332 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
February 26. 
When I first read of this, I tried an experiment on 
purpose to prove how far the same ends could he ob¬ 
tained by different means, and with the sole view of 
solving the difficult problem of transmitting trees, &c., 
to Australia, and I think that I have succeeded so far 
as to make the plan as easy as it is possible to make it. 
My experiments were tried on geraniums in a growing 
state, and they are not the easiest things in the world 
to deal with in this respect; but I am almost certain 
that I could take a thousand of them out to New Zealand 
without much loss, and if so, surely a few hundreds of 
fruit-trees might easily be managed on the same prin¬ 
ciple, and that principle is involved in the above extract 
from the letter of our correspondent, in that part which 
refers to the wet moss. By a very simple contrivance 
I kept moss perfectly damp round the roots of a dozen 
geraniums, in separate parcels, from September to the 
end of March; and I am quite sure that I could so 
manage, as to keep the moss damp enough for any roots 
all the year round; and not only that, but I am perfectly 
satisfied that I could carry a lot of mixed plants from 
any part of the world to any other part, with much less 
risk than can be done by the best Wardian case that 
ever was made. 
As soon as a well-managed Wardian case gets into 
the latitude of Madeira, it begins to fill with hot vapour 
in the daytime, and this vapour condenses into a shower- 
bath every night, and this goes on until you reach a 
long way beyond the line or equator, and we all know 
that moist, hot, close air will set plants growing in our 
hot pits in the dead of winter. How much more so, 
therefore, within the tropics; this is the great difficulty, 
and an insuperable one, under Ward’s system. Mr. 
Fortune found it so, and he gives excellent advice how 
to manage the plants all the time they are in this stew; 
but then his directions, to be of any avail, would require 
a person to go on hoard on purpose to attend to this 
very thing, and that would be like writing a letter and 
going with it yourself. Now my experiments with the 
geraniums were tried purposely to get over this very 
difficulty, and I have got over it. Geraniums, and all 
other plants, may now be carried about in Wardian 
cases, or without them, and be kept perfectly damp at 
the roots for many months, without a possibility of 
vapour, dew, or even the least dampness, appearing in 
the Wardian case or the packing-box all the time, and 
any one may prove the experiment before sending off 
plants, or merely to satisfy curiosity. Indeed, I should 
be gratified to learn that many of our readers had tried 
the experiment for the curiosity of the thing, and that 
they would let us know, in due time, how far they suc¬ 
ceeded, in order to put the question on a proper footing 
for the use of foreign settlers as soon as possible. 
The autumn is the proper time to pack plants for 
distant settlements, and also the right time to put the 
following experiment to the test, but it might be tried 
even now for some things. In September, 1848, the 
geraniums alluded to were growing in pots; they were 
pruned in the usual way, and allowed to break, or come 
into growth, and when they were ready to be shaken out 
of the pots, for being changed into smaller ones, they 
were put under the following process: all the soil was 
shaken from the roots, and all the roots were preserved 
whole; they were carefully disentangled from each other, 
and as carefully coiled, separately, in a ball of fresh 
moss from the woods, the quantity of moss allowed for 
each plant being as much as I could conveniently hold 
in both hands, or say a hall four or five inches in 
diameter. Each ball was packed as tightly as I could 
make it without bruising the roots, and the moss was 
nearly dry. Some balls were tied round with copper 
wire, some with small twine, and some with soft matting, 
and when the whole were finished the balls were soaked 
in water till they had sucked up as much of it as the 
moss would hold ; part of the water was then squeezed 
out, but not much, and each ball was enveloped sepa¬ 
rately in a perfectly air-tight envelope; strings were 
then tied halt-way up the plants, with loops at the ends, 
by which the plants and balls were hung on nails all 
that winter, some in a dry seed-room, where very little 
light reached them, some in a living-room, with plenty 
of light, and others inside a south aspect window, close 
to the glass while there was no frost, and all of them 
were kept very carefully from frost, but in every other 
respect the whole were allowed to take their chance. 
With the exception of two in the seed-room having lost 
a little of their tops by withering, because the place was 
too dry and dark, all of them lived out the winter just 
as well as if they were in pots and in the greenhouse, 
only they did not grow much. In March they were 
unpacked, and the moss was nearly as wet as when put 
up last September, and I am sure that little of the 
moisture was lost by evaporation. Every one of the 
plants made fresh roots, which spread through and 
through the moss, and I could not see that those in the 
seed-room made fewer roots than those kept against the 
glass of the window. 
Now, can we suppose any cause which would prevent 
these geraniums arriving quite safe to New Zealand, if 
the stems were kept perfectly dry, and away from the 
influence of the air, as in a Wardian case, the balls 
being well packed in the bottom of the case in carpenter’s 
shavings, or in any other dry, light material, or without 
a Wardian case, but in a strong wooden box, quite in 
the dark ; I think the latter would he the safest plan, as 
offering no excitement to growth, as the glass would be 
sure to do more or less while the vessel was within the 
tropics. If a gardener, or any person well versed in the 
management of pot plants, were to go out with a lot of 
plants under this system, a Wardian case would of 
course be far preferable, because he would attend to 
them just as if they were so many plants in a green¬ 
house—open the case to give air at all times, and warm 
showers when they offered; as soon as he reached the 
hot latitudes he would give Midsummer treatment—air 
very early and very late, and a slight shading while the 
sun was fierce, and so on, but in every other instance, 
darkness and freedom from air, or any changes, as far 
as possible, would be the safest -way. 
1 cannot conceive how fruit-trees on a voyage to New 
Zealand could be benefited by being packed in damp 
moss, unless the moss was bound up air tight. One would 
rather suppose the wet moss would be injurious, because 
in less than three weeks after leaving England the 
vessel would get into a climate sufficiently hot to cause 
the moisture to rise into hot vapour, and be soon lost 
altogether in a rough box. 
The air-tight material that I used for covering the 
balls of wet moss, I received from the Botanic Garden 
in Calcutta a few months previously. It was a fort¬ 
night longer on the way than the usual course of the 
overland mails, owing to some oversight by the person 
entrusted to see it on board the vessel. Yet, many little 
bits of orchids, not better than cuttings, were quite fresh 
in this material when I unpacked a set of little wicker 
baskets in which the whole were put up. It was a kind 
of coarse linen cloth, smeared on both sides with wax or 
some composition of a waxy nature; any piece of this 
cloth would hold water like a bladder, and after doubling 
up a square of it round the balls, I fastened the edges 
so firmly round the stems of the geraniums, that I could 
not squeeze out the least moisture from the moss. 
Since then I have tried other means to secure the 
same ends, with which I am satisfied, and next week I 
shall relate them. Meantime, I. would confidently recom¬ 
mend the principle for packing fruit-trees, &c., destined 
for long voyages ; I would choose dwarf trees two years 
old, from the graft or bud, cut in the strongest roots, en- 
