346 METHOD Of PACK1N& PLANTS FOR EXPORTATION-. 



of vegetatioHj and consequently to enable it to resist fer- 

 mentation and putrefaction for a very great length of time. 

 Theory of its Placed under such circumstances, the plants, which are 

 ^^"°^i- packed up in the moss, enjoy a kind of life in some degree 



similar to that enjoyed by an animal in a torpid state, the 

 functions of life are supported at a very low state, but still 

 sufficient to preserve them in a situation to be acted upon 

 by favourable circumstances, when again planted. Such is 

 the theory I have formed of the effect of this moss in pre- 

 serving plants; the many necessary calls of my profession 

 have not allowed me time sufficient to investigate the sub- 

 ject, with all the attention I could have wished to have 

 bestowed on it, and must also plead my apology, for the 

 hasty manner in which my opinion is presented to you. I 

 consider the discovery of much value, both to botany and 

 agriculture. 



Believe me, 



Yours truly, 



A. T. THOMPSON, 



Dear Sir, 

 Various fruit IN addition to the account which I delivered to you, re- 



trees sent to specting mv method of packing plants for exportation in 

 Sierra Leone, f ,^ -^ , ^ ^ t, , ^ u xt. x 



packed in this the sphagnum paliistre moss, 1 beg leave to observe, that, 



^oss, at the time the case was packed up, which I sent to the 



Adclphi in January last, a similar package was sent from 

 ' me to Sierra Leone, by desire of the African Insti-tution, 

 who wished to introduce into that colony the mulberry tree 

 for feeding silk worms ; also different kinds of vines, and 

 other fruit trees, amounting in the whole to nearly fifteen 

 hundred trees. 



with success. T^^sy arrived there in about four months after the pack- 

 age was made up, and the trees were planted under the di- 

 rection of a gentleman, to whom I gave a copy of the in- 

 structions, which accompanied my former letter to you of 

 last January. The following account of them has since 

 appeared in the African Herald. " A number of fruit and 

 other trees, among which are the white and red mulberry, 

 Tines, etc., have been sent from London, by order of the 

 African Institution 3 all of which are at present growing 



hercj 



