766 
THE GARDEN 
ERS’ 
Two large beds forming a part of the spring garden 
had been planted in the autumn with a variety of 
Thermopasis; but last winter's severe frosts had been 
too much for them, and every plant was killed. 
82 the gee houses much still re quine, 0 be done 
e the ual to ern req i—new 
ar ma new Ta sai stone · fruit trees, gk and 
improvements of various kinds; and Astor’s 
gardener will have his hands fall for a year or two 
longer. The fault of situation can never be got 
over, ənd as the glass-houses are crowded ppc 
with but little air space between them, it is very 
Me ee afford sufficient ventilation to ee fruit- 
; and, as one of the consequences, the soil of 
which the fruit-borders consist is apt to spoil from 
their being bat little exposed un 
the gardens and grounds, and 
this, too, notwithstanding the many calls on the 
gardener’s time and resources incident upon the new 
work of various kinds that has been undertaken 
since the eatate passed into the hands of the present 
owner, 
FORESTRY, 
HOW TIMBERS ARE TESTED IN 
e 
Tue following p l di h 
tests to which the various native timbers are sub- 
idle, however great the * of the general public 
on forestry matters may b 
It appears from the e report entitled 
Timber Physics, published in 1892, that the investiga- 
tions are divided into seven different branches of 
research, as follows ;— 
1, Xylotomy, or Structure of Woods: (exterior 
orms of treer, macroscopic and microscopic exami- 
nation rahe e researches in the field of timber 
growth with respect to the auatomical and physio- 
logical e abnormal formations, &c ). 
2. Physical Properties: (colour, grain, texture, 
specific r . and expansion 
3. Chem coperties: (qualitative and quan- 
titative is i a Pa of carho-hydrates, resin, 
extractive substances, and Ash constituents, applica- 
bility to the preparation of 8 vinegar, vanilla, 
&e., 8 zubstances which increase their 
FNA) 
Mechanical Properties: (investigation of the 
diferent aas of solidity or har 
5. Technical Properties : (applicability for practi- 
6. Faults or D pe and Diseases, which occur in 
living trees or felled timber. 
7. Discussion of the comparative condition of 
d ferent properties. 
The mechanical or technical tests are carried out 
at St. Louis, and the physical properties are investi- 
ee es experts, The 
n blocks are collected by an experienced 
The second part of f the report was published in 
1893, and deals exclusively with the the long leaf 
Pine (P. palasi)” of which the following is a 
I. The d fferent kinds of solidity, or strength, 
increase with the decrease inca the 
only oo being | the cohesive atre 
2. variations in the strength a the wood go, 
hee eee eee — — 
Pitch Pine of coz merce (o. australis Michaux), 
in general, hand in hand with the variations of its 
specific weight. 
. The heaviest wood occurs in > lowest sections, 
and generally about one-third 1 e radius distant 
om the pith; in the upper se s the innermost 
layers appear to be the setae (corresponding with 
the observations with regard P. sylvestris, in 
which the hardest wood is found to be formed about 
me sixtieth year 
In general, the strength of the wood of the lower 
—— portions (20 to 30 feet) is usually constant, and 
decreases from that height more or less regularly, 
until at 60 feet it peta only 20 to 40 per cent, of 
that of the lower port 
. The aa rent kinds of strength (hardness, 
bending, and pressure-resisting strength) show no 
important 8 in their correlative proportions. 
trong stems appear to 8 about 10 to 20 
per a less strength than weak one 
e pressure-resisting stre ah proves to be 
the * standard for judging the beta 1 the 
nger has alre demonstrated. 
unta 
trees, nor can they jadge by super rficial e 
of its strength and durability. 
It appears from the Zeitschrift vd bh te W 
Jagdwesen, from which the 
0 
been checked by lack of funds. It is 
hoped that they may be resumed ere re lon 
contributions to our knowledge of tree hye siology 
are invaluable. Undertaken, as they „ for the 
express purpose of determining the 8 pro- 
perties of the timber of certain species, they open up 
the man 
Bat beyond fixing the relative values of different 
timbers, it is doubtfal whether e e. definite 
conclusions will ever be arrived at which will enable 
carpenter or builder, by means of simple and 
easily applied tests, to draw any trustworthy inference 
greater, ar it he vue 
be emitter to judge timber on its real instead of on 
its apparent merits and properties, A. C. Fo rbes, 
BELGIUM. 
HORTICULTURAL MEETING AT GHENT. 
CzrrIFIcaTes of Merit were awarded, on June 9, 
M. Em. Lossy, for his group of Pelargoniums, 
among which should be mentioned M. Har- 
risson, Bash Hill tgs Dake of Fife, Captain 
„and a variety Purple Emperor, of a 3 
purple - violet colour, quite Sone from 
at Davivier, 
with a spadix bearing many small red spathes 
of varying sizes and shape, i en in their entirety 
a kind of crest or tuft; to the same 
exhibitor, for A. e aiia k pomponatum album, 
similar to the former variety, but white; to the 
Ghent Socéé Horticole for A. Scherzerianum 
Madame Edgar Wartel: the spathe about 8 inches 
CHRONICLE. 
(Joxe 22. 1896 
ee and nearly 4 inches pest habit ve 
co Odonta 
sene TA var 
are sprinkled with little rosy-violet s ke: 
catorei Janssens and Vine 7. 5 na 
an award for Lælia grandis eTe the lip 
bright in colouring as that o 
on the same plant, when the flowering is prolonged, 
are pale rose flowers and others dark rose in colour 
to M. Ed. Pynaert van Geert, br oa (Hippe- 
astrum) splendens, introduc razil, 
flowers of medium size, pale 15 Prien a d 
it should be of value for bybridisin urposes 
M. Desbois, for Impatiens Sultani 1 gal ic 
grandiflora, flowers salmon-red, quite different 
from the ae) 5 th same floriferous 
De Smet - Duvivier, for 
ium Sedeni candidulum, with e, fine flowers; 
to M. Paul de Schryver, for Hoy 
hundred large cluaters, each 4 
M 
8. 
S 
5 
a 
3 
Š 
2 
o 
— 
2 8 
$e 
8 3 
2 
S 
S 
x 
ripedium Stonei, well grown, and 
Bowering abundantly ; to M. Pynaert Van Geert, : 
for ee 
excellently grown, the foliage very deep 
up by the piepen 
M. Petrick, fo 
very vivid ee splendid plant. 
M. Peeters’ Orcuips, 
them the well-known Lelio -Cattleys 
Paves with two fine flowers, the splendid Cattleya 
Mendeli Dake of Marlborough, an a 
Canhamiana are now specially noticeable, as also aè 
Cattleyas Parthenia, Reineckiana, and Mossi, One 
taken from the report of Mr. 
Board of N as to the work done in 
United States 
HORTICULTURE, 
“1. Variation of Plants under Calture. 
cussion of the principles which underlie the 
tion and amelioration of plants under the h 
The course includes a consideration 
and treatment, selection, hybridi 
P with some account of the 
oo 
urse 1 is open to all ma 5 
have taken courses 1 and 2 in Botany. 
