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TRANSMISSION OF LIVING PLANTS BY SEA. 



The soil of the cases should be at least nine or ten inches in 

 depth. After the plants are put in, each case should be placed 

 perfectly level, and liberally supplied with water. It is much 

 better if this can be done ten days or a fortnight before the 

 plants are to be sent off, so that they may be well established in 

 their new quarters. During this time they can have frequent 

 waterings, and then, when the soil has filled up all the crevices 

 in the cases and become firm, it may be fastened down with cross 

 bars of wood. A little moss, where it can be obtained, is an 

 excellent thing to sprinkle on the surface, as it both helps to 

 keep the earth down, and at the same time prevents evaporation 

 from going on too rapidly. 



This mode of packing applies to shrubs and trees ; orchids, or 

 air plants, require different treatment. As the latter do not 

 draw much nourishment from the soil, there is no occasion to 

 have so much of it in the cases ; indeed, a large body of damp 

 soil is very apt to rot the plants. Two or three inches is quite 

 sufficient. As these plants are generally found growing upon 

 trees, the best way is to cut the portion of the branch on which 

 the plant grows, and send it home with the plant upon it. In 

 the majority of cases it is a bad plan to pull the roots off the 

 wood, if the plants are to be sent in glazed cases and exposed to 

 a sea voyage for five or six months. When I despatched some 

 cases filled with Phalsenopsis from Manilla, I had them made 

 with only one glazed side, the other was wood. After packing 

 the bottom of the cases full of plants I nailed a great number to 

 the wooden side, and from the number which arrived in good 

 order in this country the plan must have answered the purpose. 

 It is well known that many of these air plants require so little 

 nourishment from the soil, that they may be sent home in 

 common packing cases if the voyage does not occupy more than 

 six weeks or even two months, such as from the West Indies or 

 South America. The above remarks, with regard to air plants, 

 therefore, only apply to long voyages, such as from India or 

 China to this country. 



Ships and Shipping Plants. — When the vessel is about to 

 sail, the cases should be closed firmly, and the joints must be 

 made perfectly tight. Narrow strips of canvas dipped in a boil- 

 ing mixture of tar and pitch, and put on the outside of the joints, 

 answer the purpose admirably, and should always be used where 

 there is any difficulty in making the joints close. 



Large vessels with poops are the best for plants, and should 

 always be preferred where there is any choice, as their deck 

 is higher and consequently less liable to be washed by the sea. 

 The poop, either in small or large ships, is the best place for the 

 cases to be placed — in small vessels they should either be put 



