OF SEED-PACKING. 177 



says that the success of his experiments was com- 

 plete. He placed the seeds to be dried in the pans 

 of Leslie's ice machine, and carefully replaced the 

 receiver without exhausting the air; small seeds 

 were sufficiently dried in one or two days, and the 

 largest seeds in less than a week. {Hort. Trans. ^ iii. 

 184.) 



Other contrivances might easily be adopted. Muri- 

 ate of lime, for instance, which has the property of 

 absorbing the moisture of the atmosphere, might,'per- 

 haps, be employed with advantage in drying the air 

 in which seeds are placed after being gathered. 



The reason why it is so important that seeds which 

 have to be long kept should be thoroughly dried, is, 

 partly because seeds have the power of decomposing 

 water, which causes the commencement of germina- 

 tion (14), and, if this happens while they are cut off 

 from the other means of existence, the process of 

 growth must be stopped, and their death will follow 

 and, in part, from the tendency of vegetable matter in 

 contact with water to putrefy, if the actions of life are 

 not in play. 



CHAPTEKTII. 



OF SEED-PACKING. 



It seldom happens that seeds are sown as soon as 

 thev are ripe ; it is sometimes desirable that they 



8* 



