CHAP. X. 
SEED. 
365 
death ; for seeds brought over land from India, and therefore 
not exposed to such fluctuations of temperature, generally 
succeed. Others, again, which cannot be conveyed with 
certainty if exposed to the air, will travel in safety for 
many months, if buried in clay rammed hard in boxes : in 
this manner only can the seeds of the Mango be brought 
alive from the West Indies ; and it was thus the principal 
part of the Araucaria Pines, now in England, were trans- 
ported from Chile. It may therefore be well worth con- 
sideration, whether, by some artificial contrivance, in which 
these principles shall be kept in view, it may not be possible 
to reduce to something like certainty the preservation of 
seeds in long voyages. Such, for instance, as by surrounding 
them with many layers of non-conducting matter, as case over 
case of wood ; or by ramming every other space, in such cases, 
with clay in a dry state. These means seem more likely to 
answer their end, than the usual modes of putting seeds in 
bottles, packing them in charcoal, or surrounding them with 
coats of wax; all of which, it is well known, are abso- 
lutely prejudicial, instead of beneficial, to the seeds. In 
illustration of what we have recommended, we may add that 
seeds are well known to travel best in their own pods, or 
pericarps: may we not suppose that their vitality is pre- 
served, in such instances, by the non-conducting quality of 
the air which the cavities of the fruit contain ? ” 
