185 



ment. These circumstances led me to make 

 some experiments to ascertain how loiig trees of 

 dilierent kinds might be preserved in this sub- 

 stance, when excluded from the external air, 

 and I so far succeeded as to keep them for six 

 months, part of which time had been extreme 

 hot weather, and I had afterwards the pleasure 

 of getting them to grow in my garden equal to 

 any that had been transplanted the same season. 



As I have endeavoured to discover what pro- 

 perty this particidar moss possesses when com- 

 pared with others generally used for packing 

 plants, I shall remark, that, as its name im- 

 plies, it is in a great measure an aquatic, and 

 consequently not liable to injury from moisture, 

 which it has the power of retaining in a wonder- 

 ful degree, whilst all the species of Hypnum 

 cannot be prevented from rotting, unless they 

 are kept perfectly dry ; and although the mosses 

 in general, when moistened with water, are use- 

 ful to wrap round the roots of trees when 

 packed up, yet they gradually undei'go a decom- 

 position, and consequently if plants were com- 

 pletely enveloped therein, they would decay in 

 time from the same cause, which I have proved 

 in many instances. 



The manner in which I have been accustomed 

 to pack up plants is as follows. When the 

 ?noss is collected from the bogs in which it 



