CONTENTS.

• Page 1 INTRODUCTION,
• PART I.—STRUCTURE OF VESSELS.
  • SECTION I.—PLANK.
    • 5 Figure, dimensions, and quality of timber suitable,
    • 7 British trees suited for plank,
    • 8 Directions for training and pruning plank timber,
  • 14 SECTION II.—TIMBERS,
    • 18 Most suitable dimensions,
    • 19 Figures of bends and crooks,
    • 21 British trees suited for timbers,
• PART II.—BRITISH FOREST TREES SUITED FOR NAVAL PURPOSES.
  • 31 Oak—Quercus,
  • 42 Spanish Chestnut—Castanea vulgaris,
  • 48 Beech-tree—Fagus sylvatica,
  • 50 Scotch Elm—Ulmus montana,
  • 54 English Elm—Ulmus campestris,
  • 58 Red-wood Willow—Salix fragilis,
  • 63 Red-wood Pine—Pinus,
  • 75 White Larch—Larix communis, pyramidalis,
    • 78 Investigation of the causes of the rot in larch,
    • 82 Soils and subsoils most suited for larch,
  • 86 Soils and subsoils where larch generally takes rot,
    • 88 Remarks on open draining,
    • 90 Bending and kneeing larch,
    • 94 New plan of forming larch roots advantageously into knees,
    • 97 Uses of larch, and value as a naval timber,
• PART III.—MISCELLANEOUS MATTER CONNECTED WITH NAVAL TIMBER.
  • 106 NURSERIES,
    • ib. Infinite variety existing in what is called species,
    • 107 Injurious effect from selecting the seed of the inferior varieties for sowing,
    • ib. Injurious effect from kiln-drying fir cones,
    • 108 A principle of selection existing in nature of the strongest varieties for reproduction,
    • 109 Injurious effect from the plants spindling in the seed-bed and nursery line,
    • 111 Injurious effect from cutting the roots and from pruning,
    • ib. A light soil and open situation best suited for a nursery,
    • 112 Wide diverging root-leaders necessary to the large extension of a tree,
  • 114 PLANTING,
  • 117 Further observations on pruning,
  • 122 Observations on timber,
  • 124 Table of the number of sap-growths of different kinds of timber,
  • 126 Remarks on laburnum,
  • 128 Height to which trees may be trained of clear stem,
  • 130 CONCERNING OUR MARINE,
    • 131 Causes which befit Britain for being the first naval power, and the emporium of the world,
    • 133 Utility of a system of universal free trade,
    • 134 Absolute necessity of abolishing every monopoly and restriction on trade in Britain,
    • 135 Our marine not represented in Parliament, and the consequences,
    • 136 Insane duty on the importation of naval timber and hemp,
• PART IV.—NOTICES OF AUTHORS WHO TREAT OF ARBORICULTURE.
  • 138 Utility of a general review of these authors,
  • 140 I.—FORESTER’S GUIDE, BY MR MONTEATH,
    • 140 Advantage of converting our coppice oak into forest, and of saving our home oak in time of peace,
    • 142 Plan, by Mr Monteath, of preparing peat soils for planting,
    • 143 ————— of covering bare rocky ground with timber,
    • 144 ————— of raising oak-forest or copse by layers,
    • 146 Influence of our vernal eastern breeze on vegetation,
    • 148 Cause why the trees of narrow belts seldom grow to large timber,
    • 150 Observations on pruning and thinning,
    • 154 Observations on the age at which the valuable part of oak bark is thickest,
    • 157 Observations on the prevention of dry-rot,
  • 163 II.—NICOL’S PLANTER’S CALENDAR,
    • 164 Different influence of transplanting on herbaceous and woody vegetables,
    • 165 Cutting the roots close in, injurious to some trees and not to others,
    • 167 Mr Sang’s plan of raising forest from the seed in situ,
    • 168 Reasons which render the planting of young trees preferable to sowing in situ,
    • 170 Mr Sang’s directions for nursery practice; sowing the different kinds of forest trees in the seed-bed; removing the seedlings to the nursery line, and from thence to the field,
    • 178 Remarks on transplanting,
  • 181 III.—BILLINGTON ON PLANTING,
    • ib. An account of the management of the Royal Forests,
    • 182 Reasons why government should rather purchase than raise timber, and that they should sell off the Royal Forests,
    • 185 The Billingtonian system of pruning,
    • 187 Remarks on planting soils not easily permeable by water,
    • 188 Mr Billington’s directions for planting these soils,
    • 189 ————— ————— for clearing away weeds, and for cutting in or pruning the points of the branches,
  • 192 IV.—FORSYTH ON FRUIT AND FOREST TREES,
    • ib. Mr Forsyth’s surgery of trees, and the value of his composition-salve,
    • 193 Manner in which a tree can be transformed from disease and rottenness to health and soundness,
  • 198 V.—MR WITHERS,
    • ib. Discomfiture of our Scottish Knights by Mr Withers,
    • 199 Account of a number of facts and experiments by the writer, on the comparative strength of quick and slow grown timber—on the influence of circumstance and age in modifying the quality of the timber—on the difference in the quality of different varieties of the same species, and of different parts of the same tree,
    • 214 Oak timber, moderately fast grown, so that it may be of sufficient size, and still retain the toughness of youth, best suited for naval use,
    • 215 Mr Withers, his literary friends and Sir Henry Steuart equally imperfectly acquainted with the subject in dispute between them,
    • 217 The Withers’ system neither necessary nor economically suited for the greater part of Scotland,
    • 221 Fallacy of experiments on the strength of timber, from not taking into account the difference of tension of the different annual layers, and their position, whether flat, perpendicular, &c.,
  • 226 VI.—STEUART’S PLANTER’S GUIDE AND SIR WALTER SCOTT’S CRITIQUE,
    • 227 Importance of whatever may serve to amuse the second childhood of the wealthy,
    • 227 The subject—the art of moving about large trees in general, merely a pandering to our wilfulness and impatience,
    • 228 Intolerable dulness of the park and smooth lawn,
    • 229 Delightful sympathies with the objects and varied scenery of our peopled subalpine country,
