258 PACKING GEOWING PLANTS FOE LONG VOYAGES. 



time, after which very extraordinary measures are required to 

 repress its desire to grow. It is, however, possible to do 

 this. If a plant — a Vine — after having been rested in the 

 natural way for four months, is introduced into a forciag- 

 house, it shoots freely ; if the rest has extended to six months, 

 it pushes with still greater force ; but if it has only rested for 

 two months, its excitability is less easy to arouse; and 

 supposing the period of repose to have been only a week or 

 two, the renewal of its growth takes place with difficulty, and 

 feebly. It is therefore evident, that in a case where it is 

 important to repress excitability, the plant should be operated 

 upon as soon as possible after it has naturally gone to rest. 

 Accordingly, it has been found, that if plants in this country 

 are packed up in the month of November, they may be made 

 to travel for considerable spaces of time if kept damp, 

 tolerably cool, and closed up from light, which is the great 

 stimulating power. In this way Camellias have been sent, by 

 Cape Horn, to Lima, and other plants to the Australian 

 continent, by Messrs. Loddiges. 



Tie mode of proceeding is this : plants, three or four years old, with 

 ripe, well-formed wood, are, in November or October, placed in layers, 

 in a stout chest, and well packed with an abundance of sphagnum, 

 trodden down as tight as possible, so that no open spaces are left in the 

 interior, but that the whole mass is firm and compact. By these means 

 the plants are surrounded by a substance which conducts heat very 

 badly, and will scarcely part with its moisture at all under such cir- 

 cumstances. The chest is then securely fastened down, and no further 

 care is demanded, except insuring its being placed between decJcs, in a 

 ventilated situation, during the voyage. It woidd, however, we con- 

 ceive, be an improvement if the chesb of plants were guarded by 

 another case, the space between the two being filled with charcoal, and 

 the whole enclosed in a polished tin cover ; for by these means the 

 variations of temperature would be most securely guarded against. 



The success of operations of this kind will, after all, depend 

 greatly upon the specific vitality of plants. In this respect 

 they vary remarkably, as the following well-attested facts may 

 serve to show. We are indebted for them to M. P6pin, Super- 

 intendent of the Jardin des Plantes. 



" The Orange, as is well known, is capable of resisting bad treatment 



