456 TEAXSACTIOXS AND PKOCEEDIXGS OF THE [Sess. lvii. 



allied subject of the rate of girth-increase. A work of 

 the kind is necessarily, to a large extent, one of compilation 

 from material already published, but I have also utilized 

 a considerable mass of unpublished matter, the result of 

 original inquiries by my father and myself. It is also a 

 work which may seem somewhat below the level which 

 should be aimed at in a scientific paper, but the study 

 of forestry in a scientific spirit being as yet only in its 

 infancy in this country, it is mainly by a patient collection 

 of facts that a safe foundation for it can be laid ; and as 

 notices of the dimensions and rate of growth of trees, 

 although very numerous, are so scattered abroad as to be 

 of little value, except to excite a momentary curiosity, it 

 seemed to me that, by collecting together and showing in 

 one view the most reliable data, particularly from sources 

 which are not generally accessible, I might confer no mean 

 service on the student of ^orestr^^ The main sources of 

 my information have been — (1) A series of Tree Measure- 

 ments taken in the middle of last century by Mr. li. 

 Marsham, of Stratton, Norfolk, communicated by Mr. 

 Beevor to a volume of Letters and Papers on Agri- 

 culture, Planting, etc. Bath, 1780. (2) A Descriptive 

 Catalogue of Important Trees, by Professor John Walker, 

 of Edinburgh University, from measurements made in the 

 latter part of the eighteenth century, published in a 

 volume of Essays in 1808 after bis death. These 

 catalogues are of much value, from their antiquity, and 

 the evident care with which they have been drawn up by 

 men devoted to scientific pursuits. (3) Strutt's well- 

 known Sylva Britannica, 1822-20. (4) The series of 

 Prize Essays in the Transactions of the Highland and 

 Agricultural Society, 1881-1892, by Mr. Eobert Hutchi- 

 son, with tables of measurements of a very large number 

 of Scottish trees, cliiefly taken Ijy foresters and others 

 under liis directions. (5) Statistics of Conifers in the 

 British Islands, collected in a careful and systematic 

 manner by Mr. Malcolm Dunn for the Conifer Conference, 

 and published in the Journ. Hort. Soc. 1891. (6) In- 

 formation acquired, or original observations, by my father 

 and myself. Loudoun's Arboretum and the Journals of 

 J^'orestry and Arboriculture I have made little use of, as 



