General Notices. 631 



packed, be thoroughly dried. 3. Let the smaller packages be tied up sepa- 

 rately, and then placed loosely in canvass bags, or coarse sacking, so that 

 they can be readily disturbed by shaking up during a voyage. 4. Let ar- 

 rangements be made for these bags being kept in a dry cabin, or some well- 

 ventilated part of the ship." (p. 715.) — To which we may add, on the 

 authority of Mr. James Backhouse, that suspension 2 or 3 feet from the ceiling 

 of the cabin is desirable, in order to avoid the heated moist air that rises from 

 the floor to the roof, and rots articles there which are found quite fresh mid- 

 way down. 



The Hon. W. Leslie Melville, who brought home the cones of the deodar 

 cedar, from the seeds contained in which so many plants have been raised, 

 kept the cones in his cabin in a box not sealed or soldered up, and occa- 

 sionally exposed them to the sun and air during the voyage of four months, 

 and did not allow them to encounter the heat of the hold of the ship. 

 {Gard. C/iron., p. 731.) As exceptions to the general and important rule of 

 ventilating seeds as a means of preservation, Dr. Lindley adds the following : — 

 " If acorns or sweet chestnuts are preserved dry, they soon lose their 

 vitality; the same is apparently true of the mango, of magnolias, the Chilian 

 araucaria, and some other plants. The reason of this has never been 

 satisfactorily explained. It is, however, known that the most certain mode 

 of conveying these seeds is to place them in a situation where they are 

 unable either to absorb moisture or to lose it. The best manner of effect- 

 ing this, is to pack them in dry sand, or nearly dry loam. Take a box 

 of wood sufficiently stout to resist some pressure from within; strew 3 in. 

 of sand on the bottom ; upon this place a thin layer of the seed, taking 

 care that the outside seeds are not nearer than Sin. to the side of the box ; 

 then cover this layer with H or 2 inches of sand, according to the size of 

 the seeds, and go on placing the seed and sand in alternate layers, till the 

 box is full ; place 3 in. more sand on the upper layer of seed, and fasten 

 down the lid. With these precautions, all the seeds mentioned, and others 

 of a similar kind, will travel for some months without injury. It is, how- 

 ever, necessary to observe that the sand or earth must be pressed down 

 very firmly, so that it may not be able to settle away from the sides of 

 the box after the lid is fastened down. This is also the best way to pack 

 bulbs for a long voyage, provided they are ripe when they are collected." — 

 (Ibid., p. 731.) 



T/ie Oxi/genation of Water by green Plants and Animalcules. — Professor A. 

 Morren of Angers, and Professor C. Morren of Liege, have communicated 

 to the Royal Academy of Sciences at Brussels an important memoir on some 

 properties in water hitherto unknown, which, it is said, will have consider- 

 able effect upon the watering of , 'plants, and on public health. Humboldt and 

 Gay Lussac ascertained experimentally that the running water of rivers, and 

 distilled, and aerated water, contain a bulk of air equal to one fourth of their 

 own volume dissolved in it, and which consists of oxygen and azote, in the 

 proportion of 32 of the former to 68 of the latter. Messrs. Morren have proved 

 that this air in the water may contain from 56 to 98 parts of oxygen, when 

 it is stagnant, or when it has green vegetables (t'onfervae) and green animal- 

 cules in it. In July, in the morning, 100 parts of water hold in solution 25 

 parts of oxygen, 48 at midday, and 61 at 5 o'clock in the evening. The 

 quantity of nitrogen always remains the same. The influence of light on the 

 respiration of plants and animalcules determines the oxygenation of water. 

 In days when there is little or no sun, water contains little oxygen, and is less 

 wholesome. In rainy days no oxygenation goes on. The oxygenation com- 

 mences at daybreak, and arrives at its maximum at 5 in the afternoon, at 

 which time water is much more salubrious than at any other hour for watering 

 plants, since it supplies their roots witli the greatest amount of oxygen. 

 (Ibid., p. 199.) 



Suspended Vegetation. — M. Pepin gives a number of curious examples, in- 

 cluding fragments of roots of the following species which had remained buried 

 and torpid : — Bignnn/« radicans, for 10 years ; Gymnocladus canadensis, 10; 



