194 Instructions for Packing living Plants in Foreign 



lighter. When the period for embarking them arrives, they 

 should be placed in wooden cases, the tops of which must be 

 capable of being opened, and should slope both ways like the 

 roof of a double green-house. These cases must be furnished 

 with a tarpawling, fixed along their tops, and sufficiently 

 large, when unrolled, to cover them completely, so as to pro- 

 tect the plants from being damaged by the salt water dashing 

 over them in rough weather. 



It cannot be expected that heavy cases should meet with 

 very gentle treatment on ship-board, and it is certain they 

 will be handled in the roughest manner by watermen, carters, 

 and custom-house officers, after they have arrived in port. 

 The materials, therefore, of which they are made, ought be 

 of a very strong description, and the joints of the lower part 

 either secured by iron bands, or well dove-tailed together ; 

 but as the former method is attended with less trouble, and 

 is equally secure, it will probably be the more generally 

 adopted. Instances are not uncommon of fine collections 

 being delivered from the custom-house with the sides of 

 the cases beaten in, and the plants and pots broken in 

 pieces. 



The person in charge of the cases on board should have 

 directions never to exclude them from air and light in fine 

 weather, unless to protect them from the cold, as the vessel 

 makes the land, and after she is in port, or during high winds, 

 or especially when the seamen are washing the decks ; but 

 in foul weather to close the lids down and to unroll the 

 tarpawling over the latter, so as to exclude the sea spray 

 effectually. If, notwithstanding these precautions, saline 

 particles should become encrusted upon the leaves and stems 



