( 5 ) 
Bad kept them two or three days, planted them at his country- 
feat;. but not one of them, as he informed me, came up: 
whereas three out of four of the remainder, that were com- 
mitted by the Society to the care of Mr. Aiton, at the Royal 
Garden at Kevv, came up, and were produced before the So- 
ciety tlie fpring following *. 
A further confirmation of the danger of expofing feeds to the 
air, and not fowiiig, them diredlly when opened, will appear 
from the following e'xtradl of a letter from Fort Marlborough, 
in Sumatra, dated March the 5th, 1771, to a gentleman in Lon- 
don, who was fo kind as to communicate it to me. 
“ The Grafs-feeds that you fent me in bottles (fuch as red and 
“ white Clover, Trefoil, Lucerne, &c.) I planted immediately a 
“ little of each ; thefe grew extremely well. A few days after 
“ I fowed fome more in a different foil*, and only a few vegetated; 
“ and fell off im mediately. I then thought it was owing to the 
foil, and directly planted the remainder in the firfl foil, but not 
one ever fliewed itfelf, which mull: be owing to the air let 
“ in upon them.” This parcel was put up with Guinea pepper. 
This may afford a hint to gentlemen, both in the Eaft and 
Weft-Indies, to order their feedfmen to put up the feeds in fmall 
packages, that the whole in each package may be fown at the 
fame time; for it appears by this experiment, that the external 
air, which is very hot in thofe countries when compared to 
this, as foon as the feeds are expofed to it, immediately dries* 
up their natural moifoure, and caufes their lobe leaves and ger- 
■* 1 , have mentioned ' in the Phil. Tranfadtlons-, that there were but 36 acorns 
at firft preferved in wax in the box ; but I formed this calculation from the num- 
ber which Mr, Aiton fays he received, which was 34 added to the two that were 
cut open before the Society, not knowing till fome time after the account was 
prLtcd, that Lord Morton had taken out four, to make the experiment himfelf. 
men- 
