General J^oHces. 309 



of appropriating its active principle, with the proper direc- 

 tions, &c. 



The Floricultural Magazine and JMiscellany of Gardening. 

 — Conducted by Robert Marnock, Curator of the Botanical 

 and Horticultural Garden, Sheffield. This is the title of a new 

 periodical work, No. I of which was to appear on June 1st. 

 Each number will contain a colored plate, aiid will comprise 

 original communications and inquiries ; editorial observations and 

 answers; notices of new flowers, or novel modes of cultivation; 

 reviews of books, selections from interesting works, current and 

 other notices, &c. Mr. Mai-nock is well known as an intelligent 

 and experienced cultivator, and fully able to do justice to such a 

 work. Each number will contain twenty -four 8vo pages, at Qd. 

 each. 



MISCELLANEOUS INTELLIGENCE. 



Art, I. General Notices. 



Method of preserving Plants during a long Voyage. — The follow- 

 ing letter was communicated to Messrs. G. C. and R. W. Fox and Co, 

 by Capt. R. Gillies, of the ship Hibernia : — 



In accordance with your wishes, I have much pleasure in describing 

 to you the mode in which the plants brought by me from Calcutta were 

 put up. The plants were all intended for the green-house in England, 

 and, I presume, were of a delicate kind. Each plant was in a box, six 

 inches square by one foot in depth, filled to the top with a kind of clay; 

 and, no doubt, well saturated with water, previously to being put into 

 the large outer box, which contained eight of these small ones. 



The large box was constructed in the usual way; that is, a glazed 

 roof about two feet high, the glass strong enough to resist the fall of a 

 small rope, or other light body. It was hermetically closed with the 

 common Chunam (a sort of lime, used in India as a cement for plaster- 

 ing houses, &c.) of the country, and was never opened during a voyage 

 of five months. When we arrived in England the plants were all in 

 beautiful health, and had grown to the fullheight of the case, the leaves 

 pressing against the glass. 



In dry weather, I always observed moisture within the glass, which 

 was caused, no doubt, by the evaporation of the earth, and was again 

 absorbed by the plants. 



It is difficult to account for the perfect health of the plants, without 

 the full admission of the atmosphere ; but oxygen sufficient was proba- 

 bly admitted, either through the pores of the wood, or otherwise. It 

 is, however, a fiict, that no water was given to them during the voyage, 

 and that they were landed in excellent order. — Robert Gillies. Hiber- 

 nia, Falmouth Harbor, October 2, 1835. (The Third Annual Report 



