highest of the plants; and over these should be stretched 

 a net work of pitched cord, so as to protect the plants from 

 external injury, and prevent the earth from being disturbed 

 by mice or other vermin. 



To each box should be fastened a canvass cover, made 

 to go entirely over it, but so constructed as to be easily put 

 on or off, as may be necessary, to protect the plants from 

 the salt water, or winds, and sometimes from the sunshine. 

 Strong handles should be fixed to the boxes that they may 

 be conveniently moved. 



During the voyage, the plants should be kept in a light, 

 airy situation, without which, they will perish. They should 

 not be exposed to severe winds, nor cold, nor for a long time 

 to too hot a sunshine, nor to the spray of the salt water. To 

 prevent injury from the saline particles with which the air 

 is oftentimes charged at sea, (especially when the waves have 

 white frothy curls upon them) and which on evaporation 

 close up the pores of the plants and destroy them, it will 

 be proper, when they have been exposed to them, to wash 

 off the salt particles by sprinkling the leaves with fresh water. 



The plants and seeds that are sown will occasionally re- 

 quire watering on the voyage, for which purpose rain water 

 is best. If, in any special case, particular instructions on this 

 point, or upon any other connected with the management 

 of the plants during the voyage, be necessary, they should 

 be made known to those having charge of the plants. But, 

 after all, much will depend upon the judicious care of those 

 to whom the plants may be confided during the voyage. 



Plants of the succulent kind, and particularly of the 

 Cactus family, should not be planted in earth, but in a 

 mixture of dry sand, old lime rubbish and vegetable mould, 

 in about equal parts, and should not be watered. 



It may not be necessary, in every case, to observe all the 

 precautions here recommended in regard to the putting up 

 and transmission of seeds; but it is believed, that there will 

 be the risk in departing from them, in proportion to the 

 distance of the country from which the seeds are to be 

 brought, and to the difference of its latitude, or of the lati- 

 tudes through which they will pass on the voyage. It is not 

 intended, however, by these instructions; to exclude the 

 adoption of any other modes of putting up and transmitting 



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