Proceedings of the London Horticultural Society. 533 



50°, would have mattered little, became an important agent when the ship got 

 into the tropics ; at about 80° the damp became a hot vapour, and, when the 

 seeds reached me, I found them all in a semipulpy and mildewed state, in fact 

 parboiled by the steam process; and, out of a 30/. investment, not a seed ger- 

 minated. 



" I shall soon have the pleasure of sending you another collection, made on 

 the hills to the westward, and in Cashmeer, where I now am. 



" I have found the Prdngos pabularia growing in the valley." 



With reference to this communication, it was stated that by far the greater 

 part of the seeds alluded to by Dr. Falconer were in a fresh state when they 

 reached the Society, and presented a remarkable contrast with those which 

 usually arrive from Calcutta and elsewhere. There can be no doubt, that the 

 most important precaution to observe, in conveying seeds safely through a 

 long voyage, consists in exposing them freely to the air ; because, if that is 

 attended to, the damp, which, when in combination with a high temperature, 

 contributes so much towards destroying the germinating power of seeds, is 

 dissipated as fast as it is formed. It was added, that, in the experience of the 

 Vice- Secretary, no better plan was known for sending to great distances most 

 kinds of seeds, than, after being well dried, packing them loosely in common 

 brown paper, and enclosing them, without pressure, in small coarse canvass 

 bags, suspended from the sides of a cabin, where they could be kept dry. The 

 Society had tried various other methods, such as packing in sugar, and in 

 charcoal ; enclosing in tin cases, in bottles sealed up, &c. ; and all such plans 

 invariably proved unfit for the preservation of the germinating principle of 

 seeds ; especially the two last, which had long been known to be a means of 

 destroying, rather than preserving, life, although still persevered in. 



It was added, in illustration of these observations, that the most successful 

 instance of introducing seeds of the deodar cedar, from India, occurred some 

 years since; when a plan, similar to that now recommended for adoption, was 

 adhered to. In the year 1831, the Honourable T. Leslie Melville, on his re- 

 turn to England, brought with him some cones of the deodar, thrown loosely 

 into a drawer in his cabin ; these were presented to the Society by that gentle- 

 man, and were so fresh, that nearly the whole of them germinated immediately 

 upon being sown ; and, in fact, furnished the principal part of the plants which 

 the Society has been for some years distributing of this most valuable tree. 



Oct. 2. 1838. — Ordinary Meeting. Read, a notice of a pine-apple, called the 

 Moore Green seedling, of which a specimen had been received from James Tay- 

 lor, Esq., F.H.S., of Moore Green, near Birmingham. It had been raised at 

 the above place from, seed of the Enville pine, which fruited late in the season 

 in a pit, along with several other sorts, ripening likewise about the same time; 

 from all of which Mr. Taylor states that the seedling differs in flavour. Mr. 

 Thompson reported that the specimen weighed 2 lb. 12 oz. ; was of a some- 

 what globular form, with a cock's-combed crown, resembling that of an En- 

 ville, when the latter assumes, as it frequently does, that shape. The pips 

 were moderately prominent; scales acutely pointed, their apex reaching to the 

 centre of the pips ; colour bright orange; flesh considered equal in quality to 

 that of the Enville. 



There was also read a notice, by Mr. Robert Thompson, of a new variety of 

 plum, called the Royale hative. The author stated that, although a purple 

 plum, matching in point of flavour the green gage, had already been discovered 

 in the Reine Claude Violette, yet that it had still remained an object of im- 

 portance to procure new varieties of equal excellence, whose period of maturity 

 should be different. This had now been, in one respect, attained by the dis- 

 covery of the variety in question. It was received into the Society's collection 

 from the nursery of M. Noisette of Paris, and fruited for the first time this sea- 

 son. It is mentioned in the Almanack du Bon Jardinier and in Noisette's Ma- 

 nuel, p. 494"., where it is described as a large violet fruit, with a flavour resem- 

 bling that of the Reine Claude Violette. It appears to be quite distinct from 

 every other variety, except, perhaps, one called Miviam, of which scions had 

 been received from M. Stoffels of Mechlin, and which will probably be found 



