298 NOTES OF A BOTANIST 



were not lost. The capsules were afterwards 

 spread out to dry on the same sheets, and the 

 drying occupied from two to ten days. The first 

 seeds were gathered at Limon on the i4th, and the 

 last on the 2Qth of August. Early in September 

 they were all dry. 



Mr. Cross sowed, on the i6th of August, eight 

 of the seeds I had gathered ; one of them began to 

 germinate on the fourth day, and at the end of a 

 fortnight four seeds had pushed their radicles. On 

 the 6th of September one had the seed-leaves com- 

 pletely developed, and by the Qth of the same month, 

 or on the twenty-fifth day after sowing, the last of 

 the eight seeds pushed its radicle. One of the 

 seedlings was afterwards lost by an accident, but 

 the remaining seven formed healthy little plants, 

 and when embarked at Guayaquil, along with the 

 rooted cuttings and layers, bid as fair as any of the 

 latter to reach India alive. He had previously 

 sown, at Guayaquil, eight Cinchona seeds gathered 

 by me in 1859, and which had remained nine 

 months in my herbarium ; even of these, four 

 germinated, and the remaining four might possibly 

 have grown also, had they not been carried off by 

 mice. It is therefore clearly proved that well- 

 ripened and properly dried seeds do not lose their 

 vitality for a much longer period than their exces- 

 sive delicacy would lead one to suspect. 



Having learnt that there were a few seed-bear- 

 ing trees at Tabacal, a farm in the San Antonio 

 valley, near the deserted village of San Antonio, I 

 determined to go there while Mr. Cross and Dr. 

 Taylor were attending to the work at Limon. The 

 distance is not perhaps more than 15 miles in a 



