August 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
279 
These he intended to make into shelves for the “ guid 
wife’s” crockerywarc in their first cottage at Adelaide. 
It would take the ready pen of a George Robins to 
describe the sundry articles which were stowed into 
this omnibus, suffice it here to say that a span-new 
tea-kettle was half filled with tulip roots, and the 
other half with anemones and ranunculuses; one 
saucepan was filled with six dahlia roots, and a 
second with I forget what, but every thing that had 
a hollow part was as carefully filled as a dentist would 
a hollow tooth. The bed-clothes were put in about 
the middle of this medley, and our seed packets laid 
singly in layers between the folds of the blankets. 
The top of a second table was then taken off its 
frame, and made into a lid for our friend’s omnibus. 
This lid and the sides were fastened to the legs of the 
original table with screws, so that when the whole 
were undone in Australia every part of this box could 
be applied to its original use, and not the worse for 
the journey either, as the screw holes could easily be 
filled in with wooden pegs. Altogether, this turned 
out the best experiment 1 ever either heard of or read 
about, under such circumstances. 
We did not hear from him till two years after he 
left, and he could not then recollect of any thing of 
consequence that he lost altogether. He also said in 
a later communication that the most troublesome 
weeds in his garden would fetch a high price in a 
London nursery, being chiefly ground orchids of 
most strange aspects. He took out several good tes¬ 
timonials from the firm he left, from the clergyman 
of his parish, and from other influential gentlemen, 
which is a most essential point for all emigrants to 
consider. These testimonials, with his own indus¬ 
trious habits, and being a fair scholar for his sphere 
of life, soon procured for lnm a good appointment, 
and I hope he is happy and doing well. 
Much about the same time a British gardener, who 
was settled in a nursery business in one of the United 
States of North America, came over to London with 
a cargo of West Indian cacti on speculation. On 
his return early in the autumn, he took with him, 
not only seeds and roots, but actually a large collec¬ 
tion of cuttings, some of which I supplied. Not 
cuttings of fruit trees, for he did not seem to care 
any thing about them, but of soft-wooded flowering 
plants, such as pelargoniums and scarlet geraniums, 
thick stems of salvias, and the like. Yet he expected 
to be five weeks on the water. These cuttings he 
packed in small lots in a kind of dry Indian moss, 
called Tillandsia usneoicles, and placed them on the 
top of one of his boxes, where he could have easy 
access to them, but how either he or they got across 
the water I never heard, but I recollect his staring 
at me when I first expressed doubts about the safety 
of his cuttings. 
From all this we see that there is no danger about 
taking seeds of any sort to any part of N. America, 
and, if the proper steps are taken, nearly as little 
risk in conveying them to the antipodes, for I have 
repeatedly packed seeds for the Cape of Good Hope 
and St. Helena, without losing one out of a hundred, 
and once our European seeds reach the latitude of 
the Gape they are almost sure to do well enough for 
the rest of the voyage to New Zealand or Australia, 
because after that they have a comparatively cool 
temperature all the way; whereas, if they are destined 
to India or China by such conveyance, the awful 
ordeal of crossing the line a second time is what 
destroys so many seeds, and not the length of the 
voyage. Therefore, powerful non-conductors should 
surround them, but no attempt should ever be made 
to exclude the air from them. While the now obso 
lete mode of sending over seeds in bottles, sealed 
Indian or China jars, and other contrivances to ex¬ 
clude the air from them were resorted to, we could 
hardly get a tithe of them to do any good, except a 
few sorts that will carry anyhow. Of all modes of 
packing wo would first recommend to emigrants that 
of placing them in thin layers among woollen cloths 
of any description, that being the best non-conductor 
of heat within their reach, not excluding the air 
altogether, and if any of the seeds rot their juices 
are absorbed, and the mischief goes no farther if the 
separate packets are kept well apart amongst the 
folds of blankets, flannel, or any woollen wearing 
apparel. Heavy seeds, as beans and peas, would be 
safer in stout canvass bags, and this kind of canvass 
is as good as the coarsest brown paper for preserving 
them. Anemones, tulips, and all sorts of bulbs or 
tubers, should be packed in small quantities together, 
and, if possible, in cotton wadding or cotton wool. 
Then, if one rots or is diseased, this cotton will pre¬ 
vent the communication of such disease by sucking 
up any moisture which may prevail, and will let off 
gases or bad smells, which would otherwise risk a 
whole cargo. As to the length of time seeds will 
retain their freshness and power of vegetating, no 
one knows that perfectly, but we all do know that 
most seeds will live long enough to be carried from 
one part of the world to any other part, and that is 
sufficient for the purpose of the emigrant. To be 
sure, he may have to wait for months after his arrival 
before an opportunity of sowing them occurs, yet, if 
the seeds arrive safe, and are kept from damp, there 
is little danger about their perishing for the first 
year or two, while many seeds are not much the 
worse for being kept ten years. 
If an emigrant, on landing at any of our South 
Sea colonies, can show that ho is in possession of 
the newest seeds direct from London, he will stand a 
better chance of finding friends and employment 
than any one else. Even the bare fact that he cares 
about flowers and plants is a sure feather in his cap, 
for idlers, with rogues and vagabonds, never, or sel¬ 
dom, think about such things; therefore, I would 
strongly advise that those who remove to distant 
shores, either for pleasure or as emigrants, take out 
some English seeds with them. We can form no 
conception hereof the sensation an “English sail” 
in the “oiling” will create along the whole side of a 
new settlement. No matter what kind of seeds you 
may bring out, it is sure to be prized more than 
native seeds of the same sort; and let us be thankful 
that such is the case, and that no distance, however 
great, can efface the reminiscences of “ aifld lang 
syne.” 
Being one of the “ working classes ” myself, in 
every sense of the word, and having some friends or 
old fellow labourers in every one of our colonies, 
and, moreover, the subject having thus incidentally 
been thrown on my hands, I do not think that I am 
much out of place if I say a few words on the sub¬ 
ject, as very likely some of our cottage readers—and 
they are many—may like to hear my views of emi¬ 
gration generally; but 1 must not recommend one 
colony in preference to another. If we take a gar¬ 
dening view of the subject, however, and compare 
animals with plants, wo shall find—other circum¬ 
stances being the same—that animals, like plants, 
are more influenced by climate than by any other 
natural circumstances which may surround them; 
that the young of either kingdom are reared more 
easily under a temperature a few degrees higher than 
