324 TRANSACTIONS OF THE 



ployed in making the jam ; that many seeds grew better for being 

 put into boiling water before planting. 



Mr. Daubeny stated that seeds did not retain their vitality if 

 entirely excluded from air j that brown paper or any porous paper 

 preserved them. 



'htv. Archer stated that seeds from China, put up in air-tight 

 vessels always failed to germinate. 



Dr. Isaiah Deck, analytical chemist, according to his offer, pro- 

 ceeded with his chemical agents before him, and the guano, phos- 

 phates, &c., to give to the club the following remarks : 



On the Island of Jamaica, there are great deposits of bat's dung 

 in the great caves, where it is found to exist to the depth of two 

 or three feet. One cargo has been brought here and readily sold 

 at $15 per tun, which is its commercial value for the ammonia 

 and phosphates it contains. It is a curious looking article, ap- 

 pearing more like peat than anything else. It gives off a very 

 strong smell of ammonia by the addition of potash. It is used as 

 a fertilizer to a considerable extent upon the Island of Jamaica. 

 The food of bats is largely of the young shoots of sugar cane, toge- 

 ther W'ith some animal food, and this excrement, it is thought, 

 will prove a cheap fertilizer for farmers here. 



GUANO FROM THE ISLAND OF SOMBRERO, 140 MILES 

 FROM ST. THOMAS. 



The crust of the Island is composed of a rock containing 92 per 

 cent of phosphate of lime. He showed some very interesting spe- 

 cimens, and stated its value at $32 a ton, though a cargo lately 

 arrived sold at $30. The Island is two miles wide and three 

 miles long, and the phosphate is about 40 feet thick. Dr. Deck's 

 theory is that the crust was originally formed of bird droppings, 

 and then submerged, and heated by volcanic action, and then 

 thrown up again. Dr. Deck showed a sample of a cargo of guano, 

 now on its way from the Pacific, which is called 



CALIFORNIA GUANO. 

 It is from the Island of Elide, on the coast of Lower California, 

 latitude 28° 40'. Its analysis is : 



Moisture, __ 4 per cent. 



Volatile organic matter, 57 do 



