: > : y = A 5% : ¥ oO 1 ‘ bhorscd e Wun VO. ’ i af ae 3 oy = PA we Sf eae iS: eae " tf gee, ® wed eS Ps wrt bE a fe bs ae ‘et . ys it 4 Pe 28 a a Os Sa at Le Ge ee) : é PuaYTOLO GI A; PHILOSOPHY eae ht ET URE. GARDENING. WITH THE THEORY OF DRAINING MORASSES, | AND WITH AN IMPROVED CONSTRUCTION OF THE DRILL PLOUGH. By ERASMUS DARIIN, M.D. F. B.S. AUTHOR OF ZOONOMIA, AND OF THE BOTANIC GARDEN. Suadent hec Creators leges a fimplicibus ad compofita. Lin. Orv. Nat. LONDON: PRINTED FOR J. JOHNSON, ST. PAUL’s CHURCH*YARD$ BY Te BENSLEY, BOLT COURT; FLEET STREETe 1800, Entered at Stationers’ Hall, DEDICATION. so Sir. JoHN Sinciair, Baronet, to whofe unre- mitted exertions, when Prefident of the Board of Agriculture, many important improvements in the cultivation of the earth were accomplifhed and re- corded; this Work, which was began by the inftiga- tion of his letters to the author, is dedicated with great ref{pett. Derby, Jan. 1, 1799. CONTENTS. Secr. I: CONTENTS: ae EDS x Introduction.. PART THE FIRST. PHYSIOLOGY OF VEGETATION: Individuality of the Buds of Vegetables. Their Abfarbent Veffels. Their Umbilical Veffels. Their Pulmonary Arteries and Veinse. Their Aortal Arteries.and Veins. Their Glands and Secretions.. Their Organs of Reproduction. Their Mufcles, Nerves,.and Brarms. RART THE SECOND. ECONOMY OF VEGETATION. The Growth of Seeds, Buds, and Bulbs. Manures, or the Food of Plants. Of Draining and Watering Lands. Aeration and Pulverization of the Soil. Of Light, Heat, Eleéfricity. Difeafes of Plants. PART Wh XV. XViI. XVII. XVIII. XIX. XX. CONTENTS. ‘PART THE THIRD. AGRICULTURE AND HORTICULTURE. Production of Fruits. Produ€iton of Seeds. Produétion af Roots and Barks. Production of Leaves and Wood. Produltion of Flowers. Plan for difpofing a Part of the Syfiem of Linneus into more Natural Claffes and Orders. APPENDIX. Improved Confirucfion of the Drill Plough. INTRO= INTRODUCTION... Acricutrure and Garpentne, though of fuch great utility im producing the nutriment of mankind,: continue to be only Arts,. confifting of. numerous detached faéts-and vague opinions, without a true theory to conneé& them, or to appreciate their analogy; at a. time when many. parts of knowledge of much inferior confequence: have been nicely arranged,. and digefted into Sciences... Our imperfeé® acquaintance with the phyfiology and ‘economy of* vegetation is the principal caufe of the great immaturity of our know-- ledge of Agriculture, and Gardening. I fhall therefore firft attempt a theory. of vegetation, deduced principally from the experiments of | Hales, Grew, Malpighi, Bonnet, Du Hamel, Buffon, : Spallanzani, , Prieftley, and the Philofophers of the Linnzan School, with a few obfervations and‘opinions of my.own .. fome of which have in part. already appeared. in Zoonomia, and in the notes:to the Botanic. Gar-- den, but.are here correéted' and enlarged... To the.former of which» works I hope this may be efteemed_a fupplement, .as_it:1s properly a. continuation of the. fubject.. My. iit INTRODUCTION, My inducement to commence this work, after it was fuggefted to sme by the letters of Sir John Sinclair, was a belief, that the expe- riments and obfervations already made on the growth of plants, with the modern improvements in chemiftry, were fufficiently numerous .and accurate for the eftablifhment of a true theory of vegetation ; fo much wanted to conneét the various faéts in the memory, to. ap- preciate their value, and to compare them with each other; and finally to direé&t the profecution of future experiments to ufeful purpofes. PHYTOLOGIA. | a BU Ds. 5 as the leaf-buds above defcribed, though they are probably not fo eafily capable of tranfplantation into the bark of other trees by inocula~— tion; as, I believe, it is from the miftake of the gardeners in choofing flower-buds inftead of leaf-buds to inoculate with, that fo many buds die in this mode of propagation. Nor does the exiftence of many male and female parts in one flower deftroy its indiviauality any more than the number of paps of a fow or bitch, or the number of their cotyledons, each of which during geftation belongs to a {eparate fetus. The flower-buds as well as the leaf-buds are properly biennial plants, as they are produced in the fummer of one year, and perifh in the autumn of the next; but as the new buds generated by leaf- buds continue to adhere to the parent, they are furnifhed with their numerous caudexes, which form a new bark over the old one, whereas the flower-buds generate feeds, which when mature fall upon the ground, and thus they die in the autumn without increafing the fize of the parent-tree by the adhefion of their progeny like the leaf-buds. 5. Thefe buds of plants, which are each an individual vegetable being, in many circumftances refemble individual animals ; but as ani- mal bodies are detached from. the earth, and move from place to place in fearch of food, and take that food at confiderable intervals of time, and prepare it for their nourifhment within their own bodies, after it is taken; it is evident, that they muft require many organs and powers, which are not neceflary to a ftationary bud. As vegetables are im= moveably fixed to the foil, from whence they draw their-aliment ready prepared, and this uniformly, and not at returning intervals ; it fol< lows, that in examining their anatomy we are not to look for mufcles of locomotion, as legs and arms; nor for organs to receive and pre= paré their aliment as.a mouth, throat, ftomach, and bowels, by which contrivances animals are enabled to live many hours without new fupplies of food from without. 6. The parts, which we may expect to. find in the anatomy of ~vegetables, 6 INDIVIDUALITY Sect. I. 6. vegetables, which correfpond to thofe in the animal economy, are firft a threefold fyftem of abforbent vefiels, one branch of which is de- figned to imbibe the nutritious moifture of the earth, as the lacteals imbibe the chyle from the ftomach and inteftines of animals ; another to imbibe the water of the atmofphere, opening its mouths on the cuticle of the leaves and branches, like the cutaneous lymphatic vef- {els of animals ; and a third to imbibe the fecreted fluids from the in- ternal cavities of the vegetable fyftem, like the cellular lymphatics of animals. Secondly, in the vegetable fetus, as in feeds or buds, another fyf- tem of abforbent veffels is to be expected, which may be termed um- bilical veffels, as defcribed in Se&. III. of this work, which fupply nutriment to the new bud or feed, fimilar to that of the albumen of the egg, or the liquor amnii of the uterus; and alfo another fyftem of ject veflels, which may be termed placental ones, corre{pond- ing with thofe of the animal fetus in the egg or in the womb, which fupply the blood of the embryon with due oxygenation before its na- tivity. Thirdly, a pulmonary fyftem correfpondent to the lungs of aerial animals, or to the gills of aquatic ones, by which the fluid abforbed by the laéteals and lymphatics may be expofed to the influence of the air. This is done by the leaves of plants, or the petals of flowers; thofe in the air refembling lungs, and thofe in the water refembling gills. : Fourthly, an arterial fyftem to convey the fluid thus elaborated to the various glands of the vegetable for the purpofes of its growth, nu- trition, and fecretions ; and a fyftem of veims to bring backs a part of the blood not thus expended. Fifthly, the various glands which feparate from the vegetable blood . the’honey, wax, gum, refin, ftarch, fugar, effential oil, and other fe- cretions. Sixthly, the organs adapted to the lateral or viviparous generation of ue as Serie OF BUDS. 7 of plants by buds, or to their fexual or oviparous propagation by feeds. | : Seventhly, longitudinal mufcles to turn their leaves to the light, and to expand or clofe their petals or their calyxes ; and vafcular mufcles to perform the abforption and circulation of their fluids, with their attendant nerves, anda brain, or common fenforium, be- longing to each individual feed or bud; to each of which we fhall appropriate an explanatory fection. 7. An embryon bud, therefore, whether it be a leaf-bud or a flower- bud, is the viviparous offspring of an adult leaf-bud, and is as indivi- dual as a feed, which is its oviparous offspring. It confifts, firft,. of a central organization or caudex like the corculum of a feed, which contains the rudiments of arteries, veins, abforbent veffels, and glands, with an internal pith or brain. Secondly, it is furnifhed with a fyftem of umbilical veffels, which are inferted into the alburnum or fap-wood of the tree, or form a part of it, and defcending into the earth fupply it in the early {pring with its rft nutrition, like the feminal roots, fo called, which pafs from the corculum of the feed, and are fpread on the cotyledons, as feen in the garden bean, reprefented in Plate I. Fig. 1. which is taken from Dr. Grew’s Anatomy of Plants. Thirdly, this umbilical fyftem probably contains alfo what may be termed a placental artery, terminating on the coats of the lateral air- veffels, which penetrate the bark of trees horizontally, for the pur- pofe of oxygenating the blood of the vegetable fetus, like thofe dif- tributed from the umbilical veffels of the chick on the air-bag at the broad end of the egg. See Sect. II. 4. and HI. 1—4. Fourthly, it contains the rudiments of organs adapted to lateral ge- neration or the production of new buds ; or to fexual propagation, and the confequent production of feeds. In the early {pring the umbilical veffels fupply the embryon buds of trees with fap-juive, which is then feen to exfude from wounds of . I the 8 INDIVIDUALITY Sect. I. 8. the alburnum, as in the vine, vitis ; the birch, betula ; and the maple, acer; which I fuppofe to become oxygenated in the circulation of the vegetable fetus by the horizontal air-veffels of the bark. As the feafon advances, the leaf-bud puts forth a plumula, likea feed, which ftimulated by the oxygen of the atmofphere rifes up- wards into leaves to acquire its adapted pabulum, which leaves con- flitute its lungs; it alfo protrudes from its long caudex, which forms the new bark over the old one, a radicle, which ftimulated by moif- ture pafles downwards, and defcends into the earth to acquire its adapted pabulum ; and it thus becomes an adult vegetable being with the power of producing new buds, The flower-bud under fimilar circumftances puts forth its bractes or floral-leaves, which ferve the office of lungs to the pericarp and calyx ; and expands its petals, which ferve the office of lungs to the anthers, and ftigmas, which are the fexual organs of reproduction, and which die and fall off, when the feed is impregnated ; and thus, like the leaf-bud, it becomes an adult vegetable being with the power of producing feeds. 