( 3 ) 
following hints may be of ufe in bringing them over to anfwer 
the end propofed. 
In the firfl place it ought to be carefully attended to, that the 
feeds fhould be perfectly ripe when they are gathered ; and they 
fhould be gathered, if poffible, in dry weather; afterwards they 
fhould be fpread thin on paper or matts, in a dry airy room, 
but not in funfhine. The time necelfary for this operation will vary 
according to the heat of the climate, or feafon of the year, from 
a fortnight to a month, or perhaps two may be neceffary; the 
hotter the feafon, the lefs time will fuffice. This is to carry off their 
fuperfluous moifture, which if confined would immediately turn 
to mouldinefs, and end in rottennefs. 
As there are two methods that have llicceeded, and put us in 
pofieflion of feveral young plants of the true tea-tree of China, I 
fhall mention them both, in order to affift the collector in bring- 
ing home the feeds of many valuable plants. 
The firft is by covering them with bees-wax in the manner 
explained in the Phil. TranfaT. vol. lviii. p. 75. and which is 
hereafter defcribed ; where the acorns vegetated freely after they 
had been kept a whole feafon inclofed in wax *. 
* Here we muft obferve, that, in the experiment made on the oak acorns inclofed in wax, 
they were not put into it till the latter-end of February, though they had been ripe and fallen 
from the tree four months before, which was the latter-end of October preceding ; not but that 
they might have been fafely inclofed much fooner. 
However, by this time, that property, which all living fubftances, as well animal as vege- 
table, of imbibing and perfpiring, was very much abated; for the feeds of vegetables, like 
animals in their torpid Hate, do imbibe and perfpire to a certain degree; yet this degree 
greatly diminilhes in proportion to the time- they are kept (under certain circumftances of the 
manner in which they are kept) till at lalt they lofe their vegetating power. So that we fee 
how neceflary it is, that the larger feeds, that are intended to be inclofed in wax, lhouldbe in 
fuch a ftate, as not to fend forth too great a quantity of aqueous moillure, and yet that there 
fhould be fufficient to fupport them in this confined ftate. Many of the tea-feeds lately fent 
over in wax have perifhed for want of this caution. 
Skilful perfons, by cutting feme of them open and obferving the ftate of the kernels, will 
be able, after different experiments, to hit on the critical time for this operation. 
B 2 
It 
