IN CLOSELY-GLAZED CASES. 
43 
his system, has enabled him to receive from the most distant parts of the globe, 
plants that had never before been introduced alive into this country, and conse- 
quently leads us to hope, that the more rare vegetable productions of other countries 
may now be safely transmitted to our own. 
The great recommendation of this system is the simplicity of it, and the little 
trouble that it gives to the seamen ; for when once the plant-cabins are placed on a 
secure part of the deck, i.e., where they will not be exposed to danger by breakage, 
the seaman has nothing further to do with them, the only requisite being, that 
they should be placed in a situation where they are exposed to the greatest possible 
share of light ; the poop of the vessel, consequently, being the most eligible situa- 
tion for them, and also where they are least likely to be — what is a great fault in a 
sailor's eyes — in the way. 
The reader will find, in the " Companion to the Botanical Magazine," for May 
1836, a letter from Mr. Ward to Sir William Jackson Hooker, Regius Professor of 
Botany at Glasgow, in which the original discovery and the results of it are fully 
detailed. In a letter, which the writer of this received from Mr. Allan Cunningham, 
the Australian botanist and traveller, dated Sydney, New South Wales, the 19th of 
February, 1837, he says : — " The two cabins of plants that Messrs. Loddige's kind- 
ness supplied me with, were landed yesterday in fine condition, and I am gradually 
adapting them to the high dry temperature of the colony at this season,* the ther- 
mometer (Fahrenheit) being 85° in the shade. The Primroses, Daphnes, Daisies, 
&c, &c, have all survived." 
The eligibility of the plan, and the facility with which it can be put into execu- 
tion, render it merely necessary for me to give a description of the best form of 
cabin, and the method of filling it with plants, to insure a healthy arrival at its 
place of destination. The form of the cabins cannot be better than that usually 
employed for the conveyance of plants from abroad, viz., in the shape of a span-house, 
which will be the best means of affording the plants the greatest possible light; for, 
on that circumstance, and I am almost warranted in saying, on that alone, depends 
the chance of the safe arrival of the plants, always supposing that they have been 
properly planted in the cabins in the first instance. The size ought not to be too 
large, because a cabin that two men can lift stands a much better chance than one that 
requires a tackle to move ; therefore, the length had better not exceed three feet six 
inches, the breadth twenty inches to two feet, and the height about two feet six inches ; 
but that must all depend, principally, on the kind of plants that are inclosed in it. The 
cabins should be strongly made of inch or inch- an d-a-quarter board, and the lights accu- 
rately fitted to the sides and ends, so that when the plants are planted they may be 
securely screwed (not nailed) down. The glazed portions of the cabins will be much more 
secure if a wire-work is fastened over them. The bottom of the cases should be 
strewed with gravel or small stones, to allow of draining ; otherwise the tender fibres 
* The end of summer in the southern hemisphere. The plants were put in the cases early in 
October 1836, and left England the last day of the same month. 