8. As the flower-bud produces many feeds during the fummer, fo the Jeaf-bud produces many budlets during the fummer, as may be feen in the long fhoots of the vine and willow, vitis et falix. In this climate both the buds and feeds are properly biennial vegetables ; that is, they are produced in one fummer, and perith in. the next. But the feed differs from the bud in this circumftance, that it drops on the earth, and is thus feparated from its dead parent in the autumn ; whereas the bud continues to adhere to its dead parent,*and grows over it as it advances. Now as the internal pith of a bud appears to contain or produce the living principle, like the brain and medulla oblongata, or fpinal martow of animals, we have from hence a certain criterion to diftin- cuifh one bud from another, or the parent bud from the numerous budlets, Av — "Te ee Og Bd ae Fe PLATT. Fic. 1. reprefents the umbilical veffels fpread on the lobes of a bean, when it begins to vegetate, as mentioned in Sect. I. 7. but more particularly defcribed in Sect. II. 1. 3; which are believed to confift of a fyftem of abforbent veflels, and another fyftem of placental veffels, for the purpofe of acquiring nutriment, and of oxygenating the vege- table blood. The plate is copied from Grew, Tab. I. f. 14. @ the plumula, 4 the cor- culum, cc the lobes. See Sect. I. 7. and III. 1. 3. Fic. 2. is copied from Malpighi, Tab. II. Fig..6, and reprefents the longitudinal fibres of the bark of willow, which adhere together, and feparate from each other alter- nately, with horizontal apertures between them ; which are believed to be air-veffels, for the purpofe of oxygenating the blood of the embryon buds, like the air-bag at the broad end of anegg. 446 are the longitudinal filaments of the bark, aaa are the ho- rizontal perforations. Duhamel obferved by a microfcope fimilar apertures of different diameters in the bark of oak ; the {maller ones he believed to be the excretory duéts of the perfpirable matter, and larger ones I fuppofe to be air-veflels. ‘The extremities of fome of thefe in the birch- tree ftood above the level of the cuticle. Phyfique des Arbres, Plate I, Fig. 7. and 11% See Sect. I. 7. and II. 4. of this work. piate E Plate TI. ababas Lal Sect. I. 8. OF BUDS 9 budlets, which are its offspring, as there is. no communication of the in- ternal pith between them. This obfervation was made by flitting the young branches of horfe- chefnut, zfculus hippocaftanum ; of ath, fraxinus ; of willow, falix; and of elder, fambucus nigra; and I plainly difcerned that there ex- ifted no communication of pith between the lateral budlets and their parent fhoots, or between the central larger budlet at the fummit of the branch, and its parent fhoot. This alfo afforded me one reafon to conclude that the different joints of wheat, triticum, of fouthiftle, fonchus, and of teafel, dypfacus, are different buds growing on each other, thofe. at the fummit only producing feeds; becaufe there is a divifion which feparates the pith contained in each joint of their hol- low ftems, as is further explained in Se&. IX. 2, 4. and 3. 1. and which perfectly evinces the individuality of buds, 3% SECT. 10 ABSORBENT VESSELS. Sect. II. 7. 5S. GT. ea THE ABSORBENT VESSELS OF VEGETABLES. 1. Roots, leaves, bark, fap-wood, foewn to abforb by not moiftening them, by placing them in water. 2. Absorbent veffels coloured by a decoction of madder, by dilute ink. They form a ring in the fap-wood beneath the bark, with a ring of arteries exterior to them. 3. Abjorbents erroneoufly believed to be air-vefféls, are vifibly full of fap-juice in a vine-falk. Vegetable veffels have rigid fides, which do not collapfe, and hence become full of atr when cut; not fo in animal veffels. 4. Some horizontal veffels in trees are truly air-veffels for the embryon bud, like the air in the broad end of the egg. 5. Absorbent vefféls confit of long cylinders; air will pafs through them either way in the dead vegetable; are not refpiratory organs, as they exift in the roots of trees. May receive air diffolved in water, 6. Abforbent veffels act either direét or retrograde. forked branch in water, An inverted tree. A fufpended tree. So in the operation of an emetic, and in ruminating cows. 7. They confift of a fpiral line without valves; and by its vermicular contrattion forcibly carry on their contained fluids either way. %. Thofe of the root att occa~ finally in winter ; but vines in hot-houfes muft have their roots guarded from froft in fpring. Accumulated ice deftrays trees in fpring. 9. They fometimes abforb poifonous fluids, as fpirit of wine, folution of arfenic, vitriolic acid; roots faid to creep afide from bad foil erroneous, 10. Abforbents of trees like the receptacle of chyle. : e 1. Tue exiftence of that branch of the abforbent veflels of vege- tables, which refembles the lacteals of animal bodies, and imbibes their nutriment from the moift earth, is evinced by their growth, fo long as moifture is applied to their roots, and their quickly withering when it is withdrawn. Befides Seer, I, 2, ABSORBENT VESSELS. 2 a Befidesthefe abforbents in the roots of plants there are others, which open their mouths on the external furfaces of the bark and leaves to —abforb the moifture of the atmofphere, refembling the cutaneous lymphatics of animal bodies ;. the exiftence of thefe is fhewn, becaufe a leaf plucked off and laid with its under fide on water will not wither fo foon as if left in the dry air. The fame if the bark alone of a branch, which is feparated from a tree, be kept moift with water. A third branch of abforbent veffels opens its mouths on the internal furfaces of the cells and cavities of the vegetable fyftem to abforb the fecreted fluids, after they have performed their adapted offices, fimilar to the cellular lymphatics of animal bodies, as may be fhewn by moiftening the alburnum or fap-wood, and the internal furface of the bark of a branch detached from a tree, which will not then fo foon wither as if left in the dry air unmoiftened. Another means of demonftrating the abforbent powers of the parts of vegetables is by inferting them into glafs tubes, or into tall narrow veffels filled with water, and obferving how much more rapidly the furface of the water fubfides than in fimilar veflels by evaporation alone. ; 2. By the following experiment thefe vegetable abforbent veflels were made agreeably vifible by a common magnifying glafs. I placed in the fummer of 1781 fome twigs of a fig-tree with leaves on them about an inch deep in a decoétion of madder (Rubia tinét), and others in a decoétion of logwood (hamatoxylum campechenfe), along with fome {prigs cut off from a plant of picris. Thefe plants were chofen becaufe their blood is white. After fome hours, and on the next day, on taking out either of thefe, and cutting off from. its bottom about an eighth of an inch of the ftalk, an internal circle of red points appeared, which I believed to be the ends of abforbent veflels coloured red with the decoétion, and which probably exifted in the newly formed alburnum, or fap-wood, while an external ring of arteries. was C2 feen, 12 ABSORBENT VESSELS. SECT. IT. 3. feen to bleed out haftily a milky juice, and at once evinced both the abforbent and arterial fyftem. Many fimilar experiments were made by M. Bonnet, -by Sidley parts of the {tem or roots of various vegetables, as of kidney-beans, peach-tree, and elder, in dilute ink ; in all thefe the veffels of the bark were uncoloured, and thofe of the pith; but thofe beneath the bark, which he terms woody, were coloured black, which I fuppofe to have been the circle of abforbent veffels above mentioned. Ufage de Feu- illes, Plate X XIX. 3. Thefe abforbent veffels have been called bronchia by Malpighi and Grew, and fome other philofophers, and erroneoufly thought to be air-veffels ; in the fame manner as the arteries of the human body were f{uppofed to convey air by the antients, till the great Harvey by more exact experiments and jufter reafoning evinced, that they were blood-veffels. This opinion has been fo far credited becaufe air is feen to iflue from wood, whether it be green or dry, if it be covered with water, and placed in the exhaufted receiver of an air- pump; and thefe veffels have therefore been fuppofed to conftitute ‘a vegetable refpiratory organ ; but it will be fhewn hereafter, that the leaves of plants are their genuine lungs, and that the abforbent veffels and arteries become accidentally filled with air in the dead parts of vegetables. For as the veffels of vegetables are very minute, and have rigid coats, their fides do not collapfe when they are cut or broken, as their juices flow out or exhale; they muft therefore receive air into them. ‘This may be réadily feen by infpeéting with a common lens the end of a vine-ftalk two or three years old, when cut off hori- zontally. At firft the veffels, which are feen between the partitions radiated from the center, appear full of juice ; but in a minute or lefs this juice either paffes on, or exhales; and the veffels appear empty, that is filled with air. This experiment I have twenty times repeated with Vv CGS js oN oOo om yf Sect. Il. 4. ABSORBENT VESSELS. 