152 LESSONS ON TIMBER-PRESERVING. [July 



assume its full-grown foliage last season. The flower buds were 

 first noticed about the middle of May last. So rapid has been their 

 subsequent growth, that, with the continuance of a genial warmth, 

 they may yet fully expand their flowers in July. 



Ireland. — We can only note this month the propositions of 

 Professor Howitz, of Copenhagen, made to the Select Committee of 

 the House of Commons on Irish Industries, of forests from Giant's 

 Causeway, down the western coasts, and thence even eastward, in 

 all comprising 5,000,000 of the 20,000,000 acres comprised in the 

 area of the Emerald Isle, profitably created at a cost of £20,000,000, 

 of course by Government. 



The Scottish Aeboricultural Society. — After the annual 

 meeting in Edinburgh, on Tuesday the 4th August, the two days' 

 excursion will be to the Estates of Langholm and Netherby, through 

 the courtesy of his Grace the Duke of Buccleuch, and Sir Fred. 

 Graham, Bart. ; and also to the Knowefield Nurseries, Carlisle, as 

 well as to the estates of Lowther, Penrith. Pull particulars as to 

 trains and dates will be found in our advertising columns. Earely 

 has such an annual excursion combined so many attractions. The 

 woods of Netherby alone are classical in arboricultural literature ; 

 and in addition there is the oft-praised scenery of the English Lake 

 country. 



EXHIBITION lESSONS ON TIMBER-PBESERVING. 



THE title of Mr. Boulton's paper, " On the Antiseptic Treat- 

 ment of Timber," read a year ago before the Institution of 

 Civil Engineers, to which the Telford Medal was given, indicates 

 the new current of ideas prevalent as to the theory and practice 

 of creosoting timber. Mr. Bethell appears first to have applied 

 coal-tar and its products to railway sleepers, with the notion that 

 he was coating them as it were with a waterproofing composition. 

 The chemical action of these odoriferous compounds on the albu- 

 men and other nitrogenous compounds in the wood, in preserving 

 it from decay, was the next step in theory prevalent with chemists 

 and kyanizers ; whilst the modern theory of antiseptic treatment 

 of living organisms prevalent since the magnificent researches of 

 Koch and Pasteur appears to have displaced both such previous 

 opinions. The discussion printed along with the paper is a re- 

 pertory of facts and opinions supplied by the most eminent living 

 railway and telegraph engineers, chemists and scientists. A careful 



