DIRECTIONS FOR PRESERVING SEEDS, ETC. 



687 



nnd beauty, and possessing all their natural and 

 characteristic properties. Already liave exchanges 

 of jilants between distant countries been cariied 

 on to a great extent; and the public conserva- 

 tories, as well as those of private individuals, 

 been enriched ivitli specimens of many rare 

 plants, which could scarcely have reached them 

 by any other means. Thus, under the modified 



conditions with regard to climate, and the 

 renovating processes in relation to water and air 

 which we have attemjitcd to illustrate, the 

 botanist and horticulturist may be said to have 

 entered on new and unexplored fields of vegetable 

 research, and to have acquired the means of 

 transporting to their own soil the varied and 

 most delicate plants of every region of the earth. 



DIRECTIONS FOR PRESERVING SEEDS, ROOTS, BULBS. &c. 



Seeds of all kinds sliould be gathered in dr3' 

 weather, and kept in dry airy situations. 



Various plans have been proposed for pre- 

 serving and sending home seeds from foreign 

 countries, especially from moist and hot cli- 

 mates, such as packing them in sugar, salt, tal- 

 low, cotton, saw-dust, sand, clay, or paper. The 

 first object is to have the seeds perfectly dried. 

 In very moist climates, the larger seeds may be 

 dried by exposing them in Leslie's vacuum along 

 with sulphuric acid, when they will become 

 quite dry in a week, and smaller seeds in two 

 days. These seeds thus dried, may afterwards 

 be preserved for a great length of time, by put- 

 ting them in small parcels in common gray 

 paper and airing them occasionally. Very small 

 seeds, berries, and oleaginous seeds may be kept 

 in sugar, or among currants or raisins. Seeds 

 may also be preserved and sent to a distance, if 

 after full maturation and perfect drying, they 

 are enveloped in a large ball of loam and then 

 baked in the sun, or they may be enveloped in 

 charcoal or any other dry substance. 



Roots, cuttings, grafts, and perennial plants 

 in general, may be kept in earth or moss moder- 

 ately moist and shaded from the sun. When 

 they are to be sent to a distance, the roots or 

 root ends are to be stuck into balls of clay or 

 loam, wrapped round with moist moss, or they 

 may be stuck into potatoes or apples. In this 

 way, orange trees are sent from Italy to any part 

 of Europe and North America in perfect preser- 

 vation ; and cuttings will thus live for eight 

 months or upwards. Packing and transporting 

 roots of plants, or entire plants in a dormant 

 state, for short journeys, is managed by the enve 

 loping them in twisted straw covered with mats. 

 If for a longer journey, the roots are covered 



with moist mould and moss, but very moist 

 moss is not desirable, as it occasions mouldiness, 

 and rots off the bark of t!ie roots when it begins 

 to dry. 



Air plants, or parasitical orchideaj, may be 

 transported safely to any distance by being packed 

 loosely in moss, and put into boxes so con- 

 structed that the plants may be exposed to a free 

 admission of air, but pi'otected from the sea- 

 water. 



Bulbs are best preserved and transported if 

 packed in common brown paper or canvass bags, 

 having been previously freed of all tlieir super- 

 fluous moisture. Dry sand is a good medium 

 for placing those bull>s in, which have not previ- 

 ously been dried in the sun. Minute bulbs, such 

 as those of ixias, gladiolas, &c., only require to 

 be folded in separate parcels without any previous 

 preparation. Terrestrial orchidese sliould be 

 transported when in flower, and not when their 

 roots are in a state of rest. 



Woody seeds or capsules, or any of those seeds, 

 the juices of which are liable to become rancid 

 soon after gathering, should be buried in common 

 mould in pots, at the commencement of the voy- 

 age, and they will thus vegetate before its ter- 

 mination. Thus, too, camellia seeds are best 

 transported by planting them in pots on leaving 

 China, when they will have become seedling 

 plants on reaching this country. Acorns, and 

 walnuts, and palms, may also be treated in this 

 manner. 



Ripe fruits, such as apples and pears, if put 

 into stone pipkins, closely covered up, and placed 

 in cellars where the temperature never falls be- 

 low 32", nor rises above 42°, will frequently 

 keep in good preservation for twelve months. 



All esculent roots, sucli as potatoes, turnips, 