13 with uniform fuccefs, and it is fo eafily made by haftily applying a common lens after the divifion of a vine-ftalk, that I think there. can be no error in it; andit is wonderful that thefe veffels, which are found in the alburnum, and confift of a fpiral line, whether they may properly be called abforbent or umbilical veffels, or confift of both, fhould ever have been fuppofed to be air-veffels. There is neverthelefs an experiment by Dr. Hales, which would at firft view countenance the affertion, that vegetables abforb air. He cemented the lower end of a {mall twig of a tree with leaves on it into a glafs tube about four inches long, and fet the other end of the tube an inch deep in water, and eblaved: in a littletime, that the water rofe an inch in the tube; but this muft happen from the vegetable veflels emptying themfelves by the afcent of their juices, and having rigid coats, and therefore not contracting, a portion of the air was forced into them by the preffure of the atmofphere, as in the above obfervation on the vine-branch cut horizontally. This reception of air does not happen to the veflels of animal bo- dies, when they are emptied of their blood, owing to the lefs rigidity of their coats; whence the weight of the atmofpheric air prefles their fides together, and clofes the veffel, inftead of pafling into it. In the fame manner no air would pafs into the veffels of the lungs of animals in refpiration, unlefs the preffure of the atmofphere on their fides was prevented by the action of the mufcles, which enlarge the cavity of the thorax by elevating the ribs. 4. There are neverthelefs certain horizontal veffels of large di- ameter, which pafs through the bark of trees to the alburnum, which probably contain air, as they are apparently empty, I believe, in the living vegetable ; for the bark of trees confifts of longitudinal fibres, which are joined together, and appear to inofculate at certain diftances, and recede from each other between thofe diftances like the mefhes of a net, in which fpaces feveral horizontal apertures are feen to pe- netrate through the bark to the alburnum, according to Malpighi, < who V4 ABSORBENT VESSELS. Seer. I]. 5. who has given a figure of them, which is copied in Plate I. Fig. 2. of this work. Very fine horizontal perforations through the bark of trees are alfo mentioned by Duhamel, which he believes to be per- {piratory or excretory organs, but adds, that there are others of much larger diameter, fome round and fome oval, and which in the birch- tree ftand prominent, and pierce the cuticle or exterior bark. Phy- fique des arbres, T. 1. Tab. III. Fig. 8. and 11. Thefe veffels probably contain air during the living ftate of the tree, as they pierce the external bark, which frequently confifts of many doubles, like a roll of linen cloth ; as a new cuticle is annually pro- duced beneath the old one, like a new fearf-fkin beneath a blifter in animal bodies ; and the old one fometimes continues, and fometimes peels off like the cuticle of a ferpent, as is feen on the trunks of many cherry-trees and birches. Thefe veflels, when contracted in dry tim- ber, appear like horizontal infertions in many planed boards, in which the fpiral abforbent veffels become by their contraction the lon- gitudinal fibres, as appears in the figure of a walking cane given by Dr. Grew, Tab. XX. Thefe horizontal veffels I fuppofe to contain air inclofed in a thin moift membrane, which may ferve the purpofe of oxygenating the fluid in the extremities of fome fine arteries of the embryon buds, in the fame manner as the air at the broad end of the egg is believed to oxygenate the fluids in the terminations of the placental vefiels of the embryon chick, as further noticed in Se@. Ill. 2. 6, and Il]. 3. 4. 5. The abforbent veflels of trees in pafling down their trunks confift of long hollow cylinders, whofe fides I believe to be compofed of a fpiral line, and are of {uch large diameters in fome vegetables as to - be vifible to the naked eye, when they become dry and empty, as in cane. Air will rapidly pafs through thefe veffels in either direétion, as may be feen in lighting a cane fome inches long at either end, and drawing the {moke through the pores of it into the mouth, as through atobacco-pipe. Dr. Hales readily paffed both air and water through a recent Sect. 11.6. -ABSORBENT VESSELS. 1s a recent vegetable ftick both upwards and downwards, by fetting one end of it in a cup of water in the receiver of an air-pump, and ex- haufting the air, Veg. Stat. p. 1543 whence he concludes with Grew; that thefe are air-veflels or lungs for the purpofe of refpiration, and that they receive atmofpheric air in their natural ftate, There is one objection to their ufe as air-veflels, which is, that they have no communication wita the horizontal air-veflels above de- {cribed ; for by blowing forcibly through a piece of dry cane immerf- ed deep in water, no air is feen to bubble out of the fides, but only from the bottom of it. It may indeed be fuppofed, that the longi- tudinal cavities in dry cane may not confift of the abforbent veffels above defcribed, but of the interftices between them, as the coats of thofe abforbent veffels, confifting of a fpiral line, may be thought to clofe up by their vermicular contraction ; and their interftices, con- fitting of vegetable cellular membrane, may be fuppofed, when dry, to become the tubes in cane. But in this cafe the longitudinal canals in dry cane would not be circular cylinders, whereas they are fo re= prefented in a figure of a piece of cane much magnified by Dr.Grew, Tab. XX. who has in the fame figure given the mouths of hori- zontal air-veffels of circular form and larger diameter. But there is another infuperable objection to this idea of their ufe, which is, that thefe veffels equally exift in the roots of plants as in their trunks ; and according to Malpighi with larger diameters; and probably terminate externally only in the roots; and, as they are there not expofed to the atmofphere, they cannot ferve the purpofe of refpiration ; air neverthelefs in its combined ftate, or even as dif- folved'in water, may be abforbed by thefe veffels ; and‘ may appear, when the preflure of the atmofphere is removed in the exhaufted receiver ; or when expanded by heat, as is feen in the froth at one end of a green ftick, when the other end is burning in the fire. 6. Thefe vegetable abforbents differ from thofe of animals in’ the facility, with which they carry their fluids either way; for a forked branch 16 ABSORBENT VESSELS. Szcr.Il. 7. branch of a tree, torn from its trunk, and having one of its forks with the leaves on it inverted in a veflel of water, will continue for feveral days unwithered, nearly as well as if the whole had been placed upright in the water. A willow rod on the fame account will grow almoft equally well, whether the apex or bafe of it be fet in the ground ; and Dr. Bradley, I think, mentions a young goofeberry-tree having been taken up, and replanted with its branches in the earth, and its roots in the air; and that the branches put forth root-fibres, and the roots put forth leaf-buds. ‘There is likewife a curious expe- riment by Dr. Hales, who attached the eaftern branch of a young tree to its neighbour by inarching, and its weftern branch to another of its neighbours in the fame manner; and after they were united, he cut the {tem of the middle tree from its root, and thus left it hang- ing in the air by its two inarched arms, where it flourifhed with con- fiderable vigour. This power of carrying their fluid contents in a retrograde direc- tion is alfo poffefled in fome degree by the abforbents of animals, particularly in their difeafed ftate, and even in the operation of ‘an. emetic, as fhewn in Zoonomia, Vol. I. Sect. 29 ; and is vifible in the cefophagus or throat of cows, who convey their food firft down- wards, and afterward upwards by a direct and retrograde motion of the annular cartilages, which compofe the gullet, for the purpofe of rumination. , 7. The ftructure of thefe large vegetable abforbents, erroneoufly called air-veflels, probably confifts of a {piral line, and not of a veffel interrupted with valves, and differs in this conftrution from animal lymphatics ; for firft, on breaking almoft any tender vegetable, as a laft year’s fprig-of a rofe-tree, or the middle rib of a vine-leaf, and gradually extending fome of the fibres, which adhere the longeft, this fpiral ftructure becomes vifible even to the naked eye, and dif- tinétly fo by the ufe of a common lens, as is delineated in Duhamel’s Phifique des arbres, T. 1. Tab, Il. Fig. 17, 18, 19, and in Plate LI. and Secr. Il. 8. ABSORBENT VESSELS. — 17 and LI. of Grew’s Anatomy of Plants (fol. edit.), and by this eafy experiment both that abforbent fyftem, which imbibes nourifhment from the earth, and brings it to the caudex of each bud; and that which imbibes moifture from the air, and a part of the per{pirable matter on the furface of the leaf, and brings it to the caudex of each bud, are agreeably demonftrated. See Plate II. Fig. 1. And that thefe veflels of large diameter, with their fides confifting of a fpiral line, are not arteries or veins, is evinced by infpecting a {tem of euphor- bia, fpurge; or the ftalk of a fig-leaf, ficus, immediately on dividing © them, as the milky juice oozes from a ring of veflels exterior to thofe large abforbents. Secondly, that thefe veffels are not furnifhed with frequent valves is countenanced by the experiments before mentioned in No. 5 of this fection, one of which confifted of lighting a piece of cane, and draw- ing the fmoke through it, as through a tobacco-pipe, in either direc- tion; and the other in placing a bit of recent twig with one end of it in acup of water in the receiver of au air-pump, and caufing both air and water to pafs through it in either direction. If the minuter branches of vegetable abforbents be of a fimilar ftruc- ture, it is eafy to conceive how a vermicular or periftaltic motion of the veffel, beginning at the loweft part of it, each fpiral ring fuc- ceflively. contracting itfelf, till it fills up the tube, mutt forcibly pufh forwards its contents without the aid of valves ; and if this vermicular motion fhould begin at the upper end of the vefiel, it muft with equal facility carry its contained fluid in a retrograde or contrary direCtion. 