304 PHYSIOLOGY. BOOK II. 



seeds buried in the earth, and from other circumstances, that 

 the principal conditions are, 1. uniform temperature ; 2 mo- 

 derate dryness ; and 3. exclusion of light. And it will be 

 found tliat the success with which seeds are transported from 

 foreign countries in a living state is in proportion to the care 

 and skill with which these conditions are preserved. For 

 example, seeds brought from India, round the Cape of Good 

 Hope, rarely vegetate freely : in this case the double expo- 

 sure to the heat of the equator, and the subsequent arrival of 

 the seeds in cold latitudes, are probably the causes of their 

 death; for seeds brought overland from India, and therefore 

 not exposed to such fluctuations of temperature, generally 

 succeed. Others, 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 Araucaria Pines, now in England, were transported 

 from Chile. It may therefore be well worth consideration 

 whether, by some artificial contrivance, in which these prin- 

 ciples 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 by 

 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. These means seem more likely to answer 

 their end than the usual modes of putting seeds in bottles, 

 packing them in charcoal, or surrounding them by coats of 

 wax — all of which, it is well known, are absolutely prejudi- 

 cial, instead of beneficial, to the seeds. In illustration of what 

 we have recommended, we may add that seeds are w^ell 

 known to travel best in their own pods, or pericarps ; may 

 we not suppose that their vitality is preserved in such in- 

 stances by the non-conducting quality of the air which the 

 cavities of the fruit contain ? " 



