VOL. LI.] PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. 375 



bees-wax, and afterwards with paper, did not succeed ; as their covering was not 

 thick enough to keep in their perspiration. 



The chestnut, next to the acorn, being the most difficult to preserve sound 

 during the course of one season, or a whole year, on the 23d of February last, 

 1759, Mr. E. procured a parcel of Spanish chestnuts, just as they were imported, 

 many of which were sounder than they generally are so late in the season : these 

 he divided into 4 parcels, and put each parcel into a small earthen jar, involving 

 them in the following substances : 



Jar N° 1. 12 Chestnuts in mutton suet. 



2. 12 do in bees-wax and mutton suet, equal quantities. 



3. 12 do in bees-wax. 



4. J 2 do in bees- wax and yellow rosin, equal quantities.^ 



These substances he melted : but did not pour them among the chestnuts, 



till he could bear his finger in them without the least sensible uneasiness, which 

 he considered as the proper test not to effect the kernels by their heat, and imme- 

 diately immersed the jar to the brim in cold water. 



To examine the effects of these experiments, and to lay before the Society a 

 fair account of them, Mr. E. broke all the jars on the 22d of November last, 

 and found, that jar N°l, which contained the chestnuts immersed in mutton 

 suet, proved all rotten, attended with a very disagreeable putrid smell. Those 

 in jar N'' 2, were most of them sound and fresh, and their kernels as white and 

 sweet-tasted, as when fresh gathered. These were inclosed in half bees-wax, 

 and half mutton suet, melted together. Those in jar N° 3, were equally sound 

 and well tasted, and had been inclosed in bees-wax only. Those in jar N° 4, 

 which were inclosed in half bees-wax and half yellow rosin, were all turned soft 

 and spongy, of a brown colour, and a most disagreeable taste and smell, from 

 the resinous steams they had imbibed. 



On the 24th of November last, Mr. E. planted 6 of the chestnuts preserved 

 in wax and suet, N^ 2, and 6 of those preserved in wax only, N° 3, in two gar- 

 den pots, and placed them in a very spacious conservatory, where many of them are 

 already germinating; which proves this method of preservmg the larger seeds a 

 very proper one to recommend to gentlemen that go to China, and other parts 

 of the East Indies, to preserve many kinds of valuable seeds in a state of vege- 

 tation during a voyage of a whole year, till they arrive here; and probably till 

 they are carried to our settlements in the American colonies. 



It remains then for gentlemen who go to the East Indies, to place the seeds 

 they preserve in bees-wax, or bees-wax and suet, in the coolest part of the ship, 

 to prevent these substances being affected with the heat of those parts, which far 

 exceeds ours. Perhaps Linneus's method of inclosing them in a larger vessel, 

 and surrounding them with a mixture of salts will answer this end. 



