240 TRANSACTIONS OF ROYAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
total number of specimens in this collection is about twelve 
hundred. 
The botanical collection consists of two divisions, one general, 
and the other containing specimens relating more particularly to 
forestry. The latter contains specimens of all the various fungi 
that attack dead or living trees, both in wood, bark, and leaf. 
Abnormal growth in trees, and the sections showing the healing of 
wounds after natural or artificial pruning, are numerous, and many 
extraordinary specimens are to be seen. The fruit and seeds of all 
the various trees and shrubs occupy the centre of this room, either 
dried or preserved in spirits. On a table beneath the window lie 
small sections of all the indigenous and introduced timber trees and 
shrubs. These sections are numbered, while the names are to be 
found on a card beside them, and also a large tabulated summary of 
their most prominent characteristics which are recognisable by the 
naked eye. The advantage of this system over that of naming the 
sections at once, is that the student is able to use his power of dis- 
crimination between the various species more easily than if the name 
were straight before his eyes, and thus is more likely to become 
acquainted with their characters. The other division of this collec- 
tion occupies another room, and consists chiefly of dried specimens 
of the indigenous plants of Europe, together with large wax models 
of representative species of the chief natural orders. This room 
also contains a collection of dried fruits of forest trees in boxes, 
numbered and named in the same way as the wood sections. An 
adjoining room, which is used partly as a workroom by the pro- 
fessor, contains a valuable collection of woods in four large eases, 
timbers from all parts of the world being represented. A large 
herbarium stands in the passage of this floor, the plants being placed 
in boxes opening like a book, and arranged in cases in the same 
way as in a bookcase. Large radial sections of typical growth of 
the common forest trees stand in the passage of the second floor, 
with particulars of their age, height, and locality in which they 
were grown. 
To the general observer, the zoological collection would probably 
prove the most interesting of the whole of the museum in the 
academy. It also occupies two rooms, aud, like the botanical, 
contains both a general and special division. The great feature 
of the former is the splendid collection of European birds, which 
occupy the greater part of one room, and contain many rare and 
interesting specimens. Of equal interest to the forester is the 