8 As the abforbent veflels in the roots of plants are protected from the froft in fome degree by the earth which covers them ; they feem at all times to be fufficiently alive to drink up and pufh for- wards their adapted fluid, fince if a branch of a tree is brought into a warm room, it will in general pullulate in the winter, as foon as the veffels of the upper part of the branch are rendered fufficiently ir- ritable by warmth to act in concert with the abforbents of the root, D Neverthelefs, 13 ABSORBENT VESSELS, Szcv. II. 9; 10. Neverthelefs, in fevere frofts it is neceflary to guard all the parts of the ftem which is expofed to the open air, as is experienced in the vines brought through holes into hot-houles, otherwife after the buds are put out asfevere froft fo affects the {tems on the outfide of the houfe as to deftroy all the fruit of that year. Kenedy on Gardening, Vol. I. p.270. And it is obferved in Mr. A. Aikin’s Natural Hiftory of the Year, that much ice was carried from the ftreets in London in 1794, and piled round fome elm trees in Moorfields, many of which were deftroyed in the enfuing {pring by the flow melting of it. 9. The abforbent vefiels of vegetables, like thofe of animal bodies, are liable to err in the felection of their proper aliment, and hence they fometimes drink up poifonous fluids, to the detriment or deftruction of the plant. Dr. Hales put the end of a branch of an apple-tree, part of which was previoufly cut off, into a quart of rectified {pirit of wine and camphor, which quantity the ftem imbibed in three hours, which killed one half of the tree. Veg. Stat. p. 43. Some years ago I {prinkled on fome branches of a wall-tree a very flight folution of arfenic, with intent to deftroy infects ; but it at'the fame time deftroyed the branches it was thrown upon. And I was informed by Mr. Wedgewood, that the fruit-trees. planted in his garden near Newcattle in Staffordfhire, which confifted of an acid clay beneath the faétitious foil, became unhealthy as foon as their roots penetrated the clay ; and on infpec- tion it appeared, that the {mall fibres of the roots, which had thus penetrated the clay, were dead and decayed, probably corroded by the vitriolic acid of the clay, beneath which is a bed of coals. It is, however, afferted by M. Buffon, that the roots of many plants will creep afide to avoid bad earth, or to approach good, Hift. Nat. Vol. II}. But this is perhaps better accounted for by fuppofing, that the roots put out no abforbent veflels, where they are not ftimulated by ‘proper juices 3 and that an elongation of roots in confequence only fucceeds, when they find proper nutriment. . 10. Thefe long and large cylindrical abforbent veffels, which pafs from from 7A Le risus H, Reprefents the fpiral veffels of a vine-leaf confiderably magnified, copied from Grew, Tab. LI. On flowly tearing afunder almoft any tender vegetable fhoot or leaf, the fpiral ftructure of thefe veflels becomes vifible to the naked eye. They have been er- roneoufly believed to be air-veffels; but as they exift equally in the roots of plants, as in their barks, and have no communication with the horizontal perforations of the cuticle of the bark, they cannot be air-veffels, and are therefore believed to conititute the ab- forbent veffels of the adult vegetable, and the umbilical ones of the embryon bud. A fimilar plate of the fpiral ftructure of thefe veffels is given by Duhamel. As they are larger than the vegetable blood-veffels, and pafs along the whole caudex of each bud from its plumula to its radicle, as well as to the cutaneous abforbents, thofe of the trunks of trees or herbaceous plants may be thought to refemble the receptaculum chyli of ani- mal bodies. See Sect. II. 7. i pe PDE “Ay Wine ay | Se iy } | . \ } : | te ( X a d | ‘ Plate II. Suer. In. 10. ABSORBENT VESSELS. 19 from the roots of trees up to the fummit of the caudex of each bud at the foot-ftalk of the leaf, I fuppofe to be analogous to the receptacle of the chyle of animals, as the {mall abforbent branches of the roots probably unite beneath the foil into thofe large veflels, which are fo eafily vifible; hence the caudex of éach bud confifts of an elon- gation of abforbent vefiels, and of arteries and veins reaching from the union of the root-branches to the foot-ftalk of each leaf, and the plumula of the bud in its bofom, as defcribed in Se&t. I. 7. Dz SECT. 20 UMBILICAL VESSELS. Sect. IL]. SE ©. To YHE UMBILICAL VESSELS OF SEEDS AND BUDS. I. 1. Seeds are a fexual offspring like eggs. Some feeds and eggs contain two kinds of nourifoment. Other feeds and fpawn of fifb contain but one kind of nourifh- iment. 2. Air-bag in eggs, and in fome fruits ; not in feeds, nor in Jpawn. 3+ Veffels improperly called umbilical; thofe properly called umbilical confift of ab- Jorbents, and a placental artery and vein. Seed embryon and chick begin their growth by the attion of their abforbents. 4. Seminal roots of Grew, and chorion of the chick of Malpighi, are refpiratory organs. 5. In what the chick differs from the feed-embryon. Nothing is found in feeds fimilar to the yolk of the egg. II. 1. Buds and bulbs are a paternal offspring ; exattly refemble their parents. 2. Have um- bilical veffels, in which the JSap-juice rifes in the foring. Why the bark is then eafily feparated from the alburnum. 3. Sugar in.the Jap-juice exifts in the albur- num, and in roots. Dry rot of timber owing to fermentation. W, hy lower branches Sirfe pullulate. 4. Sap afcends not by capillary attrattion, but by the’ irritative motions of abforbent veffels. Inftances of vegetable irritability, Abforbent vef- Jels fometimes at as capillary fyphons, and as capillary tubes. 5. Umbilical vef- Jels coalefce. Why trees do not bleed in fummer. 6. Umbilical veffels of buds like thofe of feeds. Poffe/s air-vefféls like thofe of the chick. Buds, like eggs, feparate from the parent; their umbilical veffels improperly called placental ones, as they convey nutriment ; hence plants become dwarfs if the cotyledons of the. feed are des Jiroyed. Birch-trees die if fmeared with oil or pitch. 7. Refervoir of nutriment in the alburnum of trees, and in the roots of biennial plants. Experiment of boiling the alburnum and fermenting the liquor. As buds are formed at midfummer, they may then be tranfplanted by inoculation, but in the fpring muft be ingrafted, and grow by imofculation of veffels, like inflamed parts of animals. 8. A paufe in vegetation at midfummer. New umbilical veffels aéf in autumn, and the bark fepa- rates eafily as in fpring. Honey-dew. Sap-juice rifes in winter occafionally both in ever= Soo. Ul. 1.1. UMBILICAL VESSELS. zi ever-green trees and deciduous ones, and after the fummit of the plant is cut off. 9. Umbilical veffels and abjorbents feen in a vine -ftalk, the latter exterior to the former. Exift in the alburnum. L. 1. Tue feeds of vegetables are a fexual offspring correfponding with the eggs of animals, and contain, like them, not only the rudi- ment of the new organization, but alfo a quantity of aliment laid up for its early nourifhment. The eggs of birds contain two kinds of ibitinen or white, one lefs vifcid than the other, which is firft confumed, and the yolk or vitellum, which is drawn up into the bowels of the chick at its ex- clufion from the fhell, and ferves it for nourifhment a day or two, till it can learn to felect and digeft grains or infects. In like manner many feeds are furnifhed with two kinds of nourifhment, the muci- laginous or oily meal of the feed-lobes, ahd the faccharine or acefcent pulp of the fruit, as in pears, plums, cucumbers, which fupply nu- triment to the embryon plant, till it is able to {trike into the earth fuf- ficient roots for the purpofe of abforbing its nutritious juices. The fpawn of fifh, and of frogs, and of infects, as of {nails and bees, which are almoft as innumerable as the feeds of plants, and are in the fame manner excited into life by the warmth of the fun, are analo- gous to thofe feeds, I believe, which are not furrounded with fruit, and which contain but one kind of nourifhment for the embryon plant, as grains of corn, and legumes; but perhaps thefe have not yet been Ee ticiearty attended to ue philofophers. Thefe eggs of animals and feeds of vegetables are ‘produced by the congrefs of male and female organs ; the former fupplying the fpeck of animation or cicatricula in the egg, and the corculum or heart in the feed; and the latter producing the nidus, or neft for its récep- tion, and the nutritive material for its firft fupport. Thus the eggs of fowls are formed long before they are impregnated, and are fome- times laid in their ublidpregnated {tate ; and the feeds of legumes aré viftble om UMBILICAL VESSELS, Sxcr. Ill. I. 2, 3. vifible many days before the flower opens, and in confequence before they are impregnated, as obferved by Spallanzani. 2. The eggs of birds contain a bag of air at their broad end for the purpofe of oxygenating the blood of the chick. " In this one circum- ftance the feeds of plants feem to differ from the eggs of birds, as they contain no air-bag, though it is probable they may agree with the {pawn of fith, which I fuppofe poffefs no included air. When the feeds fall on the ground in their natural {tate of growth, or are buried an inch or two beneath the foil, which has recently been turned over, and thus contains much air in its interftices, their coats do not continue dry like the fhells of eggs during incubation, but immedi- ately become moift membranes, like the external membrane of the {pawn of fifh immerfed in water, and in confequence can admit the oxygenation of the air through them to an adapted fet of arteries. on their internal furface, according to the curious obfervations of Dr, Prieftley on the oxygenation of the blood by the air through the moift membranes of the lungs. It fhould be here obferved, that many feeds, before they fall on the moift earth, are included in a bag of air, as thofe of the ftaphylea, bladder-nut ; of. the phyfalis alhekengi, winter-cherry; of colutea, bladder-fenna; in the pods of peas and beans; in the cells furround- ing the feeds of apples and pears; and in the receptacle of ketmia, which prpbably ferves to oxygenate the blood of the infant feed, which in thefe plants may thus be of forwarder growth, before it is fhed upon the foil. 3. There. exifts a feries of glands, and their ducts, improperly called umbilical veffels by fome writers, which fupplies the feed with nourifhment from the parent plant, fo long as it adheres to the ova- rium of its mother, as the veflels by which a pea adheres to the pod, in which it is included ; in fruits and nuts, where the kernel is covered with a ftone or fhell,a long cord of veffels pafles into the bottom of the ftone or fhell, and rifing to the top bends round the lobes of the ker- I ees Sect. Hl. 1.3. UMBILICAL VESSELS. 