472 JVcsl LoJidoii GayJencrs' Association. 



donald Steuart. A correspondent, who has lately visited the place, informs 

 us that she is as enthusiastically devoted to arboriculture and landscape- 

 gardening as her late father. That part of the Park, he says, " which has 

 been planted a la Steuart astonished me not a little. I took out my tape and 

 book, and made measurements and notes, and 1 shall endeavour to put them 

 together for you as soon as I have leisure." [We trust our correspondent will 

 bear his kind promise in mind ; for we are sure any information respecting 

 Allanton Park must be interesting to our readers. — Cond.'] 



■The Marriage Beech at Inverary. — I have been always on the look out for 

 any thing particular in our line, and have stumbled across nothing but a cu- 

 riosity in the shape of a beech at the Duke of Argyll's, Inverary, called " the 

 Marriage Tree." It has two stems, which are united, about 20 ft. from the 

 ground, by an arm in a very singular manner, which I hope a drawing I have 

 made will render quite comprehensible. I measured every requisite, and was 

 extremely particular with my pencil, not only in giving the general appearance 

 of the tree, but also the junction at large. — W. A. N. Edinburgh, Aug. 5, 

 1837. [The portrait of this tree will be given in the Arb. Brit. — Cotid.] 



Singular Oak in the Western Highlands. — Near the waterfall at the head of 

 the river Leven, which runs into the salt-water lake of that name, is the trunk 

 of a decayed oak, rotten within, but alive on some parts of the outside. From 

 one of these, a shoot grows out, about 15 ft. from the ground ; and this shoot 

 has protruded from its lower part a root, which, after having reached the 

 ground (8 ft. below, and a bare rock), runs along the rock in a horizontal 

 position, about 30 ft. further, till it reaches a bank of earth in which it has 

 taken root. This remarkable tree was seen, in 1819, by Mr. Mackay of the 

 Trinity College Botanic Garden, Dubhn, who gave us the above account. The 

 waterfall where the tree stands is about 10 miles above Ballyhuiish, opposite 

 to Glencoe. This remarkable oak was pointed out to Mr. Mackay by the 

 Rev. Mr. Brown of the Episcopal chapel, Aberdeen. If any of our readers 

 have seen the tree lately, we shall be very much obliged to them for an account 

 of its appearance at the time they saw it. The moisture of the atmosphere in 

 such a situation accounts for the root running to such a distance above ground ; 

 in a dry and warm atmosphere, it could not have done so, — Cond. 



Art. IV. The West London Gardeners' Association for mutual 

 Instruction^ 



Feb. 27. 1836. — Mr. Ayres read an essay upon the propagation of plants 

 by cuttings, and referred chiefly to the practice of allowing the leaves to remain 

 on the cuttings, or not, according to the situation in which they were placed, 

 as liable to, or prevented from, evaporating their juices ; also to the system of 

 cutting the shoots of some hard-wooded green-house plants half through, 

 for some time before inserting them in the cutting pots ; and the propriety of 

 allowing all cuttings to remain in the same temperature as that in which the 

 plant was placed from which the cuttings were taken, until the base of the 

 cuttings gave evidence that a callus was formed, when they might be placed 

 in bottom heat, for the purpose of expediting the protrusion of i"oots. Mr. 

 Ayres left the construction and general management of the propagating-house 

 to another opportunity. Mr. Fish corroborated the general propositions of 

 Mr. Ayres. Mr. Gibbs instanced a case, in which he lost a considerable num- 

 ber of pelargonium cuttings, from putting tham at once into bottom heat. Mr. 

 Russel mentioned a successful mode of propagating the jElichrysum prollferum ; 

 namely, taking off the shoots of the previous year close to the stem ; inserting 

 them in fine silver sand under a bell-glass ; watering them moderately, and 

 setting them close to the glass in a hot stove. 



March 13. — Mr. Leyton gave a lecture upon mineral waters, illustrated by 

 many chemical experiments. After urging the Society to persevere in the 



