General Notices. 6 4 3 



a very useful and beautiful idea, but much more difficult to realise than 

 operations purely chemical, because it applies to organised systems." {Gard. 

 Chron., vol. i. p. 348.) 



Dr. Boiicherie's Mode of increasing the Elasticity of Wood, and of diminishing 

 its Combustibility. — He found that these most important results could only be 

 arrived at by the use of a deliquescent salt. His experiments taught him that 

 the elasticity of wood is generally in proportion to the quantity of moisture it 

 contains, and that those qualities are universally lost when perfect dryness is 

 produced. Such cases as appear to form an exception to this rule, are either 

 dependent upon some particular structure of wood, or upon the alkahne salts 

 which it naturally contains. Muriate of lime, an exceedingly cheap deliques- 

 cent salt, was employed with perfect success : a weak solution increases the 

 elasticity and flexibility a little; concentrated solutions render those qualities 

 excessive. Veneers of pine-wood prepared with a concentrated solution of 

 muriate of lime became so pliable, that they could be twisted in any direction, 

 or bent into a perfect spiral, without giving way. It appears probable that the 

 same preparation will render wood durable; but, in the absence of proof of 

 this, a fifth part of pyrolignite is added to the muriate. The casting, splitting, 

 and shrinking of wood are all prevented by the same means ; and, what is of 

 much greater moment, its combustible qualities are almost destroyed. Upon 

 this most interesting subject we quote the words of Dr. Boucherie. " As 

 soon as I had discovered that a certain amount of moisture could be constantly 

 maintained in wood by the employment of the earthy muriates, it became easy 

 to conceive that by the same means I should not only diminish very consider- 

 ably its inflammability, but also render the combustion of its charcoal difficult, 

 in consequence of the melting of the earthy salts at its surface and in its sub- 

 stance, and so it is. Wood prepared with these salts catches fire with great 

 difficulty, and burns to ashes excessively slowly ; so that it may be regarded, 

 for practical purposes, as incombustible. Two cottages (cabanes), exactly 

 alike, were constructed ; the one with prepared, the other with unprepared 

 wood. To set them on fire, an equal quantity of combustibles was employed. 

 The latter was burnt to ashes, while the inside of the other was hardly charred, 

 the fire having been unable to maintain itself. These and other facts lead us 

 to conclude that conflagrations might be rendered almost impossible, except in 

 consequence of the inflammable materials that houses may contain." (^Ibid. 

 vol. i. p. 147.) 



Sir W. Burnetfs Mode of preserving Timber is considered to be as effective 

 as Dr. Boucherie's. The substance used is a chloride of zinc, which, applied 

 to vegetable tissue, is found to protect it against all the ordinary' causes of 

 destruction without communicating any bad property to the substance ope- 

 rated on. It has been found particularly effectual in the preservation of canvass^ 

 and might doubtless be employed to increase the durability of garden mats, 

 and probably, also, of thatch for cottages. {Ibid., p. 411.) 



Fastening down Plants in Flower-Beds. — Instead of pegs, Mr. Beaton 

 employs matting cut into lengths of 4 in., and these divided into three or 

 four pieces : he doubles these pieces round the shoots, and fastens the ends of 

 the matting in the soil with a small dibber. In this way, he says, a boy or a 

 woman may train and tie down all the plants in a flower-garden in less time 

 than it would require to procure pegs, while the work is much more neatly 

 done than if the best pegs had been used. {Ibid., p. 430.) 



Growing Annuals in Pots. — Fill the pot to about one third or one half of 

 its depth with wet moss, pressed very close, and over that put rich light soil, in 

 which the annual seeds are to be sown, or young plants are to be pricked out. 

 Place the pot in a saucer, and supply water to it. The moss absorbs the 

 water freely, and parts with it slowly. {Ibid., p. 484.) 



Budding Roses. — The bud for insertion is taken off the shoot very close to 

 the eye ; the tip or part of the bark below the bud is cut off quite dose, to 

 allow the bud to be pushed closer into the stock without being bruised. It 

 then requires only to be tied above the bud, and a composition applied to 



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