24 nel, and is inferted near or into the corculum or: heart of the feed, where the living principle refides, and affords not only prefent nu- trition to the vegetable embryon, but alfo fecretes the farinaceous or oily materials for its future nourifhment, which conftitute the cotyle- dons of the feed. But the veffels, which may be properly called umbilical, pafs from the heart or corculum of the feed, which is the living embryon of the future plant, into the feed-lobes, commonly called cotyledons, and - imbibe from thence a folution of the farinaceous or oily matter there depofited for the nutriment of the new vegetable. Thefe vefiels are delineated in their magnified appearance by Dr. Grew, Plate LX XIX. fol. edition, and are by him termed feminal roots. See Plate I. Fig. 1. Thefe umbilical veffels probably confift of a fyftem of abforbents, which fupply nutriment to the embryon plant from the cotyledons of the feed, and alfo of a fyftem of placental arteries and veins fpread on the humid membrane, which covers the cotyledons, and is moif= tened by its contact with the earth, for the purpofe of oxygenating the vegetable blood. ‘This idea is countenanced by many plants bringing up their cotyledons, or feed-lobes, out of the ground into the air, which are then converted inte leaves, and perform the office of lungs, after they have given up beneath the foil the nutriment, which they previoufly contained, as in the young kidney-bean, pha- feolus ; fo the white corol of the helleborus niger, chriftmas rofe, is changed intoa green calyx by loofing one {fyf{tem of arteries after the impregnation of the feeds. The feed-embryon therefore refembles the chick in the egg, firft as when vivified by the influence of external warmth they both begin their growth by the abforbent fyftem of veflels being ftimulated into action by their adapted nutriment; and the fluids thus pufhed for wards ftimulate into action the other parts of the fyftem, confifting at firft principally of arteries and glands. Secondly, they feem tgrefemble each other in their poffeffing each 3 | of 24 UMBILICAL’ VESSELS. Srcr. Il. 1.4. of them an abforbent fyftem of veflels, which imbibe the nutritious matters laid up for them in the albumen or white of the egg, and in the cotyledons or lobes of the feed; and alfo of a placental fyftem of arteries for the purpofe of oxygenating their fluids, as defcribed above in the feed, and which appears in the egg to be fpread on a mem- brane, which covers the white, as is fhewn in the plates of Mal- pighi, and called by him the chorion, and expofes the blood of the chick to the oxygen of the air contained at the broad end of the egg through a moift membrane. 4. The ufe of the large apparent artery fpread on the cotyledons of a germinating feed of a garden-bean, called feminal roots by Grew, as fhewn in Plate I. Fig. 1, and that fpread on the chorion of the chick in the egg, fo called by Malpighi, and fhewn in Tom. II. Fig. 54, and by Fabricius ab Aquapendente, Tab. I. Fig. 13, which muft be an artery, as it carries red blood, are believed to be ref{piratory organs, like the placental veffels of the fetus of viviparous animals, becaufe the cotyledons of fome feeds rife out of the ground, and be- come leaves, after the nutriment they contained is expended, and are then called feminal leaves, as in the kidney-bean, phafeolus ; and becaufe thofe which do not rife out of the ground perifh beneath the foil, as foon as the young plant gains its leaves, which are its aerial refpiratory organ. Secondly, the chorion of the chick confifts of a membrane includ= ing the white, or albumen, and is not only in contact with the air- bag at the broad end of the egg, which, as the chick advances, co- vers more than half of the internal furface of the fhell, but alfo with the membrane which lines all the other part of the thell, as appears. in Plate II. which 1s copied from Malpighi: yet this ‘extenfive chorion, with the numerous arteries and veins which are {pread upon its {urface, 1s not drawn up into the body of the chick like the yolk and its including membrane, but perifhes at the nativity of the chick like the placental veflels of the fetus of viviparous animals; or fome- tumes,, a] Sect. Il. Ls. UMBILICAL VESSELS. 4 times, I fuppofe, before its nativity, as the chick perforates the air- bag, and is heard to chirp, before it is excluded from the fhell. Hence it would appear, that both the artery attending the feminel roots above mentioned, and this artery on the chorion of the chick, mutt perform fome more important office than to fupply nourifhment to the coats of the abforbent vefiels, which imbibe the mucilage of the feed, or the white of the egg, and which abforbents muft them- felves poffefs their proper vafa vaforum. And what more important office can they have than that of oxygenating the blood of the vege- table or animal embryon? And this becomes more probable as they both perifh at its nativity like the placenta and cotyledons of vivi- parous animals, | , ; 5. As the incubation of the chick advances, it differs from the feed- embryon in the production of inteftines, with a ftomach, on the in- ternal furfaces of which the mouths of the abforbents now terminate ; and laftly in the produétion of a mouth and throat to receive and {wallow the remainder of the albumen, in which it {wims; whereas the feed-embryon fhoots down new roots into the earth with an ab- forbent fyftem to acquire its nutriment, as that from the cotyledons of the feed becomes exhaufted. See Sect. VII. 1, 2. Nor is there any thing fimilar to the yolk of the egg found in the {eeds of vegetables, which is drawn up into the inteftines of the young chick about the time of its exclufion from the fhell to ferve it with nutriment for a day or two, till it can learn of its parent by imitation to feleét and {wallow its adapted food. Nor is the fetus of vivipar- ous animals furnifhed with any thing fimilar to the yolk of oviparous ones, as they have milk ready prepared for their firft nutriment in the breaft of the mother. As foon as the new foliage of the plant rifing out of the ground becomes expanded, and the root defcending penetrates the earth with its fibrous ramifications, the umbilical fy{tems of veflels ceafe to act, both the abforbents, which previoufly fupplied the young embryon i with 26 UMBILICAL VESSELS. Szcr. Ill. il. 1,2. with nutriment from the cotyledons, and alfo the placental artery, which was fpread on the exterior membrane of the cotyledons for the purpofe of oxygenation. Thefe veflels now either coalefce and decay beneath the foil, or wither and fall off, when raifed above it in the form of feed-leaves. II. 1. The feeds of plants are thus a fexual or amatorial progeny, produced principally by the male part of the flower, and received into a proper nidus, and fupplied with nutriment by the female part of it, and which can thus claim both a father and a mother. But the buds of vegetables are a linear pogeny, produced and nourifhed by a father alone, to whom they adhere, not falling off like the feeds, as is farther treated of in Zoonomia, Vol. I. Sect. XX XIX. II. 2. and in Se&t VII. I. 3. of this work. For in this moft fimple kind of ve- getable reproduction, by the buds of trees, and by the bulbs of fome plants, and by the wires of others, which are their viviparous pro- geny, the caudex of the leaf is the parent of the bud or bulb, or wire, which rifes in its bofom, according to the obfervation of Linneus. This linear or paternal progeny of vegetables in buds or bulbs, or wires, is attended with a very curious circumftance, which is that they exa€tly refemble their parents, when they are arrived at their maturity, as fhewn in Se&. VII. 1. 3. as is obferved in grafting fruit-trees, and in propagating flower-roots, or f{trawberries, or po- tatoes, by their wires or roots; whereas the feminal offspring of plants, as it derives its form in part from the mother as well as fa- ther, is liable to perpetual variation, both which events are employed to great advantage by fkilful gardeners. 2. As the embryons in the buds are the viviparous offspring of ve- getables, it becomes neceflary, as they have no mouths, that they * fhould be furnifhed like the embryons in the feeds with umbilical veffels to fupply them with nourifhment, till they acquire roots with another fet of abforbent veffels to imbibe moifture from the earth, and leaves to act like lungs for the purpofe of oxygenating their — P | Thete Sect. II. Il. 3. UMBILICAL VESSELS. 27 » Thefe umbilical veffels, which fupply the buds of plants with nou- rifhment in the early fpring, and unfold their foliage, have been much attended to by Dr. Hales and Dr. Walker (Edinb. Phil. Tranfact. Vol. I.) The former obferved, that the fap from the ftump of a vine, which he had cut off in the beginning of April, arofe twenty-one feet high in glafs tubes affixed to it for that purpofe, but which in a few weeks ceafed to bleed. .Dr.Walker alfo marked the progrefs of the afcending fap in various branches of trees, and obferved, that in cold weather it topped many hours in a day, as well as in the night, and found likewife as foon as the leaves became expanded, that the wounded trees ceafed to bleed. : The veflels, which convey the fap-juice with {uch amazing force, are fituated in or compofe the alburnum, or fap-wood, of the trunk or root of the tree; nor is it furprizing, that fome of it when prefled by fo high a column fhould exfude into the cells between the alburnum | and bark, as in thefe cells much fap-juice was obferved by Dr.Walker, and this accounts for the great eafe with which the barks of willows and of daks are feparated in the {pring from their wood. The abforb- ent mouths of thefe fap-veflels open externally in the moift earth on the roots of trees, and alfo into the air on their trunks 5 and thus mix the aqueous fluids, which they thus imbibe, with the faccharine and mucilaginous materials depofited previoufly in, the alburnum of thefe roots and trunks. 