A Tour through the Woods and Forests of Duff House. 695 



lady love. But words are inadequate to express the grand scenery 

 displayed ; indeed, it will be easier imagined than described, for here — 



" The mountain ash waves high its winged leaves, 

 The fringy larches shake their pensile plumes, 

 The flowery thorn its timber meshes weaves. 

 And quivering birch and woodbine breathe perfumes, 

 Anon, far grander traits the scene assumes." 



Standing and viewing the scenery as we were, under the glorious in- 

 fluence of the setting sun, and at our back a large forest of Scots pine, 

 what a beautiful pictorial effect ! the level rays of the sun striking 

 upon their red barked stems and branches lighting them up like pil- 

 lars of glowing crimson. What a contrast between such a sight and 

 the deep gloom of their dark blue-green foliage ! In looking at a Scots 

 pine growing out of a cleft of the rock, we could do nothing but in 

 rapturous enthusiasm exclaim in the words of an eminent critic, as he 

 said of the same tree, " When its foot is anions its own Highland 

 heather, and when it stands freely on its native knoll of dry gravel or 

 thinly covered rock, over which its roots wander far in the wildest 

 reticulation, while its tall, furrowed, often gracefully sweeping red and 

 grey trunk of enormous circumference raises aloft its high umbra- 

 geous canopy, then would the greatest sceptic on this point ( its 

 picturesqueness) be compelled to prostrate his mind before it with a 

 veneration which perhaps was never before excited by any other tree." 

 As we have already said, the scenery might be easily imagined, but 

 our command of words is inadequate to describe it, further than to 

 assert that such scenery is indeed truJy grand. We venture to say that 

 never were holidays moreenjoyably spent, and we only regret that the 

 time at our disposal would not permit of us visiting the whole of 

 these extensive grounds ; however, we beg to thank all for their kind- 

 ness, and possibly we may at a future period visit the remaining 

 portion of these magnificent and extensive walks and forests of Duff 

 House. 



D. S. J. 



A Neav Pkoduct fkom. the Pine.— Tanillin 'exists in the sap of the pine 

 {Pinus sylvestris) and of the larch. For the purpose of procuring it the trees 

 are felled during the period when vegetation is most active, and are stripped 

 of their bark. They are then immediately scraped, and the product collected 

 in vessels of tinned iron is immediately heated on the spot to prevent fermen- 

 tation, filtered, concentrated, and allowed to cool and settle. A substance is 

 thus obtained which resembles powdered sugar, and which is known as coni- 

 ferin. This is a stable compound, and is sent in barrels to Paris, where the 

 vanillin is extracted. The process of extracting the vanillin is an expensive 

 one, but the product is procured at a less cost than the natural vanilla of 

 commerce can be purchased at. — Scientific American. 



