the oldest form of surface decoration, and is much used on the continent of Europe, especially in Germany and Italy, in both external and internal situations. Properly treated, the work is durable, effective and inexpensive. A first coat or rendering of Portland cement and sand, in the proportion of one to three, is laid on about an inch thick; then follows the color coat, sometimes put on in patches of different tints as required for the finished design. When this coat is nearly dry, it is finished with a smooth-skimming, thick, of Parian, selenitic or other fine cement or lime, only as much as can be finished in one day being laid on. Then by pouncing through the pricked cartoon, the design is transferred to the plastered surface. Broad spaces of background are now exposed by removing the finishing coat, thus revealing the colored plaster beneath, and following this the outlines of the rest of the design are scratched with an iron knife through the outer skimming to the underlying tinted surface. Sometimes the coats are in three different colors, such as brown for the first, red for the second, and white or grey for the final coat. The pigments used for this work include Indian red, Turkey red, Antwerp blue, German blue, umber, ochre, purple brown, bone black or oxide of manganese for black. Combinations of these colors are made to produce any desired tone. Coats Plasters are applied in successive coats or layers on walls or lathing and gains its name from the number of these coats. One coat work is the coarsest and cheapest class of plastering, and is limited to inferior buildings, such as outhouses, where merely a rough coating is required to keep out the weather and draughts. This is described as render on brickwork, and lath and lay or lath and plaster one coat on studding. Two-coat work is often used for factories or warehouses and the less important rooms of residences. The first coat is of coarse stuff finished fair with the darby float and scoured. A thin coat of setting stuff is then laid on, and trowelled and brushed smooth. Two-coat work is described as render and set on walls, and lath, plaster and set, or lath, lay and set on laths. Three-coat work is usually specified for high specification work. It consists, as its name implies, of three layers of material,