3. This afcending fap-juice during the {pring feafon is in fome trees fo {weet, that it is ufed in making wine, as that of the birch- tree in this country; and fugar is procured in fuch quantity from a maple in Penfylvania, that from each tree five or fix pounds of good . fugar have been made annually without deftroying it. Rufh, on Sugar Maple. Phillips, London. This fugar is depofited I believe in:the {ap-wood of the trunk and roots of trees, as in the manna-afh, and: is diffolved in. the {pring by the moifture, which is’ drank- up by the: abforbents from the earth and atmofphere, and forcibly carried on to» E 2 | expand 28 UMBILICAL VESSELS. Sect. III. Il. 4. expand the buds. Its exiftence in the fap-wood as well as in the roots is {hewn from the pullulation of oaketrees, which have been firipped of their bark, and alfo from the expanfion of the eyes of a vine-fhoot, when it 1s cut from the tree, and planted in the earth, as defcribed in Se&. XV. 1. 3. This fuggefts to us the reafon why the wood of trees is fo much fooner fubject to decay, when they are felled in the vernal months s becaufe the fugar, which the fap-wood then contains, foon runs into fermentation, and produces what is called the dry rot ; whence the cuftom has prevailed of debarking oaks in the fpring, and felling them in the autumn; and it is probable that the wood of all other trees would laft much longer, if it was thus managed, as the growth of the new leaves would exhauft the fugar of the fap-wood. Sweet juices for a fimilar purpofe of expanding the buds of herba- ceous plants are depofited during the autumn in their roots, as in tur- nep, beet, tragapogon; or in the knots or joints of the ftem, as in grafles, and the fugar-cane; which like the farina and oil in feeds, and the dulcet mucilage of fruits, and the honey of flowers, were defi gned for the food of the young progeny of plants, ‘but become the fufte- nance of mankind ! As the faccharine matter which is thus depofited in the roots, or in the alburnum, or in the joints of plants, muft be diluted by the moifture abforbed from the earth by their roots, we underftand why the leaves of the lower branches of trees are firft expanded, as is feen diftin@lly in the hawthorn hedges in April, as thefe muft firft receive the afcending fap-juice, as wasobferved by Dr.Walker in his ac- count of the maple, 4. The force of the rifing fap from a vine-{tump in the bleeding feafon, as difcovered by Dr. Hales, is at fome times equal to the whole preffure of the atmofphere, which is about fourteen pounds on a fquare inch of furface. This great power in raifing the fap he af-. cribes to capillary attraction, and to the variations of heat during the day Secr. III. 1.4. UMBILICAL VESSELS. 29 day and night. In regard to capillary attra€tion, however high it may raife a fluid in very {mall tubes, it can not make it flow over them, as the fap-juice did in Dr. Hales’s vine-ftump ; nor can it raife a fluid quite to a level with the upper rim of a glafs tube, as the fluid is there more attracted downwards by the glafs befides its gravity, and is left in confequence with a concave furface. The means by which vegetable abforbent veffels in their living {tate imbibe the fluids of the earth and atmofphere, and carry them forwards with fo much force, muft be fimilar to thofe, with which animal abforbent veffels perform the fame office; that is by their mouths being excited into action by the ftimulus of the fluids, which they abforb. - This circumftance is confirmed by the evident proofs of the irri- tability of plants in various other inftances, as the clofing and open- ing of the petals and calyxes of flowers by light and darknefs, warmth and cold, drynefs and moifture, and by the motions of the leaves of mimofa, or fenfitive plant, and of dioncea mufcipula, by’any me- chanical ftimulus. To this might be added a variety of inftances of the irritability of vegetables to the ftimulus of heat, being increafed after a previous expofure to cold, exaétly in the fame manner as hap- pens to animal bodies, which are enumerated in a note in the Botanic Garden, Vol. I. Canto I. 1. 322, whence the reciprocal times of the acting and the ceafing to act of thefe vernal vegetable abforbents, which are here termed umbilical veflels, in the experiments both of Dr. Hales and Dr.Walker, may be readily explained by their having been benumbed by the cold, or excited into action by the warmth of the air or earth. See Sect. XIII. 2. 3. From one experiment neverthelefs of Dr. Walker’s thefe veffels occafionally a&t as capillary fyphons, becaufe when he bent down a branch much lower than its origin from the tree, and cut off the end of it in the bleeding feafon, the fap flowed from the extremity of this branch fo bent down, when fome wounds two or three feet lower 30 UMBILICAL VESSELS. Serer III. Hee. lower than the origin of this branch did not bleed. This may be accounted for from the afcent of the fluid in thefe veffels being at — this time principally owing to the ation of their abforbent mouths, and to their confifting of long cylinders with’ minute diameters and rigid coats, like thofe which are vifible to the eye in dry cane, th rough which fmoke will pafs in either dire@tion, and which at this early fea- fon may not be excited into vegetable action; there is neverthelefs a power of abforption exifting in any part of them in the warmer {fea- fon, becaufe a branch or flower-ftalk cut fram the root, and fet in a glafs of water, will drink up a confiderable quantity of it. There is alfo a fituation in their difeafed or dead ftate, where they appear to act for fome years like capillary tubes, as in the decorticated part of a . pear-tree, defcribed in Se&. XV. 2, 3. . 5+ During the great action of thefe umbilical abforbent veffels the buds become expanded, that is the young vegetable beings put forth leaves, which are their lungs, and confift of a pulmonary artery, vein, and abforbents, and alfo acquire a new bark over that of the branches, trunk, and roots, of the laft year, which confifts of aortal arteries, veins, and abforbents, and new radicles, which terminate in the foil. At this time the umbilical veffels, which exifted in the alburnum, or {ap-wood, ceafe to act, and coalefee into more folid wood, perhaps fimply by the contraction of the fpiral fibre, of which they are com- pofed ; and the {warm of new vegetables, which conftitute a tree, are now nourifhed by their proper la¢teal and lymphatic fyftems. A curious,circumftance now occurs, which is that wherever a tree is now wounded, no moifture appears.. Qn the contrary, the wound - from Dr. Hales’s experiments is in a ftrongly abforbing ftate, infomuch that on applying water to wounds made in the fummer feafon, it was found to be drank up with great force, as was ingenioufly fhewn by mercurial fyphons contrived to refift its abforption. This evinces, that though during the bleeding feafon in the vernal months the fap-juice is imbibed by the umbilical abforbents,.and car= ried veln, ches, eries, 2 foil. m, or rhaps com- e, are q tree round. much it was mn bY jernal J cat ried Sect. IIL 1.6. UMBILICAL VESSELS. 31 ried upwards probably by the annular contraction of the fpiral fibres, which I believe compofe thefe abforbent veffels, in fuch quantities as to bleed wherever the alburnum is expofed or wounded, yet that af- terwards the exhalation by the numerous leaves becomes fo great, that the actions of the new radical and lateral abforbents do not fupply a fluid fo faft, as it could otherwife be expended in the growth of the plant, or diffipated into the air ; and as the veffels, which pafs down the trunks of trees, inofculate in variety of places, as is feen in the cloth made at Otaheite from the bark of a mulberry-tree, when a wound is made through fome of thefe veffels, the fluid, which might otherwife ooze out, is carried away laterally by thofe in their vicinity; and as the veflels of vegetables are rigid, and do not collapfe when wounded like thofe of animals ; and as the circulation in them is comparatively flow, but little of their contained fluids are poured out of them when wounded in the fummer months, 6. From all thefe obfervations it finally appears, that the umbilical veflels of each bud are fimilar.to thofe of a feed, which are called by Dr. Grew, feminal roots, ‘and that like the umbilical cords, which form the wires of ftrawberries above ground, and of potatoes under ground, they fupply the new vegetable with nutriment, till the leaves are expanded in the air, and new roots are pufhed out and penetrate the earth. : There is alfo a curious analogy between thefe umbilical. veffels of buds, which exift in the alburnum of trees, and thofe belonging to the chick in the egg, which confifts in their both pofleffing certain air- veflels ; thofe of trees pafs horizontally froth the bark to the albur- num, and that of the egg exifts at the broad end of it. Thus it is probable, that the fluid in the fine extremities of the new veftels of the embryon bud becomes oxygenated by thefe horizontal air-vefiels, in Oe fame mani the fluid in the terminations of the arteries on the chorion of the chick is believed to become oxygenated. by the air contained 32 UMBILICAL VESSELS. Szscr.IIl. Il. 6. contained at the broad end of the egg, as alluded to in Sect. II. 4 and IIl. 1 A circumftance, in which the bud may be conceived to differ from the egg, confifts in the feparation of the egg from its parent, as foon as the fetus has acquired a certain maturity, along with its umbilical vef- fels, and its refervoir of nutriment. But in vegetables fomething fimilar occurs, for the parent bud is feparated by death in the autumn from its embryon offspring ; the leaf falls off, which was the lungs of the parent bud, and