THE president's ADDRESS. 261 



and offers remarkable resistance to tensional strain. It can be 

 cast into any form required, and is said to exceed the best gun 

 metal in toughness and strength by fully 50 per cent. It can be 

 forged or rolled at a red heat, by which it acquires an ultimate 

 tensile strength of from 29 to 30 tons per square inch, and 

 stretches from 20 to 30 per cent, of its length before breaking. 

 After being forged or rolled its strength is increased to that of 

 mild steel, with nearly the toughness of copper. 



By the courtesy of Mr. Parsons, the inventor, I am enabled to 

 exhibit a specimen, which I saw bent into its present shape, 

 under intense pressure and violence from blows. 



The principal subjects which occupy the attention of the Royal 

 Institution of Grreat Britain, in Albemarle Street, London, 

 namely Chemical and Physical Science, have not, I believe, found 

 many promoters amongst ourselves ; and although we possess a 

 fair laboratory, it has not, I fear, been used as much as it might 

 have been in past times.* 



The science of Botany, too, has not had many supporters in 

 our Journal. Although we have a climate peculiarly favourable 

 by its warmth and moisture to vegetable growth, and to the 

 cultivation and naturalization of rare and beautiful half-hardy 

 plants, 3"et there is no science which comes within the scope of 

 our Institution which has received so little attention in the 

 pages of our Journal as Botany. 



Since the death of the lady, a connexion of mine, who for 

 several years sent us some valuable papers on our native Flora ; 

 this branch of science has been quite neglected. I hope some 

 of our fair mem.bers ma^^ again be induced to take it up, and 

 compete for Mr. Henwood's gold medal. Also the Algse of 

 nearly 200 miles of coast in our count}^ have never, as far I 

 know, been noticed in our publications. 



The museum of this Institution, although it has been greatly 

 improved since it has been in the present building, hardly 

 satisfies what might be exjjected of it in such a town as Truro, 



* At present, however, it is usefully occupied by Mr. J. H. Collins, the public 

 analyst for Cornwall, and during the past winter a chemical class in connexion 

 with the Miners' Association of Cornwall and Devon, was conducted in it by 

 Mr. Kitto. 



I 



