PROTECTION AGAIN 8E HEAT. 153 



Instead of the lime, husks or clean chopped straw, or, if insects al- 

 so are to be kept out, mm and other bitter leaves might be used. 

 In deep and wide baskets, the seeds should be inter stratified with 

 the husks, straw, &c. This plan may be enlarged upon by con- 

 structing a circular shed (Fig. 9), with walls of stout wattling, 

 plastered over or not, and a thatched conical roof supported on a 

 centre-post. The shed should be erected on a high plinth of solid 

 masonry, raised on a substratum of wood ashes to keep out white 

 ants, and surrounded on all sides by a canal possessing a pear- 

 shaped section as described higher up under A. The figure 

 shows in section the arrangement of the substratum (a), plinth (b), 

 canal (c), walls (d), roof (e), centre-post (f), and the disposition of 

 the seeds (g) and surrounding lining of straw leaves, &c. (h). 



C. Protection against Heat. 



If the temperature can be constantly maintained below the point 

 at which germination begins, seeds may be kept damp without 

 suffering any injury. A high temperature is most to be feared for 

 oily seeds, as the oil, which is to serve as food for the future plant 

 before it is able to assimilate for itself, is soon oxidised and thereby 

 converted into substances of no use whatsoever in germination. 

 To preserve seeds against heat they may be kept in water-tight 

 cases at the bottom of a deep well in the plains or stored up in 

 cool underground cellars in the Himalayas and at similar high ele- 

 vations. 



A common plan followed for the preservation of pulse, cereals, 

 &c., in many parts of India, where the soil is clayey, is to excavate 

 a large, deep pit in raised ground and to plaster the inside with 

 fine clay and cow-dung in order to make it water-tight. The bot- 

 tom and sides of the pit are lined with a thick layer of leaves (nim, 

 Diospyros Melanoxyloti, Vitex Negundo, &c.) or husks or crushed 

 straw, which, besides serving various other useful purposes, absorb 

 any damp that may come through and prevent it from getting as 

 far as the seeds. The seeds are interstratified with the same material 

 almost up to the mouth of the pit, which is then stopped up, first 

 with straw and leaves, and then with clay two or three feet thick. 

 The thick loose lining and interstratified layers of straw and leaves 

 lorm an effective non-conductor of heat and thus prevent wide and 

 sudden fluctuations of temperature, besides leaving no entrance 

 for insects, rats and mice. The system just described is known 

 under the various designations of pev inMarathi; gotto in Bengali ; 

 khati, khatta and kothi in the dialects of Upper India ; khana in 



