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drawing, about two p.m., when the gale became so furious as to cause 

 me to rise, and look from the lobby at what was going on ; and in one 

 of the gusts of wind ensuing I saw our old thoni laid over. When 

 Selby was writing his ' Forest Trees' for Van Voorst, I sent the draw- 

 ing from this thorn which is there engraved (page 67) ; and you will 

 find the dimensions printed in his history of the thorn, taken at the 

 same time (1841 or 1842). The age of the tree there mentioned (132 

 years in 1842) is calculated supposing it to have been planted about 

 the time of the building of the last mansion-house here. It may have 

 been a few years older. It was blown over, I think, in the winter of 

 1839, which would make its age then about 139 years. The same tree 

 is also that mentioned by Loudon in his ' Arboretum,' among the 

 * Scotch Worthies.' Height of trunk, or stem, 7 feet 8 inches ; cir- 

 cumference at one foot from ground, 8 feet ; at the insertion of bran- 

 ches, 8 feet 6 inches ; diameter of circle overspread by the branches, 

 nearly 50 feet; age when blown down, 139 years. 2. From Mr. 

 Young, Newbigging, Burntisland : — Six stalks of Andropogon saccha- 

 ratus, Rox. (Sorghum saccharatum, Pers.), a kind of millet, grown in 

 Mr. Young's garden, at Burntisland. Mr. Young mentions that in 

 March, 1850, it was sown in a cucumber-bed, and got no more heat, 

 but as it advanced in height was covered by additional frames, put on 

 the top of each other. The grain ri])ened in October of that year. It 

 is cultivated in India, under the name of " shaloo." 3. From Mr. 

 Brown, wood-merchant, Edinburgh : — A stem of Copernicia cerifera, 

 and slabs of mahogany and Yacca wood. 4. From Mr, Cobbold, 

 Broughton Park : — A Peruvian hammock made from a species of grass. 

 5, From Messrs. Marshall & Co., Leeds : — Sample of raw China grass 

 (produce of Boehmeria nivea) as imported from Canton ; also threads, 

 yarns, and bleached drill, manufactured from the same. 6. From 

 Colonel Ferguson, Raith : — Cones of Abies Douglassi. 7. From Lady 

 Scott : — Two sections of black bog-oak, dug from a peat-moss at 

 Lochore, Fifeshire. 8. From Mr. Cunningham, West Bow : — Manure 

 made from the bruised seed of Ricinus communis (castor-oil-plant). 

 9. From Mr. Anderson, Oxenford Castle : — Root of an elm-tree taken 

 from a drain, and a mushroom in an abnormal condition. A figure of 

 the mushroom in its recent state was shown. It would appear that 

 two mushrooms had united together, by the summit of their pileus, in 

 the young state, and that one had afterwards grown so vigorously as 

 to detach the other from the soil, and bear it on the top of its pileus 

 inverted. The substance of the pileus of the two mushrooms was inti- 

 mately united. In the lower mushroom the lamellae were, as usual. 



