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confiderable advantage gained over the Barbarians, 
and not over the Romans. 
XXIV. An Account of form Experiments re- 
lating to the Prefer vat ion of Seeds : In 
Two Letters to the Right Honourable the 
Earl of Macclesfield, Prefident of the 
Royal Society . From John Ellis, Efq\ 
F, R. S. 
My Lord, London, Jan. 18. 1759. 
Read Jan. 18, A S the fupplying our colonies with 
y \ the feeds of ufeful plants, in order 
to have their produce imported from thence into 
England, inftead of the places of their natural growth 
in Europe, Alia, and Africa, as we do at prefent, is a 
matter of fome importance, therefore I am perfuaded, 
that experiments tending to promote fo ufeful and 
beneficial a work, will meet with the approbation of 
this honourable Society. 
Among many ufeful feeds, which I fent governor 
Ellis in the year 1 757, were fome acorns of the cork- 
tree, which were put in a box in fand. Thefe, he 
mentions in his laft letters, were intirely fpoiled in 
the voyage; and obferves, that the confined air in the 
hold of fhips, occafions fuch hot and penetrating 
fleams, efpecially in warm climates, that it difpofes 
all feeds, in common packages, to a fweating or pu- 
trefactive fermentation, by which the vegetative qua- 
lity of many is intirely deftroyed : and therefore ad- 
