MISCELLANEOUS INTELLIGENCE. 291 



England, say at 50°, would have mattered little, became an important agent 

 when the ship got into the tropics ; at about 80° the damp became a hot va- 

 pour, and, when the seeds reached me, I found them all in a semipulpy and 

 mildewed state, in fact parboiled by the steam process ; and, out of a 301. 

 investment, not a seed germinated. 



" I shall soon have the pleasure of sending you another collection, made 

 on the hills to the westward, and in Cashmeer, where 1 now am. 

 "I have found the Prangos pabulbaria growing in the valley." 

 With reference to this communication, it was stated that by far the greater 

 part of the seeds alluded to by Dr. Falconer were in a fresh state when they 

 reached the Society, and presented a remarkable contrast wiih those which 

 usually arive from Calcutta and elsewhere. There can be no doubt, that the 

 most important precaution to observe, in conveying seeds safely through a 

 long voyage, consists in exposing them freely to the air ; because, if that is 

 attended to, the damp, which, when in combination with a high temperatnre, 

 contributes so much towards destroying the germinating power of seeds, is 

 dissipated as fast as it is formed. It was added, that, in the experience of 

 the Vice-Secretary, no better plan was known for sending to great distances 

 most kinds of seeds, than, after being well dried, packing tliem loosely in 

 common brown paper, and enclosing them, without pressure, in small coarse 

 canvass bags, suspended from the sides of the cabin, where they could be 

 kept dry. The society has tried various other methods, such as packing in 

 sugar, and in charcoal : enclosing in tin cases, in bottles sealed up, Ac. ; 

 and all such plans invariably proved unfit for the preservation of the germi- 

 nating principle of seeds ; especially the two last, which had long been known 

 to be a means of destroying, rather than preserving, life, although still per- 

 severed in. 



It was added, in illustration of these observations, that the most successful 

 instance of introducing seeds of the deodar cedar, from India, ocurred some 

 years since ; when a plan, similar to that now recommended tor adoption, was 

 adhered to. In the year 1831, the Honourable T. Leslie Melville, on his re- 

 turn to England, brought with him some cones of the deodar, thrown-loosely 

 into a drawer in his cabin ; these were presented to the Society, by that gentle- 

 man, and were so fresh, that nearly the whole of them germinated immedi- 

 ately upon being sown ; and, in fact, furnished the principal part of the plants 

 which the Society has been for some years distributing ol this most valuable 

 tree. 



On a New Method of Writing on Zinc, for Labelling Plants. — Mr. 

 Henry Braconnot, the celebrated French Chemist of Nancy, to whom we are 

 indebted for the curious transformation of rags and other similar vegetable 

 substances into starch, gum, land sugar, by the agency of oil of Vitriol, and 

 whose name is well known in the chemical world for various researches con- 

 nected with the analysis of vegetable substances, has given in the last num- 

 ber of the Annates de Chimie et de Physique, a preparation for writing on 

 plates of zinc to label plants. The writer having a dislike to painting in oil 

 which is often inconvenient, and never endures a long time, resolved to turn 

 his attention to some other way which would prove both ready and durable. 

 The system of writing on zinc with a black crayon, which was accidentally 

 discovered by M. Symon an Amateur at Brussels, and noticed in the Revue 

 Horticole for October 1832 and the Bon Jardinier, for 1838, possessing many 

 imperfections, Mr. Braconnot to try some experiments, being anxious to ob- 

 tain a liquid, or a species of ink, which would be perfectly durable when 

 exposed to the changeableness of the weather, and also one with which, he 

 could write with ease. This end, after several proofs, he is induced to be- 

 lieve he has in a great measure attained. If it answers he will have done 

 both the botanists and amateurs a real service. The preparation is as fol- 

 lows : — 



Take Verdigres in powder one part, 

 Salamoniac in powder one part, 



