196 ON PROPAGATING PLANTS. 



ferns and other plants, which thrive best in a humid atmosphere, by 

 planting them in a box filled with moist earth, and covered with a 

 glazed frame, rendered as nearly air- tight as possible. In this situa- 

 tion they will flourish, even in London, the junctures of the box be- 

 ing close enough to exclude the particles of soot, smoke, and dust, 

 which are constantly floating in the air of the metropolis. The same 

 kind of boxes have been applied by their inventor to a much more 

 important service, namely, that of conveying living plants by long 

 sea voyages, from one country and climate to another, with singular 

 success, and without the necessity of those minute precautions of 

 regulating the admission of air and light, and of duly supplying them 

 with water, which are absolutely necessary if recourse is had to the 

 usual mode. Cases for New Holland were embarked the first week 

 in June 1833, and arrived at their destination in the following Jan- 

 uary. They were on the poop of the ship, the whole voyage, and all 

 the water they had during the passage was a light sprinkling, during 

 the hot weather near the equator. The plants, with the exception 

 of two or three ferns which appeared to have faded, were all alive 

 and vigorous — they consisted of ferns, mosses, grasses, &c. The 

 cases were refilled at Sydney, in February 1834, chiefly with ferns 

 and two or three flowering plants — the thermometer between 90° 

 and 100° ; in rounding Cape Horn two or three months after, as 

 low as 20° at eight P. M. ; in crossing the line 120° ; and on the 

 arrival of the ship in the British Channel in November, 40 Q . These 

 cases occupied the same station as on the outward-bound voyage; 

 the plants were not once watered, and received no protection by day 

 or night, yet arrived in the most flourishing state alter eight months 

 confinement. Various other successful trials have been made to 

 Para, Calcutta, and other places. — See Letters from N. B. Ward, 

 Esq. and Capt. Mallard — Transactions of the Society of Arts, Vol. 

 50, Part 2, p. 189, Appendix. 



ARTICLE III.— ON PROPAGATING PLANTS BY GRAFTING, 

 BUDDING AND INARCHING. 



BY MR. CHARLES TAYLOR, ELAM HALL, DORSETSHIRE. 



Many plants are propagated by one or the other of these means; I 

 cannot, however, omit noticing a very ingenious mode of grafting, 

 described by M. Oscar Leclerc, of the Jardin du Roi, Paris, in a 

 communication to the editor of the Gardener's Magazine, and said 

 to be the invention of Mr. Blaike, an eminent British gardener, who 

 long resided in France, and who may be considered as the founder of 



