OBITUARY. 247 



a back seat and named to each other every butterfly and tree 

 they passed. The driver was becoming more irate every 

 minute at hearing two "tender-foot" Britishers identify things 

 of which he knew nothing unless it was the occasional local 

 name. On coming to a tree of Fremontia calif ornica, covered 

 with its yellow blossoms, the lady at his side asked what it was. 

 " I call it Slippery Elm," was his reply, " but I don't know 

 what the pair of bug-fiends back of me will say it is!" 



Elwes married in 187 1, Margaret Susan, the second daughter 

 of the late W. S. Lowndes-Stone, of Brightwell, in Oxfordshire, 

 who with an only son. Colonel Henry Cecil Elwes, D.S.O., M. V.O., 

 survives him. F. R. S. Balfour. 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



The Danger of Using Trees as Gate and Fence Posts. 



At the present time there is increased public interest on the 

 subject of forestry and timber production, and although many 

 able articles have been written by competent writers, it has 

 just occurred to the writer that one very important point has 

 been lost sight of, or at least not given the prominence to 

 which it is entitled, namely, the danger arising from the repre- 

 hensible practice of using trees, and especially hedgerow trees, 

 as straining posts, stobs, gate-posts, stays, etc., when erecting 

 fences. 



In due course these trees are felled or blown over, taken to 

 the sawmill, and cut up to the best advantage. To the 

 average person this would seem to be the natural order of 

 things, but to those who have to do the actual sawing of 

 such trees, the matter presents a different aspect. 



Anyone who has seen a circular saw at work cutting up a 

 tree may easily imagine what is likely to happen if anything 

 in the nature of nails, staples, wire, gate hooks, stone, etc., 

 are met with during the operation. 



The reasons for the presence of such things are many and 

 varied, and a few of them may be mentioned. The more 

 common articles of that nature are nails and staples, and when 



