PRESERVATION AND TRANSPORTATION OF SEEDS. 851 
in the ‘Annals and Magazine of Natural History,’ has likewise 
narrated a still more remarkable case. This gentleman received 
some seeds which were found upwards of twenty-five feet below 
the surface of the earth, in the lowest layers of a sand-pit in 
process of excavation. Upon being sown, about one-tenth 
germinated and produced plants of Polygonum Convolvulus, 
Rumex Acetosella, and a variety of Atriplex patula. All these 
seeds are of a mealy or farinaceous nature. Mr. Kemp con- 
cluded from various circumstances, that they were deposited at 
a period when the valley of the Tweed was occupied by a lake ; 
if this be the case, they must have retained their vitality 
during many centuries at least, as it is certain that in the time 
of the Romans no lake existed there. It has also long been 
noticed that when a new soil is turned up, plants previously 
unknown in the locality appear, which is a proof that the seeds 
of such plants must have lain dormant for frequently a very 
lengthened period. 
Preservation and Transportation of Seeds.—As many persons 
frequently wish to send seeds to a distance, a few words on the 
best means of preserving them for that purpose will be accept- 
able to our readers. Thus when seeds are enclosed in hard or 
dry pericarps, they should be preserved and transported in them. 
This is the case with those of many Legumminous and Coniferous 
plants. When the pericarps are soft or lable to decay, the seeds 
should be removed from them. In all cases, seeds when re- 
quired for preservation should be gathered when quite ripe, as at 
that period their proximate principles are in a more stable con- 
dition than when unripe, when they are very liable to change. 
Seeds should be also preserved quite dry. Seeds of a farinaceous 
nature, if ripe and dry, will retain their vitality for a long 
period, and such may be readily transported to a distance. For 
the latter purpose they should be placed in perfectly dry papers 
in a dry coarse bag, which should be afterwards suspended from 
a nail or otherwise in the cabin of a ship, in which position they 
are maintained at a moderate temperature and exposed to free 
ventilation. Such seeds require no further care. But seeds of 
an oily or mucilaginous nature, or that contain much astringent 
matter, require, as a further protection, to be excluded from the 
air. For this purpose they are best packed in stout boxes lined 
with tin, and filled with dry sand or charcoal powder. The sand 
or charcoal powder and the seeds should be placed alternately in 
layers, and the whole firmly pressed together. Such seeds, how- 
ever, even when thus protected, frequently lose their vitality. A 
coating of wax has in some cases been found to preserve effec- 
tually the vitality of seeds. Probably seeds which are difficult of 
preservation might be transported in hermetically sealed bottles 
containing carbon dioxide. Wardian cases are also an import- 
ant means for transporting seeds (see page 806), and should be 
resorted to, when possible, in all doubtful cases. 
3812 
