182 APPLICATION OF PBINOIPLES. 



stance of success, and, on the contrary, its tendency 

 to absfirb moisture from the air till it becomes capable 

 of fermenting, is in itself an objection to the employ- 

 ment of this substance. 



The most common method of packing is to enclose 

 seeds in paper, to surround parcels of such papers 

 with envelopes of the same material, and to enclose 

 the whole in a deal box. It is in this manner that 

 seedsmen usually despatch their orders to India, and 

 other distant parts of the world. The evils of this 

 method have been pointed out by Dr. Falconer, in 

 the Proceedings of the Horticultural Society^ vol. i. p. 

 49. " On one occasion," he says, " I received from 

 England a large assortment of garden vegetable seeds, 

 from a London seedsman. They were packed in the 

 thick dark brown paper which is generally used by 

 grocers and seedsmen, and which, for the facility of 

 folding, is usually in a somewhat damp state. The 

 packages were nailed up in a large wooden box, with 

 numerous folds of this paper, and the box was then 

 hermetically sealed in a tin case; it then found its way 

 into the ship's hold. The damp paper, which in the 

 temperature of England, say at 50°, would have mat- 

 tered 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 semi-pulpy and mildewed state." 



Upon the whole, the only mode which is calculated 

 to meet all the circumstances to which seeds are ex- 

 posed during a voyage is to dry them as thoroughly 

 as possible, enclose them in coarse paper, and to pack 



