THE WIDE DISTRIBUTION OF PLANT-GERMS. 41 



again, which cannot be conveyed with certainty if exposed to 

 the air, will travel in safety for many months if buried in 

 clay rammed hard in boxes : in this manner only can the 

 seeds of the mango be brought alive from the West Indies ; 

 and it was thus the principal part of the Araucania pines, now 

 in England, were transported from Chile. It may therefore 

 be well worth consideration, whether by some artificial con- 

 trivance, in which these principles shall be kept in view, it 

 may not be possible to reduce to something like certainty the 

 preservation of seeds in long voyages, such, for instance, as 

 by surrounding them with many layers of non-conducting 

 matter, as case over case of wood, or by ramming every other 

 space, in such cases, with clay in a dry state." 



