trees; yet I always found that many of them were rotten when they were taken out of the wax; which made me fufpect that it was owing to the too great heat of the melted wax, that fo many of them were deftroyed. This put me on thinking of the following method to guard the feeds to be preferved from too great heat, which I have the pleasure to fhew your Lordship, and the rest of the Royal Society, the good effects of.

After I had chofen out the fairest acorns, laying afide fuch as had fpecks proceeding from the wounds of infects, I wiped them very clean till they were quite bright, for fear of any condenfed perfpiration on the furface, which, if inclofed, would turn to mouldiness. I then poured fome melted bees-wax into a china plate, about half an inch deep, and foon as the wax was cool, but ftill very pliable, I cut out with a penknife as much as would inclofe one acorn; this I wrapped round it, rolling it between my hands, till the edges of the wax were perfectly united: in the fame manner I covered about thirty-fix of them with all the caution in my power, so that after they had been fet to harden I could not perceive the leaft crack in them. When they were quite cold and hard, I prepared an oval chip box, of feven inches long, four and a half broad, and three and a half deep; into this I poured melted bees-wax to the depth of an inch and half; and when I could bear my finger in it, I laid the covered acorns at the bottom in rows, as close as I could together; afterwards other rows over them, till the box was full; and when the firft wax began to cool, I poured fome wax that was barely fluid over

the uppermost acorns, till they were quite covered. In order to cool them as foon as poffible, I fet the box near a window, where the sash was raised a little to let in a ftream of cold air; when they were almost cold, I perceived the wax had fhrunk a little here and there, and left fome chinks; thefe I immediately filled up with very foft wax, preffing it very clofe and smooth. After it was quite cold and hard, I put on the cover of the box, and placed it on a shelf in a clofet till the beginning of Auguft laft, when I fent it to the care of Mr. Dacosta, clerk to the Royal Society, to their house in Crane-Court, to be produced and examined before the Royal Society at fome of their first meetings after the long vacation. My health would not permit me to attend myfelf; but I am informed, my Lord, that when they were cut open and examined before your Lordship, and the rest of the Royal Society prefent, their appearance promised fuccefs; and that they were order'd to be delivered by Dr. Morton, secretary to the Royal Society, to the care of Mr. William Aiton, Botanic Gardener to her Royal Highness the Princess Dowager of Wales at Kew, at my request, that the Royal Society might be informed whether they would vegetate.

I have juft now, my Lord, had the pleasure of receiving a letter from Mr. Aiton, advising me, that he had fent to Mr. Robertson, houfekeeper to the Royal Society, two pots with the young oaks rifing from the acorns preferved in wax, which Dr. Morton fent him from the Royal Society in December last ; and am well perfuaded he has carefully attended to an experiment, the fuccefs of which, if properly

followed,

I

SIR,

Kew, March 8, 1768.

Received December 5, 1767, of Doctor Morton, of the Britifh Museum, a parcel of acorns preferved in wax (the quantity of acorns which I received was thirtyfour); and according to your defire and direction they were fowed, as foon as I received them, into a fandy light loom. I placed the pots with the acorns under a frame, where they remained till January the 28th. I then took the pots with the acorns out of the frame, and placed them near a window, in one of our large airy ftoves, where they have remained ever fince: according to your defire, they fhall be fent to-morrow to the Royal Society's house. I think the gentlemen of that honourable Society will be pleased to fee the method of preferving feeds in wax prove fo

name.

has been

ex

mach;

a dram of this root has effectually anfwered every purpose that the bark would. It has this advantage over the bark, that it does not heat the patient.

I have given it in fevers, joined with the Radix Serpentaria Virginianæ, with fuccefs. I had a pound or two from Efquebo, and have sent you a little of it.

Dr. Warner has fent Dr. Jackson a piece of it: he faw the good effects of this medicine, in a patient, captain B-n, who fails for London to-day. He attended him with

me.

I could not get the bark to fit on his ftomach; for he had a perpetual vomiting, and could not keep down any nourishment whatever. I prepared a decoction of a dram and a half of the Quaffi root, and a dram of the rad. ferpent. virgin. When it was ready, I fent for Dr. Warner, that he might fee the patient before I administered it : he complained of fome pain on touching the pit of his ftomach, had a very fluggish low pulfe, a great pain over his eyes and in his eye-balls, and vomitings. He took

with a fever, which lafted for many hours; and, upon its going off, he could not retain the bark in any fhape whatever. Many things were tried to check the vomiting, and enable him to keep down fome bark, but to no purpose. At laft I tried the Quaffi root, an account of which I read in one of the magazines for this year: it fat extremely well on his ftomach; he had no vomiting after the firft dofe, and recovered very speedily.

