380 METEOROLOGY. [March 



our readers frequenting the annual Edinburgh gatherings of the 

 Scottish Arljoricultural Society. No one could long enjoy the 

 privilege of private intercourse with the genial Ijaronet ere he was 

 impressed with the forestal fruits yet to be gathered by means of 

 careful use on oak or yew girths of the specially-made wire tape in 

 measurements to even within the tenth or twentieth of an inch. 

 The research grasped from the father by the hand of death has been 

 renewed by his son Dr. Christison. And we propose to give some 

 of the results contained in his paper on this subject in vol. xxxii. of 

 Trans. Boy. Soc. Ed., just issued. Sir Kobert published observa- 

 tions from 1878 to 1881, which are reproduced with additional 

 ones made in 1883, after his decease, on the same trees or other 

 similar ones at his old stations of the Arboretum, Botanic Garden, 

 or Craigiehall, five miles from Edinburgh. There were twenty- 

 eight deciduous and twenty-three evergreen trees observed. 



Of course the practical man turns from measurements involving 

 minute fractions of an inch in scientific matters. Why then does he 

 chuckle when told of large fortunes made in businesses, with large 

 overturns of capital, yielding perhaps only an eighth of a penny on 

 the piece of yarn or linen manufactured ? Let foresters then con- 

 tinue such painfully minute measurements as 0'46 or 0'7l, the 

 average individual annual growth of the deciduous trees, or 0'59 to 

 0"75, being tliose of the evergreens. 



Ere Sir Eobert's death, he rejoiced in his method of observation 

 being extended to Government forestal work in India, and the 

 results of measurements made in 1883 and 1884 by Captain 

 Tossack on sal trees in the Banjur Valley forests, are given in the 

 Forest Report for the Central Provinces just issued. Of a total of 

 684 sal trees, the annixal increment made per tree is 0'693 inch. It 

 would require on this ratio 97'13 years for a sal tree to attain first- 

 class size. 



In 1879, a remarkable decrease appeared in the average annual 

 growth in both deciduous and evei-greens as compared with 1878; 

 the figures of growth of each tree of the class standing at 0'68 in. 

 and 0"50 in., and 0'98 in. and 0'80 in. respectively. But in 1880, 

 the deciduous average declined still further to 0"40, while the ever- 

 greens remained stationary. But in 1881 the deciduous average rose 

 from 0-40 to 0-58 ; the evergreens fell from 0-80 to 0-68. Whilst 

 1882 was signalized by a rise in the average growth of both trees, 

 the evergreens of this year surpassing the deciduous trees. 



It appears from the extended observations that Sir Eobert 

 Christison's conclusion, that the oak tribe possess a greater power 

 of resisting inclement winters, at least in the neighbourhood of 

 Edinburgh, to a difference of 31 per cent, over other leaf -shedding 



