734 ^/^^ Journal of Forestry . 



history subjects, of less direct practical importance, occupied his attention 

 at earlier periods of his life. lu 18G6 he published his well-known " Geo- 

 graphical Distribution of Mammals," in which he brought together such 

 facts as were known, and illustrated the distribution by coloured maps. 

 Although he was trained at Edinburgh as a writer to the signet, he showed 

 a preference for natural history, attending by choice the natural history 

 lectures, and on the death of Professor Fleming he for one season lectured 

 at the New College, Edinburgh. In 1858-9 he was elected president of 

 the Koyal Physical Society, and he filled also the office of president of the 

 Koyal Botanical Society of Edinburgh. His first paper was printed, not 

 in Britain, but in France, in the Transactions of the " Societc Entomolo- 

 gique de France " in 1851, and since then he has been a frequent contri- 

 butor to learned societies and to periodicals. His monograph on the 

 NitiduUdce was a remarkable specimen of long and patient work. Mr. 

 Murray was the son of Mr. William Murray, of Conland, and was born in 

 Edinburgh in 1812. 



THE STRAW TRADE. 



The greatest development and expansion of the trade was brought about 

 by the invention of a most important little machine called the straw 

 splitter, which appeared about 1806. The straws could by its use be 

 separated into so many equally sized splints, fi'om four parts up to nine. 

 The invention of a host of different kinds of plaits, in a variety of designs, 

 followed the introduction of the machine, and the ingenuity and taste of 

 the plaiters soon raised the value of straws plaits, some kinds realizing as 

 much as £1 per score. The peculiar nature of the soil in Bedfordshire 

 producing the finest kinds of wheat straw, it has become the chief seat and 

 centre of the trade. The preparation of the straws and straw plaiting is 

 done in the villages and districts, principally by the agricultural portion 

 of the population, through the counties of Bedford, Hertford, Buckingham, 

 and a portion of Essex. Each plaiting district has its own special plait 

 peculiar to it in a greater or lesser degree ; thus Hitchiu is noted for its 

 broad twists ; Ampthill for narrow double straw plaits; Tring, Wing, and 

 Ivanhoe for narrow twist, rustic, and mixed coloured plaits ; Chesham for 

 its fine split ; Vienna, moss edge, and purls ; Berkhampstead for China, 

 purl, rock, Coburg, and moss edge, &c., &c. It may be matter of surprise 

 for our readers to learn that not less than 50,000 persons are employed in 

 the various processes of manufacture, from the thrusting of the sickle into 

 the waving corn, to the complete finish of the charming head-dress ready 

 to deck the brow of the fairest in the land. The transformation of a 

 hundredweight of almost worthless straw, of the value of a few shillings, 

 into the choicest productions, varying from thirty pounds to forty and 

 fifty, by the sole will of manual labour, has scarcely a parallel in the range 

 of British industry. Hats and bonnets have been made from wood, paper, 

 vegetable fibres, horsehair, fancy trimmings from Swiss looms, cordonnet, 



