INTERNATIONAL FORESTRY EXHIBITION. 71 
Britain. 
In proceeding to give the following slight sketch of the 
principal exhibits, those claim the first notice which were sent 
by Her Majesty The Queen, who not only graciously allowed her 
name to appear among the list of Patrons, but took a lively interest 
otherwise in the Exhibition. From the Royal Forests on Deeside, 
in the conserving of which Her Majesty has set so excellent an 
example, came admirable specimens of the wood of Pinus sylvestris 
—the indigenous Scots Fir—which still flourishes in the Ballochbuie 
forest in all its pristine grandeur. Part of the wood had been 
worked up into an artistically designed rustic Chalet, the interior 
of which was beautifully finished in dressed Scots fir, the fur- 
niture being also of the same wood, all varnished with clear 
transparent copal, which showed to excellent effect the fine grain 
and beautiful swirl of this timber. The Chalet, which was wholly 
constructed of and furnished with Native Scots Fir, even to the 
“thatch ” of the roof (which was formed of Scots fir bark), looked 
both picturesque and appropriate ; and the whole formed in itself 
one of the most attractive features of the Exhibition. Several fine 
sections of Scots fir timber in its rough state, ranging from 212 
to 270 years old—excellent alike as to size and quality—were 
also displayed around the Chalet. The trunk of one of these 
“monarchs of the forest” had lain on the ground for upwards of 
40 years, and in that time its sapwood had become wasted into a 
mould in which were growing heather, cranberry, and blaeberry 
bushes, and mosses ; while the heartwood, measuring 34 feet across, 
was perfectly sound. An eminently practical part of the Royal 
exhibit were specimens of the soil in which Scots firs not only 
grow, but thrive in upper Deeside. One of these consisted of 
different strata of dry ferruginous gravel, with about 4 inches of 
peaty turf atop; the other, a mass of crumbled granite, having 
a small proportion of decomposed vegetable matter mixed with 
it. The first of these soils is, in most respects, similar to that of 
the great area of waste lands in Scotland ; and one of the objects 
Her Majesty is understood to have had in view in sending these 
Balmoral exhibits, was to encourage the planting of waste lands 
with Scots firs. 
To their Royal Highnesses the Prince of Wales and the Duke 
of Edinburgh, the Exhibition was indebted for a splendid collec- 
