Instructions for Packing living Plants, $c. 



193 



prepare them to give them all necessary care, nor from any 

 indifference as to their fate ; but entirely from not consider- 

 ing sufficiently the various accidents to which plants on ship- 

 board are exposed, and the improbability that they will ex- 

 perience, even under the most favourable circumstances, that 

 care and attention which they require. In vain are lives and 

 property risked in attempting to transfer the vegetable beau- 

 ties of other countries to this, if the same pains which were 

 devoted to procuring them be not continued in their subse- 

 quent management. The idea which seems to exist, that 

 to tear a plant from its native , soil, to plant it in fresh 

 earth, to fasten it in a wooden case, and to put it on board 

 a vessel under the care of some officer, is sufficient, is of all 

 others the most erroneous, and has led to the most ruinous 

 consequences. 



Perhaps, beyond any thing else, it is necessary to take care 

 that before plants are finally prepared for their voyage their 

 roots be well established in the pots in which it is intended 

 they should be transported. With many herbaceous plants 

 this requires only a short space of time ; but for such as are 

 shrubby, or of a hard woody texture, a period, in many in- 

 stances, of not less than two or three months is absolutely 

 necessary. The attention of gentlemen residing in hot coun- 

 tries, particularly within the tropics, cannot be directed too 

 strongly to this fact, which if alone neglected, must either 

 destroy entirely, or very materially weaken, the effect of any 

 attention which may be otherwise bestowed. 



I would recommend that square wooden boxes be used for 

 the plants instead of earthenware pots, not only because the 

 former are less liable to be broken, but also because they are 



