ALL CLOSE PACKAGES INJURIOUS. 249 



What has, perhaps, tended to confirm this erroneous opinion have 

 been the stories current about seeds enclosed in mummy-cases for thou- 

 sands of years, having germinated. The newspapers abound in such 

 tales, which are all apocryphal, if not absolutely false. Even Mr. 

 Tupper's mummy wheat, said to be the produce of grains taken out of 

 a mummy-case by Sir Gardner "Wilkinson, (See Qard. Chron., 1846, 

 p. 757.) has been declared, by very high authority, to be a mystifica- 

 tion of the Arab guides. It is, however, to such instances that we may 

 ascribe the origin of wrapping seeds in wax-cloths, like the cerements 

 of the dead, or soldering them up in metal boxes, or hermetically Sealing 

 them in glass. 



Packing in cliarcoal lias been recommended, it is difficult 

 to say why ; and experience shows what might have been anti- 

 cipated, that it produces no other effect than packing in earth 

 or other dry non-condtictiag material. 



Clayed sugar has been employed, and, as it is said, occa- 

 sionally with advantage; but I have seen no instance of success, 

 and, on the contrary, its tendency to absorb moisture from the 

 air tm it becomes capable of fermenting, is in itself an objec- 

 tion to the employment of this substance. 



It is obvious that any contrivance which keeps out of a 

 packet of seeds the air of our atmosphere, will keep in the air 

 of theirs. Now the air of our atmosphere is dry, or if occasion- 

 ally damp, soon becomes dried, if seeds are exposed to it in a 

 room in which we live. On the other hand, aU seeds are neces- 

 sarily damp, and they communicate their moisture to the air 

 that surrounds them ; the papers too m which they are packed 

 are damp, as may be seen by holding such papers before a fire, 

 when the damp will dry off in the form of vapour ; and if this 

 air which surrounds the seeds is enclosed in an air-tight vessel 

 of any kind, it must always remain damp, because it cannot 

 be dried by ventilation. We may therefore assume, that 

 seeds in air-tight vessels are damp, but in situations freely 

 communicating with the atmosphere are comparatively dry. 

 So long as seed-packages are kept at a low temperature, this 

 difference is of no moment ; because seeds cannot germinate, 

 or, in other words, cannot revive from their torpor, in a low 

 temperature: but let the temperature rise and the case is 

 altered. What seeds require in order to grow are moisture 



