VOL. LVIII.] PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS, 315 



as possible, he set the box near a window, where the sash was raised a little to 

 let in a stream of cold air ; when they were almost cold, he perceived the wax 

 had shrunk a little here and there, and left some chinks ; these he immediately 

 filled up with very soft wax, pressing it very close and smooth. After it was 

 quite cold and hard, he put on the cover of the box, and placed it on a shelf 

 in a closet till the beginning of August 1767, when he sent it to the care of 

 Mr. Dacosta, clerk to the r. s. to their house in Crane Court, to be produced 

 and examined before the r. s. at some of their first meetings after the long vaca- 

 tion. When they were cut open and examined, their appearance promised suc- 

 cess ; and they were ordered to be delivered by Dr. Morton, secretary to the r. s. 

 to the care of Mr. William Aiton, botanic gardener to her royal highness the 

 Princess Dowager of Wales, at Kew, that the r. s. might be informed whether 

 they would vegetate. 



In March 1768, Mr. E. received a letter from Mr. Aiton, advising him, that 

 he had sent to Mr. Robertson, housekeeper to the r. s., two pots with the young 

 oaks rising from the acorns preserved in wax, which Dr. Morton sent him from 

 the R. s, in December last. And Mr. E. is well persuaded he has carefully 

 attended to an experiment, the success of which, if properly followed, may in a 

 few years put us in possession of the most rare and valuable seeds in a vegetating 

 state from the remotest parts of the world, which in time may answer the great 

 end of the improvement and advancement of our trade with our American 

 colonies. 



XII. A Letter from Dr. Donald Monro, F. R. S. inclosing one from Mr. Far- 

 ley, of Antigua, on the Good Effects of the Quassia Root in some Fevers, p. 80. 

 Dr. D. M. here states that as the public had not had any further accounts of 

 the quassia root, since Dr. Linnaeus published the 6th volume of his Amoeni- 

 tates Academicae* in 17 64, he had according to Dr. Maty's desire, sent the copy 

 of a letter on the good effects of this root, which he hoped would be acceptable to 

 the R. s. as it might excite physicians to make trials of this medicine which 

 seemed to promise to be of so much use. The original letter was given him by 

 the gentleman to whom it was addressed, while he attended him in 17O7, when 

 he was in England for the benefit of his health. 



* Dr. Linnaeus gives a particular description and figure of the quassia-tree, which grows in the 

 neighbourhood of Surinam, in South America, and of the root having been administered at Surinam, 

 with great success, in malignant, remitting and intermitting fevers : and he tells us that its virtues 

 were first discovered by a slave of the name of Quassi, from whom the tree got its name. — Orig. 



Since this account was written, quassia has become a standing article of the materia medica. 

 I'he root of the quassia amara possesses the greatest degree of bitterness and medicinal efficacy ; but 

 the quassia of commerce is said to be from another species, viz. from the quassia excelsa. 



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