ON PACKING SEEBS FOR A VOYAGE TO INDIA OK CHINA. 41 



such substances in the cuuivation of potatoes as are observed to 

 be accompanied by scab. Tliis will be best ascertained by the 

 practical agriculturist, and would probably not be very difficult 

 if care be taken not to confound the two very distinct diseases 

 which pass under the common name of scab. 

 King's Cliff, November 18, 1847. 



X. — Observations upon the best methods of Packing Seeds for a 

 voyage to India or China. By Robert Fortune. 

 (Received October 27, 1847.) 



When I was about to leave England for China in the spring of 

 1843, 1 was desired by the Council of the Horticultural Society to 

 procure a quantity of seeds, and to have them put up in different 

 Avays, in order to test the best methods of packing such things 

 for a long sea voyage to a distant country. Messrs. Wrench 

 and Sons, of London-Bridge, supplied a large portion of the 

 seeds, the remainder were made up in the garden of the Horti- 

 cultural Society. In order to make the experiments as complete 

 and satisfactory as possible, the same kinds of seeds and from 

 the same samples were packed in three different ways. One lot 

 Avas put up in bottles and sealed ; a second was packed in paper 

 and put into a box lined with tin ; and a third was merely put 

 in paper, and thrown loosely into a canvas bag to be hung up in 

 my cabin. AYhen I arrived at Hong-Kong, Messrs. Dent and 

 Co. kindly placed their garden at my service for any experiments 

 of this nature which it might be necessary to try. It was in the 

 month of July, and the rays of the sun were too fierce, and the 

 ground too dry, for the purposes of securing a crop ; but a cer- 

 tain portion of the seeds was immediately unpacked and sown 

 for experiment in a corner of the garden which was partially 

 shaded by the house. 



On examining the seeds in the sealed bottles, I observed that 

 many of them were moist and mouldy ; in some instances they 

 appeared to have swelled to a certain extent, as if vegetation had 

 been commencing ; in other bottles they were perfectly dry, and 

 seemed in good condition. The results were as may be ex- 

 pected ; those seeds which were taken out of the mouldy samples 

 all failed to vegetate, while the others came up well enough. 

 Although I tliink the system of sending out seeds in sealed 

 bottles is a bad one and ought never to be adopted, yet they 

 might be sent out in this way in good order, provided the air in 

 the bottles was well dried, and the seeds also, before being 

 packed. But it is a difficult matter to dry thoroughly certain 

 kinds of seeds -which contain a large quantity of albumen. In 