    • 231 Sir Walter Scott’s curious effort to give consequence to the art of moving about large trees,
    • 233 Paroxysm of admiration of Sir Walter, at Sir Henry’s discoveries, with his hyperbolic figures of comparison,
    • 235 Account of the writer’s practice in moving trees of considerable size,
    • 245 Taste of Sir Walter Scott for “home-keeping squires,” practisers of the Allanton system,
    • 246 What a British gentleman should be,
    • 249 The Allanton practice described,
    • 254 Quotation from Sir Henry Steuart’s volume, in which the philosophy of his practice is described,
    • 264 Summary of Sir Henry’s discoveries,
    • 265 Consideration of the accuracy of some of Sir Henry’s assertions regarding the desiccated epidermis of trees, and the elongation of the shoots of plants,
    • 282 Sir Henry’s assertion that quick-grown timber is inferior to slow-grown, and that culture necessarily renders it softer, less solid, and less durable, not correct,
    • 287 The present climate of Scotland, and of the Orkneys and Shetlands, inferior to a former,
    • 288 That this may have been owing to these islands having once been a portion of the continent,
    • 289 The recent advance and recession of the German Ocean, render a former junction with the continent not improbable,
    • 305 Mr Loudon’s statement, of the effect produced by pruning on the quality and quantity of the timber, that trees produce the best timber in their natural locality, not supported by facts,
    • 307 The apparent use of the infinite seedling varieties of plants,
  • 309 VII.—CRUICKSHANK’S PRACTICAL PLANTER,
    • ib. Advantages of laying ground under timber, stated rather too high by Mr Cruickshank,
    • 310 Mr Cruickshank’s account of the superior fertilizing influence of forest upon the soil,
    • 316 Facts which in many cases lead to an opposite conclusion,
    • 316 An examination into the causes which promote or retard the formation, or which tend to dissipate the earth’s covering of vegetable mould,
    • 324 Account of an uncommon system of fallowing once practised in the Carse of Gowrie,
    • 325 High manuring quality of old clay walls,
    • ib. Formation of nitre the probable cause of the fertilizing quality of these walls,
    • ib. The fertilizing influence of summer fallow may in part be owing to the formation of nitre and other salts,
    • 326 That there is a deficiency of these salts in some places of the world, and an excess in others,
    • 327 Ignorance of Mr Cruickshank regarding the location of certain kinds of trees,
    • 330 Mr Cruickshank’s reprehension of the practice of covering fir seeds half an inch deep in England, and of forcing suitable earth for nurseries where awanting,
    • 331 Best method of transplanting seedlings in the nursery row,
    • ib. Quotation worthy the attention of planters,
    • 334 Error of authors on the location of trees, in inculcating a determinate character of soil as generally necessary for each kind of tree,
    • 335 Further errors of Mr Cruickshank on the location of trees,
    • 338 Adaptation of Scots fir to moist soils, even to peat-moss,
    • 340 An account by Mr Cruickshank of the most economical and successful mode of planting moors and bleak mountains,
    • 343 Method of planting by the flat dibble or single notch,
    • 344 ————— ————— by the double notch or cross-slitting,
    • 345 Expense and comparative merits of each,
    • 346 These methods of planting best adapted for a sterile country, where the weeds are small,
    • 347 Practice by the writer of cultivating young plantation by the plough, suited for rich soil,
    • 348 Best season for planting moist soils,
    • 349 Manner in which frost throws up the young plant from the soil,
    • 351 Mr Cruickshank’s plan of raising oak forest in situ from the seed,
    • 352 That although the bare plan given by our author, of sowing in situ, under the shelter of nurses, is good, his directions for executing it are not very judicious,
    • 353 Advantages of this plan which Mr Cruickshank has not noticed,
    • 356 That the power of ripening seed is not increased by shelter in proportion to the power of growing,
    • 357 That the line of seed ripening, and not the line of growing, regulates the natural distribution of plants in respect to climate,
    • ib. That oaks, under this plan of sowing in situ under shelter, can be extended to a climate inferior to the natural,
    • 358 That oaks grown in the low country, and best climate of Scotland, appear not to ripen the seed sufficiently. Thence the probability that oak now would not even keep its present locality in the low country of Scotland, although it may “be taught to rise in our” alpine country,
• APPENDIX.
  • 363 NOTE A.—That universal empire is practicable only under naval power,
  • 364 NOTE B. On hereditary nobility and entail,
  • 369 NOTE C. Instinct or habit of breed,
    • 370 Nautical and roving disposition of the superior breed which has spread westward over the maritime provinces of Britain, and over nearly the whole continent of North America,
    • 371 Influence of change of place,
    • 372 Influence of civilization and confinement upon the complexion,
    • 373 Difference of character between the population of the northern and southern maritime provinces of Britain,
    • 375 That the middle and southern portion of the North Temperate Zone is not so favourable to human existence as the northern portion,
  • 376 NOTE D. Use of the selfish passions,
  • 377 NOTE E. Injudicious measurement law of the tonnage of vessels, rendering our mercantile marine of defective proportions,
  • 378 NOTE F. On the mud depositions or alluvium on the eastern coast of Britain,
    • 379 Probability that a delta of this alluvium, a continuation of Holland, had at one time occupied the entire German Ocean,
  • 381 Accommodation of organized life to circumstance, by diverging ramifications,
  • 388 Retrospective glance at our pages,