : and to the planter himfelf little pleafure could 

 arife from trees of fuch very flow growth. But the fame perfon who plants the iron oak 

 may poffibly live to reap fome little profit as well as pleafure ; and it is not at all unrea- 

 fonable to fuppofe his immediate fucceffor may fee it arrive to fome degree of perfecflion. 

 From what I have feen of the wood of this oak, and from the account given by Mr. Ba- 

 bington of the gates and pales made with it, there is great reafon to fuppofe it will be 

 equally ufeful as the Englifh oak for any purpofe whatever. 



The general decreafe of timber in this ifland, the many wafte lands unemployed, and the 

 bill now propofed to be brought into Parliament by that great friend to agriculture Sir 

 John Sinclair, will be my apology for troubling the Society with this paper ; for the planter 

 ought certainly to be furniflied with every advantage, and every poffible inducement (hould 

 be held out to him for promoting fo ufeful and fo national a work. 



Explanation of Plate XV. fig. 1. 



A.a. a.a. Leaf, acorn, and prickly cup of the Iron, Wainfcot, or Turkey Oak. 



B.B.b.b. Leaf, acorn, and prickly cup of thri ^urcus Cerris of LinnteuSy fol. oUonght 

 hrato-pinnatifidis ; laciniis tranfverft!, acutis, fubtus fuhtomentojis ; calyce hifpido ; glande mi- 

 nore. Small-acorned Spanifli Oak with prickly cups. 



n. 



Ahjlra^ of a Memoir of M. PsOUSTon the Tanning Principle*. By Citizen DESCQTILt. 



x\. SOLU riON of muriate of tin, at any degree of oxydation whatever, being poured 

 into a deco6lion of nut-gall, forms an abundant yellowifh precipitate. After having di- 



• AnnaUs de Chimic, jutv, iiy 



luted 



