i eee 
IMPROVED METHOD OF TRANSPORTING LIVING PLANTS. 
symptoms above described, while in the 
extremities a proportionate degree of torpor 
takes place, accompanied by tremors, shiv- 
erings, and convulsions. 
“The natives of Macassar, Borneo, and 
the Eastern Islands, when they employ this 
poison, make use of an arrow of bamboo, 
(to the end of which they attach a shark’s 
tooth,) which they throw from a blow-tube 
or sompi 
“The Upas appears to affect different 
quadrupeds with nearly equal force, pro- 
portionate in some degree to their size and 
disposition; and a man who was acciden- 
tally wounded by an arrow poisoned with 
it, in the elbow, died in half an hour with 
similar symptoms to those observed in 
animals." 
LETTER FROM N. B. WARD, ESQ. 
TO DR. HOOKER, ON THE 
SUBJECT OF HIS IMPROVED 
METHOD OF TRANSPORTING 
LIVING PLANTS. 
Wellelose Square, Jan. 13th, 1836. 
My DEAR Sir, 
I wave lately heard that you wish for 
Some information respecting my new me- 
thod of growing plants without open expo- 
Sure to air. As I do not intend to publish 
at present a detailed account, and as much 
misrepresentation exists upon the subject, 
I feel great pleasure in furnishing you with 
the principal facts, of which you may make 
any use you please. 
The depressing influence of the air of 
large towns upon vegetation, had, for many 
years, engaged my attention. 
The science of Botany, in consequence 
of the perusal of the works of the immor- 
tal Linneus, had occupied me from my 
youth up, and the earliest object of my 
ambition was to possess an old wall, co- 
vered with ferns and mosses, Compelled 
by circumstances to live surrounded by, 
and enveloped in, the smoke of numerous 
manufactories, all my endeavours to keep 
— d favourites alive, proved sooner or later 
iling. I was led, however, to reflect 
> more deeply upon the subject, in 
317 
consequence of a simple incident, which 
occurred about seven or eight years ago, 
I had buried the chrysalis of a Sphynx in 
some moist mould, which was contained in 
a wide-mouthed glass bottle, covered with 
a lid. In watching the bottle from day to 
day, I observed that the moisture which 
during the heat of the day arose from the 
mould, condensed on the internal surface 
of the glass, and returned from whence it 
came, thus keeping the mould always 
equally moist. About a week prior to the 
final change of the insect, a seedling Fern 
and Grass made their appearance upon the 
surface of the mould. 
After I had secured my insect, I was 
anxious to watch the development of these 
plants in such a confined situation, and ac- 
cordingly placed the bottle outside my 
study window. e plants continued to 
grow, and turned out to be the Poa annua 
and Nephrodium Filiz mas. I now com- 
menced a series of experiments upon other 
plants, principally Ferns, selecting those 
that were most difficult of culture, such as 
Hymenophyllum, &c. My method of pro- 
ceeding was as follows:—Keeping nature 
always in view, I endeavoured to imitate 
the natural condition of the plants as much 
as possible, as regarded the exposure to 
light, solar heat, moisture, &c. Thus, if 
Ferns were the subject of experiment, they 
were planted in the mould most conge ial 
to them, well watered, but all the super- 
fluous water allowed to drain off, and then 
placed in a situation having a northern 
aspect. If, on the contrary, I wished to 
grow Cacti, they were planted in a mixture 
of loam and sand, suspended from the roof 
of the case, and fully exposed to solar 
heat. Upon this part of the subject I need 
not, however, dilate any further, and will 
therefore confine myself to the results ob- 
tained. 
lst, That the depressing influence of the 
air of large towns upon vegetation depends 
almost entirely upon the fuliginous matter 
with which such an atmosphere is impreg- 
nated, and which produces the same effect 
on the leaves of plants as upon the lungs 
of animals, 
