184 Account of a Method of Ripening Seeds. 



preserve Seeds. If excluded from the air, they are quickly 

 covered with mildew, and when exposed, no less certainly 

 destroyed by insects. It occurred to me, in September last, 

 that air made dry by means of sulphuric acid, might be ad- 

 vantageously employed for this purpose, and the success of 

 the experiments I have made, has been complete. I placed 

 the seeds to be dried, in the pans of Leslie's ice machine, 

 and carefully replaced the receiver without exhausting the 

 air : small seeds were sufficiently dried in one or two days, 

 and the largest seeds in less than a week. 



Where no ice machine is at hand, any glass, glazed earth- 

 enware, or leaden vessel may be employed for the same pur- 

 pose ; but it is absolutely necessary that the cover fit exactly, 

 and that the bottom contain at least one inch of concentrated 

 sulphuric acid. The seeds may be placed on any kind of 

 plate supported on a glass stand. 



Seeds thus dried, may be afterwards preserved in a vegetat- 

 ing state for any necessary length of time, by keeping them in 

 an airy situation, in common brown paper, and occasionally 

 exposing them to the air, on a fine day, especially after damp 

 weather. This method will succeed with all the larger mu- 

 cilaginous seeds. Very small seeds, berries, and oily seeds, 

 may probably require to be kept in sugar, or with currants or 

 raisins. 



The garden seeds which are sent to China from England, 

 the Cape of Good Hope, New South Wales, or Bengal, fre- 

 quently fail, or arrive too late ; and although the Chinese 

 try every year to raise seeds, their endeavours are very seldom 

 crowned with success. But the gardeners who supply the 

 markets with Cabbages have contrived a method of supplying 



