It should then be hermetically sealed, and not opened during the voyage. It should be kept on the open deck, and if the glasses are broken, they should be immediatly replaced; if there are holes in the wood, they should be puttied.
The box should never be put below except it contains tropic plants and the cold extreme. For light frosts, a cloth is sufficient, and they should have all the sun possible.
The best time for sending plants to France is betwen April and october.
Seeds should also be sent.
A great number of seeds keep for a year and more, if gathered ripe and kept dry. Seeds are ripe when they fall off, or when the fruits, that inclose them, open. But seeds apparently dry, often contain a great quantity of water which would mould them, if put up in that state. They should be dried by the sun in the open air several days before packing, especially berries and pulpy fruits. They should be pressed and dried in the sun or in brown paper, like plants prepared for herbals.
The best way of keeping them, in a long voyage, is to dry them perfectly, wrap them in thick paper, and put them in thick bags hung in a dry and airy place.
There are seeds, especially those that contain oily matter, that must be germinated on the voyage. Such are, among exotics, the seeds of our climate, cocorus, chesnust, beechnuts; and among exoctics, the seeds of the Laurel, many of the Palms, several Conifers, Arancarias, tea and coffee seeds, goyaviers, and other myrtinees.
The best way of sending these seeds is to sow them in the glass cases described above, either among other plants, or in special boxes of smaller size; but common boxes or barrels will do, if there are no glass boxes, well filled with earth. The seeds should be put in light earth a little damp, or in dust of decayed wood. Five or 6 centimetres of earth are put at the bottom of a box, and the seeds sown in this earth at distances, equal to the size of the seed. Then another layer of earth of three centimetres, then a bed of seeds, and so on up to 3 or 4 decimetres in height. Care should be taken to fill the box so that the seeds may not be injured.
Care should be taken to keep the box dry, and beyond the reach of salt water, which always kills plants and seeds.
All the plants should be labelled—The numbers should correspond with a catalogue which should declare for each plant: 1o The country from which it comes—2o The kind of soil where it grows, such as woods, rocks, meadows, marshes, etc.—3o An approximation to the height of the place, if it comes from a mountainous country, so as to distinguish the plants of the tropics and the temperate and frigid zones—4o The common name of the plant, either among the Europeans established in the country or the natives—5o Its uses, its characteristics, and the color of its flowers.