254 EDINBURGH NEWS NOTES. [Feb. 



EDINBURGH NEWS NOTES. 



SO a well-kuown name is again to appear in George IV. Bridge. 

 A new joint-stock company, " Peter Lawsou & Son, Limited," 

 has taken over the premises first occupied by the original founder, 

 and afterwards by another company. The new enterprise is under 

 the management of Mr. D. Syme, and is to be entirely devoted to 

 the seed business. 



The Forestry section of the Museum of Science and Art, Chambers 

 Street, begins to show signs of renewed vigour. Part of the dona- 

 tions received from the International Forestry Exhibition are now 

 displayed. The bamboo stems so familiar to visitors at Murrayfield 

 appear here to even better advantage, tied longitudinally on the 

 wall ; -whilst curiosities from Johore, Japan, and the Andamans may 

 now be more thoroughly studied than when in their former localities. 

 The case showing transparent sections of woods with their applica- 

 tions to bookbinding, is alone worthy of a visit. Foresters should 

 not neglect to put Chambers Street amongst their places of call 

 when in Edinburgh, as not a tithe of the 2000 specimens in their 

 special department are yet displayed. 



The last meeting of the Botanical Society, or as it is familiarly 

 termed, " The Bot. Soc," was eminently forestal, though the subjects 

 had an eastern aspect. While magnates in city affairs had so often 

 changed, while such professors as Balfour and Christison had come 

 and gone, the gigantic palms of the Botanic Garden continue to 

 tiourish. Mr. Lindsay dilated with more than fatlieiiy interest ou 

 the Livistona CJiinciisis, whose height in 1858 was 42 feet, but was 

 now 49 feet high. Tlie circumference <if the stem at the base was 

 •() feet in 1875 ; the measurement was now 6 feet 3 inches. The 

 tree was in vigorous healtli. Sabal umbracidifera, now 36 feet 4 

 niches in height, in 1858 was 30 feet, and it was computed that 

 the lowest approximate age of the tree was ninety-two years. A 

 seedling from this plant, raised certainly not less than eighteen years 

 ago, was now 6 feet higli to the tip of the leaf, and had 7 inches 

 of stem. This was tlie largest of the young plants, and had increased 

 at the rate of 4 inches per annum. The largest of the younger 

 palms, which had not been measured hitherto, was a fine plant of 

 Euterpe cdulis, its height being 47 feet 6 inches. It had a clear 

 stem of 34 feet 9 inches, and the circumference at the base was 1 

 foot IO7 inches. A young, vigorous plant of Cocos Eomanzoffiana 

 was 3 4 feet 4 ruches high, and had a clear stem of 2 2 feet 8 inches. 



