8/6 The yournal of Forestiy. 



Gigantic Black Birch. — The Nelson Daily Times of New Zealand states 

 that " a gigantic black birch tree was felled the other day by a surveyor's 

 party at Staley Creek, near Ahaura. It is stated to have measured 57 feet in 

 circumference at the butt." 



MoEE Large Trees. — The biggest tree in California is not in the Yosemite 

 Valley. King's River Valley, in Fresno county, is 5,000 feet above the sea, 

 and its walls, which are about 3,000 feet high, are very precipitous. In this 

 valley a new grove of colossal redwood trees has been discovered. One of them 

 eclipses all that have been discovered on the Pacific coast. Its circumference, 

 as high as a man can reach and pass a tape-line around, is a few inches less 

 than 150 feet. — Lancaster Fanner, U.S.A. 



Curious Discovery. — A few days ago, while some oak timber which had 

 been grown on the estate of Abercairny, Perthshire, was being sawn up in the 

 shipbuilding yard of Mr. Roney, at Arbroath, the circular saw suddenly came 

 in contact with some hard substance with such violence as to completely tear 

 off its teeth. The machinery was at once stopped and an examination made, 

 when a horseshoe was discovered solidly embedded in the centre of the tree. 

 The tree was not over ten inches in diameter, but the shoe was so completely 

 overgrown that the part nearest the surface was at least two inches deep. The 

 shoe was of the ordinary make, and had one nail still in it. There are many 

 conjectures as to how it came there, but from the fact of a nail being found in it, 

 it is probable the shoe had been found in a field by some thrifty farmer, who 

 nailed it to a tree, so that it might not be trampled out of sight, and that in 

 the course of time, through the growth of the wood, it became completely 

 surrounded. Such is a very common but reprehensible practice, as it incurs 

 great danger to the men sawing the timber. 



The Rain Tree. — The " Rain Tree," so called, was made the subject of a 

 brief communication by Mr. Thiselton Dyer at the Linntean Society, February 

 7th. It grows at Mogobamba, South America, and promises to excite as much 

 interest amongst residents in hot, dry countries as the supposed antimalarious 

 properties of the " Fever Tree " {Eucalyptus globulus) has done amongst the 

 inhabitants of hot, wet ones. From information obtained through Mr. Spruce 

 it seems probable that the " Rain Tree " is Fithecolobium Sainan, and the so- 

 called " rain " the fluid excreta of Cicadas, which feed on the juices of the 

 foliage. Thus other trees might become " rain trees ;" and the whole pheno- 

 menon therefore appears comparable to the production of honey-dew from the 

 lime by the agency of aphides. — Gardener's Chronicle. 



Tree Felling. — That trees of great size can now be felled by machinery in a 

 few minutes, instead of the usual period of hours, can hardly create alarm, as 

 it is not probable that any one will be so insane as to have trees cut for the 

 mere pleasure of seeing them fall. The wants of the community must be met 

 by felling trees, but the wants of the community one hundred years hence will 

 also need satisfying, and the chances of that being done efiectually depends 

 upon the forethought and judgment displayed by the present generation. 

 There is no present appearance of a timber famine, but if our planting does 

 not more than keep pace with felling, such a famine must come some day. 

 There are no indications of a time when wood can be dispensed with, the paving 

 of our city streets with it does not point in that direction ; whilst if one 

 hundred years hence the population of the country is doubled or perhaps 

 trebled, the demand for wood will be enormously increased. We must think 

 not only of trees that are purely ornamental, but also of such as will pi'oduce 

 valuable timber. — Gardene/s Chronicle. 



