250 CONDITIONS OF SECURITY. 



and warmth ; they cannot grow in damp without heat, nor in 

 warmth without moisture. It is the comhination of these two 

 conditions that is absolutely requisite. When they arrive in 

 warm latitudes, or are placed in warm situations, such as the 

 hold of a ship, the seeds in air-tight cases, being surrounded 

 with moisture, attempt to grow ; those, on the contrary, which 

 are in ventilated packages, not being surroimded with moisture, 

 remain unchanged. The commencement of growth made by 

 the seeds in air-tight cases is presently arrested, inconsequence 

 of the unfavourable circumstances under which it takes place, 

 and the seeds not being able to return to the state in which 

 they were before they began to germinate, speedily perish ; 

 but the seeds in ventilated packages, not having begun to 

 grow, stUl remain unaltered. The irresistible conclusion from 

 this is, that the true mode of packing seeds for long voyages 

 is, to put them in well-ventUated packages, and not in closed- 

 up cases. Such drjmess as seeds can acquire from exposure 

 to the air cannot hurt them, but wUl, on the contrary, tend to 

 preserve their germinating powers. 



Upon the whole, the only mode which is calculated to meet 

 all the circumstances to which seeds are exposed during a 

 voyage is, to dry them as thoroughly as possible, enclose them 

 in coarse paper, and to pack the papers themselves very loosely 

 in coarse canvass bags, not enclosed in boxes, but- freely ex- 

 posed to the air ; and to insure their transmission in some dry 

 weU-ventilated place. Thus, if the seeds are originally dried 

 incompletely, they wiU become further dried on their passage ; 

 if the seed paper is damp, as it almost always is, the moisture 

 in it wiU fly off through the sides of the bags, and not collect 

 around the seeds. It is true that, under such circumstances, 

 the seeds will be exposed to great fluctuations of temperature, 

 and to the influence of the atmosphere ; but neither the one 

 nor the other of these is hltely to be productive of injury to 

 the germinating principle. The excellence of this method I 

 can attest from my own observation. Large quantities of seeds 

 have been, annually transmitted from India for many years, 

 doubtless gathered with care, it is to be presumed prepared 

 with attention to the preservation of the vital principle, and 



