Extract from: The Royal Cornwall Polytechnic
Society reports (1835)
Communicated in a letter to Messrs G. C. and R. W. Fox, & Co.,
By Capt. R. Gillies, of the Ship Hibernia
Hibernia, Falmouth Harbour,
2nd October, 1835
My Dear Sirs,
In accordance with your wishes, I have much pleasure in describing to you the mode, in which the plants brought by me from Calcutta, were put up.
The plants were all intended for the Green-house in England, and, I presume, were of a delicate kind. Each plant was in a box, six inches square, by one foot in depth, filled to the top with a kind of clay; and, no doubt, well saturated with water, previously to being put into the larger outer box, which contained eight of these small ones.
The large box was constructed in the usual way; that is, a glazed roof about two feet high, the glass strong enough to resist the fall of a small rope, or other light body. It was hermetically closed with the common Chunam (a sort of lime used in India as a cement, for plastering houses) of the country, and was never opened during a voyage of 5 months. When we arrived in England, the plants were all in beautiful health, and had grown to the full height of the case, the leaves pressing against the glass.
In dry weather I always observed a moisture within the glass, which was caused, no doubt, by the evaporation of the earth, and was again absorbed by the plants.
It is difficult to account for the perfect health of the plants, without the full admission of the atmosphere; but oxygen sufficient was probably admitted, either through the pores of the wood, or otherwise. It is, however, a fact that no water was given to them during the voyage, and that they were landed in excellent order.
I am,
Gentlemen,
Your Obedient servant,
ROBERT GILLIES.