654 MONTHLY SUMMARY 



tlie leaves and branches of the new Araucaria — A, Rulei, presented 

 by Messrs. Smith and Adamson of Melbourne, through Dr.Lindley, 

 They are placed in a case in the Council Koom, and give some 

 idea how the glossy leaves may reflect the light like a multitude 

 of looking-glasses, as is described by the discoverer. 



r 



Memorial of 185L — The granite for this erection has for some 

 time been delivered, and has lain on the Society's premises until 

 the greater part of the shows and crowded portion of the season 

 should be passed, so that visitors might be as little inconve- 

 nienced and the appearance of the garden as little spoiled as 

 possible. The w^orkmen, however, have now begun to put up 

 the stonework, and it will be pushed on with rapidity. The grey 

 granite is from the Cheese- Wring quarries in Cornwall. The 

 red of which the pillars and entablature are composed is from the 

 Peterhead quarries in Aberdeenshire. 



The bronze medallions and the four large statues of Europe, 

 Asia, Africa, and America, which are to be placed at the corners 

 of the base are finished, and cast, if that term may be used for 

 the process by which bronze statues are now executed. The 

 old process was the simple one of pouring melted metal into a 

 mould of the statue. The present process 'of depositing the 

 metal by electric or magnetic action is this : — a mould of the 

 statue as modelled in clay is formed, and a plaster cast taken 

 from it ; the plaster cast is bound carefully round in every 

 direction by a perfect net-work of wire, and so protected it 

 is placed in a bath of the metallic salts, from which the 

 metal is to be deposited upon it. The galvanic action 

 is then induced in the usual way, and the metal deposited 

 upon the plaster and wires enveloping it. When a sufficient 

 thickness of metal has been deposited it is removed from 

 the bath, and the plaster of Paris core is subjected for a short 

 time to boiling sulphuric acid, which immediately melts and 

 washes it all out, leaving a hollow mould composed of the 

 wires sustaining the metal which had been deposited around the 

 cast. The inside of this is coated with black-lead, and it is again 

 exposed to the action of the solution which is to deposit the 

 metal. The galvanic action is again put in operation and a coat- 

 ing of pure copper is deposited along its inner walls. When this 

 has reached the required thickness, which may take five, six, or 

 more months, according to the strength and thickness wanted, 

 it is removed from the bath, and the outer metal mould, com- 