the veffels of its caudex, which formed the Sai. coalefce into alburnum, or fap-wood, furrounding the umbilical vef- {els of the new bud; which thus may be faid to loofe its parent like the egg, but retains its umbilical veffels, and a refervoir of nutriment, which exifts in the fap-wood, and alfo another fyftem of vefiels, © which conftitute the new bark of the tree, confifting of the inter- woven caudexes of each individual new bud. But as the umbilical veffels of plants above defcribed, which con- ftitute the alburnum of the trunks of trees, and the feminal roots, fo called, of the growing feed, convey nutriment to the embryon bud, or to the rifing plumula, as well as oxygenation, they are not fimilar in that refpeét to the placenta of the animal fetus, and were impro- perly called placental veffels in the notes to the Botanic Garden, as the placenta of the animal fetus is fhewn in Zoonomia, Vol. I. Sect. XX XVIII. to be an organ of refpiration only, like the gills of fith, and not an organ for nutrition. Hence when the cotyledons of feeds are cut away from the rifing plume, the plant becomes a dwarf for want of nutriment ; and the wounding or expofing the alburnum of bleeding trees, as of the birch or maple, in the vernal months to obtain the fap-juice retards the’ expanfion of the new buds, and the confequent growth of the tree. - Hence alfo it appears, why fmearing the bark of a tree with pitch, or oil, or paint, is liable to deftroy the new buds, and confequently the 5 tree, r from fon as al vef. ething Utumn Ings of > bark, ‘al vef. nt like iment, veflels, inter- h con- ots, fo bud, or fimilar impro- Jen, 43 , Set. of fith, 2 rifing ind the e birch rds the e trees tcD, of tly the trees Sect. Ill. II. 75 UMBILICAL VESSELS. 33 tree, by ftopping up their fpiracula; and why covering an egg with creafe or varnith is faid to prevent the production of a chicken, by preventing a change of air at the broad end of it. 7. We may conclude that the umbilical veffels of the new bud are formed along with a refervoir of nutritious aliment about midfummer in the bark, which conftitutes the long caudex of the parent bud, in the fame manner as a refervoir of nutritious matter is formed in the root or broad caudex of the turnep or onion, for the nourifhment of the rifing ftem. And that thefe umbilical veflels of the em- bryon bud, and the refervoir of nutriment laid up. for it, which is fecreted by the glands of the parent bud, and now intermixed with the prefent bark of the tree, become gradually changed into albur- num, or fap-wood, as the feafon advances, in part even before the end of fummer, and entirely during the winter months. That the alburnum of trees, which exifts beneath the bark both of the trunk and roots of them, contains the nutritious matter depofited by the mature leaves or parent buds for the ufe of the embryon buds, appears not only from the faccharine liquor, which oozes from the wounds made in the vernal months through the bark into the albur- num of the birch and maple, betula et acer ; but alfo from the fol~ lowing experiment, which was conducted in the winter before the vernal fap-juice rifes. Part of a branch of an oak-tree in January was cut off, and divided carefully into three parts, the bark, the alburnum,. and the heart. Thefe were fhaved or rafped, and feparately boiled for a time in wa- ter, and then fet in a warm room to ferment ; and it was feen that the decoétion of the alburnum or fap-wood paffed into rapid fermen- tation, and became at length acetous, but not either of the other, which evinces the exiftence both of fugar and mucilage in the albur- num during the winter months ; fince a modern French chemift has fhewn by experiments, that fugar alone will not pafs into the vinous fermentation, but that a mixture of mucilage is alfo required; and from 34 UMBILICAL VESSELS. Secr. Ill. IL. 7. from this experiment it may be concluded, that in years of {carcity the fap- wood of thofe trees, which are not acrid to the tafte, might af- ford nutriment by the preparation of being rafped to powder, and made into bread by a mixture of flour, or by extracting their fugar and mucilage by boiling in water, as mentioned in Zoonomia, Part IH. Article I. 2:3. 6. , Now as the embryon buds of deciduous trees of this climate are formed about midfummer, fecreted by the generative glands in the caudex of the parent leaf-bud, and are fupplied with due, nou- rifhment from the fame fource, not having yet fhot out radicles of their own from the lower end of their long caudexes into the earth, they may be readily tranfplanted at this feafon from one tree to ano- ther by inoculation, or into different parts of the fame tree; as the _new caudex of the young bud of one tree will readily unite with the new caudex of that of another tree, and as they can be removed en- tire during the early ftate of their growth along with a part of the bark only, as fcarcely any alburnum is yet formed beneath the bark of the young twig, from whence the bud is cut or torn. But after their greater maturity, fo that many buds exift on one twig, or fcion, and are already furnifhed with radicles pafling down into the ground, as in the enfuing {pring, it becomes neceflary to ingraft them by cutting off a part of the alburnum, as well as of the bark of the new bud; and to apply thefe in contact with the bark and alburnum of another tree, to which they may grow by inofcu- lation of veffels; whence it appears why budding or inoculation muft be performed foon after midfummer, and ingrafting in the early fpring, as in the former the buds continue to grow by the jun@ion of the caudex or bark veffels alone with thofe of the tree into which they are inferted, and in the latter by the inofculation of their vef- fels with thofe of the bark and alburnum of the tree, to which they are applied and bound. | 5 The Sucr. IL 11.% UMBILICAL VESSELS. 38 The inofeulation' of the veffels of a bud cut out of one tree and in= ferted into the bark and alburnum of another, as in the ingraftment of fcions, is exactly refembled by a fimilar operation on animal bo- dies, when a tooth is taken from one perfon and inferted into the head of another, and where two inflamed parts grow together. “Thus an experienced anatomift is faid to have cut the two fpurs from a young cock, and applied them to the oppofite fides of his comb, which was previoufly excoriated, where they continued to grow and appeared like horns ; and Talicotius, whofe book lies by me, ferioufly afferts, that he fucceeded in making artificial nofes from a part of the fkin of the arm of his patients, and has publifhed prints of the manner of the operation, fo ridiculed by the author of Hudibras. Cheirurgia Cafparis ‘Talicotii. | The growth of an inoculated bud on the bark of another tree, where the upper part of the caudex of the inoculated bud joins with the lower part of the caudex of another bud belonging to the ftock, is ftill more nicely refembled by the union of the head and tail part of two different polypi in the experiment of Blumenbach, mention- ed in Seét. VII. 3. 2. of this work. 8. As the leaves of trees become expanded, the fap-juice above de- {cribed ceafes to flow, and the bark of the tree then adheres to the alburnum. Afterwards from the middle of June to the middle of Auguft, as Dr. Bradley has obferved, there feems to be a paufe in ve= getation; at which time the new buds in the bofom of each leaf feem to be generated, and the bark, which during the two preceding months adhered to the wood, now eafily feparates, as in the fpring, according to the obfervation of Duhamel, Vol. I]. 261; and vegeta- tion, which appeared to languifh during the heats of midfummer, acquires new vigour at the approach of autumn like that of {pring. This circumftance, which feems to have puzzled many naturalifts, is to be explained from the action of the umbilical veflels of the new F 2 buds, 36 UMBILICAL VESSELS. Szcr. Hl. IL. 8 buds, which begin to enlarge as foon as they are formed, and in this climate have their progrefs {topped by the cold during the winter, and the moifture which exfudes from the fides of thefe veflels, and is extravafated between the alburnum and the bark, caufes an eafy {eparation of them from each other. From the new flow of fap in thefe veffels about midfummer, being probably in part conveyed to the leaves by the rotrograde aétion of their lymphatics in very hot weather, the honey-dew feems to ori- ginate either as an exfudation from the leaf, or from the veflels be- ing punctured by the aphis, which drinks the vegetable chyle in fuch great quantity that it pafles through the infect almoft unchanged; fee Se&t. X1V. 1. 7. and 3. 2; and thus caufes the fuffufion of honey on the leaves below them for a time in the heat of fummer. Add to this that M. Du Hamel, by nicely meafuring fome buds, found that they were gradually enlarged at fome times during the winter, and concludes from thence that the fap-juice, which nourifhes them, continues to flow, though flowly, in the milder parts of the winter days, Vol. II. p. 262; and adds, that it muft rife continually during the winter months in ever-green trees, otherwife their fo- liage would wither ; and alfo in deciduous trees, becaufe the branch of an ever-green tree will grow on a deciduous tree, and not lofe its Jeaves in the winter, as the lauro-cerafus on a cherry-tree, and an ever-green oak on a common oak. It sett neverthelefs be obferved, that as the umbilical in area part of the new bud, as the lateals and other abforbents are a part of the chick or fetus, the perpetual action of thefe umbilical veflels mutt depend on the bud to which they belong, in the caudex of which, between the plumula and radicle, the brain or common fenforium, and the confequent vital energy, are believed to refide ; and, that whe- ther an ingraftment exifts between the bud and the umbilical ab- forbent veflels or not. But as in thofe animals which have a very fmall UI. 8, 1 this inter, » and 1 eafy being 1On of 0 Or. ‘ls be- 1 fuch nged ; honey buds, ng the urifhes of the inually eir fo- branch lofe its and an Js are art of veflels which, (oriums it whe" cal ab a very (nal! Sect. Il. 1.9. UMBILICAL VESSELS. 