I have lately tried it in three or four cafes, where there has been a tendency to putrefaction, and the bark would not stay on the fto

put a stop to his vomiting: he had no return after the firft dofe, and kept down every thing. We indeed gave him fome camphor and fal fuccini, on account of the fluggifhnefs of the pulfe; but I have tried it alone in a decoction, with infinite advantage.

Signed, J. FARLEY.

[ Received October 4, 1768. ].

An Account of fome Experiments, by

Mr. Miller, of Cambridge, on

the forwing of Wheat: By W. Watson, M.D. F.R.S.

[Read Nov. 24, 1768. ]

To the Royal Society.

Gentlemen,

H

Lincoln's-Inn-Fields, Oct, 4; 1768.

AVING been informed, that in the botanic garden at Cambridge, there had been produced, by the ingenuity and care of Mr. Charles Miller, the gardener there, from one grain of wheat only, in little more than a year, a much more confiderable quantity of grain, than was ever attempted, or even conjectured to be poffible; I have defired him to fend me a particular account thereof, in order to its being commu-. nicated to you; and, if the council fhould think proper, of its being recorded in the Philofophical Tranf actions, as I think it highly deferves. In my opinion, a fact fo extraordinary fhould not be forgotten; as it may poffibly be applied, in no inconfiderable degree, to public utility: if it should not, the experiment itself, fo fuccefsfully conducted, is a defirable thing to be known.

Mr. Charles Miller is a very ingenious perfon, and an excellent naturalift. He is the fon of our worthy brother, Mr. Philip Miller, from whofe knowledge of, and publications in, botany, agriculture, and gardening, the public has received very great information and advantage. In confequence of my defire, Mr. Charles Miller has informed me, that having made, in the autumn of 1765, and in the fpring of 1766, an experiment of

the divifion and tranfplantation of wheat, by which near two thousand ears were produced from a fingle grain; and he having reason to think, from the fuccefs attending this experiment, that a much greater quantity might be produced, he determined to repeat the experiment next year.

Accordingly, on the fecond of June, 1766, he fowed fome grains of the common red wheat; and, on the eighth of Auguft, which was as foon as the plants were ftrong enough to admit of a divifion, a fingle plant was taken up; and was separated into eighteen parts: Each of thefe parts was planted again feparately. Thefe plants having pufhed out feveral fide fhoots by about the middle of September, fome of them were then taken up, and divided; and the reft of them between that time and the middle of October. This fecond divifion produced fixty-feven plants.

These plants remained through the winter; and another divifion of them, made between the middle of March and the twelfth of April, produced five hundred plants. They were then divided no further, but permitted to remain.

The plants were, in general, ftronger than any of the wheat in the fields. Some of them produced upwards of an hundred ears from a fingle root. Many of the ears meafured feven inches in length, and contained between fixty and feventy grains.

The whole number of ears, which by the procefs before-mentioned were produced from one grain of wheat, was twenty-one thousand one hundred and nine, which yielded three pecks and three quarters

of

of clear corn; the weight of which was forty seven pounds, feven ounces; and, from a calculation made by counting the number of grains in one ounce, the whole number of grains might be about five hundred and feventy fix thoufand eight hundred and forty.

By this account we find, that there was only one general divifion of the plants made in the fpring. Had a second been made, the number of plants, Mr. Miller thinks, would have amounted, at leaft, to two thousand, instead of five hundred; and the produce have been much enlarged.

For

he found by the experiment made the preceding year, in which the plants were divided twice in the fpring, that they were not weakened by the fecond divifion. He mentions this to fhew, that the experiment was not pushed to the utmoft.

The ground, in which this experiment was made, is a light blackifh foil upon a gravelly bottom, and confequently a bad foil for wheat. One half of the ground was very much dunged; the other half was not prepared with dung, or any other manure: no difference was, however, discoverable in the vigour or growth of the plants, nor was there any in their produce.

Mr. Miller adds, that he omits making any conjectures of the probability of turning this experiment to public utility in agriculture; as that, he hopes, may be better afcertained by a more extenfive one, which he hopes to make next year. A gentleman, who affifted him in making the experiment last year, has fown half an acre of land with wheat, from which they expect to have fufficient to plant four acres next VOL. XII.

CA

[Read Dec. 22, 1768. ]

ALCINE fome common oyfter fhells, by keeping them in a good coal fire for half an hour; let the pureft part of· the calx be pulverized, and fifted; mix with three parts of this powder one part of the flowers of fulphur: let this mixture be rammed into a crucible of about an inch and a half in depth, till it be almost full; and let it be placed in the middle of the fire, where it must be kept red hot for one hour at least, and then fet by to cool : when cold, turn it out of the crucible, and cutting, or breaking it to pieces, fcrape off, upon trial, the brighteft parts; which, if good phofphorus, will be a white powder; and may be preferved by keeping it in a dry phial with a ground stopple.

I

The