37 fmall portion of brain in the head compared with that in the {pine of the back, as in eels, fhakes, worms, butterflies, if the head be cut off, the other parts will continue to live with great activity for hours, and even days; fo it happens to thefe umbilical abforbent veflels, which in vine-{tumps, and many herbaceous plants, will continue to pour out the fap-juice in great force and great quantity for many days af- ter the exfeétion of the whole upper part of the plant. The continuance of the motion of thefe umbilical veffels confifting of a fpiral line, which are believed to be air-veffels by many authors, is mentioned by Malpighi; who afferts, that when he examined them - in the winter, he could often obferve them for fome time to continue their vermicular motion fo as to aftonifh him. See Duhamel. Phyf. des arb. Vol. I. p. 43. 9. The umbilical veffels of this fe€tion, like the abforbents of the preceding one, both which are believed to confift of a fpiral line, as fhewn in Seét. II. 7. may be readily feen in cutting a vine-ftalk ho- rizontally, as they at firft appear full of fluid; but ina very little time, as the fluid exhales or becomes effufed, a circular area of round holes appears to pafs longitudinally interior in refpect to the bark; which I fuppofe to confift both of the umbilical veffels, which bleed during the vernal months, and of the other radical, cellular, and cutaneous ab- forbents; the latter of which I fufpe& to be exterior to the former, and to refide between the bark and the umbilical veilels, though both of them are believed to conftitute the alburnum of the plant. From many ingenious obfervations on vegetables monfieur de la Baiffe draws the following conclufions, which are affented to by M. Bonnet, and which I fhall here tranfcribe, as they fo accurately co- incide with the theory above delivered, and as they were deduced from different experiments, are a confirmation of it. He fays, *¢ that the veffels deftined to convey nourifhment to ,plants are nei- ther in the pith, nor in the bark, nor between the bark and the wood ;. but* 38 UMBILICAL VESSELS, Sszer. Ill. Il.9. but in the ligneous fubftance itfelf ; or, to {peak more accurately, that thofe veffels are themfelves the woody fibres included between the ‘pith and the bark of plants, which have their origin in the roots, and extend themfelves to every part of the plant.”” Bonnet ufage des feuilles, p. 275. SECT. be that : the » and > des ECT LATE Il. P PLAT © 24 Is copied: fiom Malpighi Appendix de ovo Incubato, ‘Tom. LI. Fig. 54, and repre- fents the chick in the egg on the fourteenth day of incubation. The chick rolled up fwims in the amnios aa, which is kept moift by very minute veffels. Round this is placed the yolk 4 4, to which adjoins the thicker part of the white. "Fhe whole is fur- rounded with chorion ddd, On this are fpread the blood-veffels, of which the large one e emerging from the navel of the chick, and generating the various branches ff f, terminates in a eapillary network. In contact with thefe a redder fet of veffels paffes with fimilar ramifications. Another fet of veffels g g arifes from the navel, which are {maller ones, and are propagated amidft the ramification of ff. The lungs are white; the ftomach full of milk, or of coagulated albumen or white; and the inteftines hang out from the navel. As two fets of blood-veffels terminate on the chorion, and as one branch of the larger fet carries redder blood, and as the lungs are ftill white; it feems evident, that this larger fet of veflels refemble the placental arteries and vein of viviparous animals, and that the blood receives its red colour by acquiring oxygen from the air included between the exter- nal moift membrane and the thell of the egg ; which air at firft is feen only at the broad end, but afterwards extends from thence to the equator of the egg, and probably paffes through the other ead of the fhell to that part of the internal membrane, which adheres to it. See an analogous plate in Fabricius ab Aquapendente,. Tom. I. Fig. 13. See alfo Sect. TIT. 1. 4. and III. 2, 6. of this work. plate Ta repre. led up his jg is fur- large ff, paffes ch are rhite ; hang larger larger at the exter- broad pafles jheres See Pl ate i? eee LO yy Y) y SCCL. HI. 1. 4. Seer. iV. La. PULMONARY ARTERIES AND VEINS. 39 SECT. IV. THE PULMONARY ARTERIES AND VEINS OF VEGETABLES, I. 1. Leaves not per/piratory organs, nor excretory nor autritious organs, nor elettri¢ nor luminous ones. 2. Vital air in the atmofphere, in water. Lungs of aerial animals ; gills of aquatic ones. 3. Leaves are the lungs of vegetables. rteries and veins vifible in a leaf of fpurge and picris coloured by madder, and in bloody dock. 4. Upper furface only of the leaf refpires, and repels moifture, and dies if Jmeared with oil, and exbales much lefs than the under one. II. 1. Aquatic leaves are like the gills of fh; have larger furfaces, as the uncombined oxygen in water is Jefs than in air ; are divided like the leaves on high mountains. 2. Are furnifoed with numerous points like gills of fh. 3. Which fet at liberty oxygen from fome waters. 11. 1. Root-leaves of many plants differ from ftem-leaves. 2. As they produce only buds. 3. They differ as common leaves from floral leaves. 4. And arife fometimes from the cotyledons. IV. 1. Floral leaves or braéies are re/pi- ratory organs to the calyx and pericarp. 2. In fome plants they do not appear till the corol drops off. 3. Recapitulation. Leaves die in the exbaufted receiver. V. 1. The corol is @ pulmonary organ; its colours. 2. Its vafcular texture, its glands. Some flowers have no braties.. The corol is not for defence. The corol of helleborus niger changes to a calyx. 3. Corol of colchicum and crocus fall off before the braétes appear. Vines bear alternate flowers and leaves. Fruit de- prived of green leaves. 4. Vegetable uterus requires the bracies. Flowers enlarged by deftroying the green leaves. 5. Plants do not refpire in their fleep. 6. Con- clufion. Ihe anthers and ftigmas are feparate vegetable beings live on honey and acquire greater irritability, and amatorial fenfibility. I. 1. THERE have been various opinions concerning the ufe of the leaves of plants in the vegetable economy. Some have contended, that they are per{piratory organs. This does not appear probable from an experiment of Dr. Hales, Veg. Stat. p. 30. He found, by cutting off branches pS mh, 40 | PULMONARY ARTERIES Secr. IV. 1.1. branches of trees with apples on them, and taking off the leaves, that an apple exhaled about as much as two leaves, the furfaces of which were nearly equal to that of the apple ; whence it would appear, that apples have as good a claim to be termed perf{piratory organs as leaves. Others have believed them the excretory organs of excrementi- tious juices ; but as the vapour exhaled from vegetables has no tafte, this idea is no more probable than the other. Add to this, that in moift weather they do not appear to perfpire or exhale at all, as thewn by fome ftatical experiments of Dr. Hales, like thofe of San¢torius on the perfpiration of the human body; which perf{piration has alfo been fuppofed to be an excrement, which is fhewn to be an erroneous opinion ; and that its defign is fimply to preferve the {kin fupple, like the tears diffufed on the eye-ball to preferve its tran{parency, as explained in Zoonomia, Vol. II. Clafs I. 1, 2. I 4. 8 Others have believed that vegetables abforb much nutriment by. their leaves, and quote an experiment of Dr. Prieftley’s, who found plants placed in water under glafles grew much fafter, when the air, in which they grew, was occafionally impregnated with putrid exhala- tions. But there is another experiment of Dr, Prieftley’s, which fhould be mentioned, and that is, that he agitated one part of a veftel of water beneath a glafs filled with pvtrid exhalation, and the whole of the water prefently became very fetid. Hence we may conclude, that in the firft cafe the water, in which the vegetable grew, abforbed the putrid exhalations from the air over it, and that thefe were again abforbed from the water by the roots of vegetables, which correfpond to the laéteals of the ftomach and inteftines of animals; and that they thus received nourifhment from the putrid vapours, and not by their leaves, which we fhall endeavour to fhew to be fimply refpiratory organs. Cisher, p ilefophers have conceived, that the leaves of plants acquire latlaisity rom the air, In anfwer to thefe it may be obferyed, that nO te > that Which te NS ag Nnti- tafte, hat in hewn torivs iS alfo Neous upple, CY, as nt by found air, in xhala- which - vefiel whole clude, forbed , agaill {pond t they y theif ratory j, that pe Seed 2enAN Ds VEEN Ss ia no eleétricity is fhewn by experiments to defcend through the ftems of trees, except in thunder ftorms ; and that if the final caufe of ve- getable leaves had been to condué eleétricity from the air, they ought to have been gilded leaves with metallic ftems. Others again have fuppofed that the leaves of plants-acquire a phlogiftic material from the fun’s light, whence it was believed that on this account they turn their upper furfaces to the fun. But though light is more or lefs attracted by all opake bodies, yet if the final caufe of vegetable leaves had been to abforb light, they ought to have been black and not green; as by Dr. Franklin’s experiment, who laid fhreds of various colours on fnow in the fun-fhine, the black. funk much deeper than any other colour, and confequently abforbed much more light. The ufe of light in vegetable refpiration will be treated of in Se&. XIII. 2. The air of our atmofphere has been fhewn by. the experiments of Prieftley, Cavendifh, and Lavoifier, to confift of twenty-feven parts of refpirable air, called oxygene gas, with feventy-three parts of unrefpirable air, termed azotic gas, which are mixed together, not chemically combined; whereas water confifts of eighty-five hun- dreth parts of oxygen to fifteen of hydrogen, which exift in their . {tate of combination, and are not therefore fit for refpiration. — But in ‘water a confiderable quantity of common air is alfo diflolved, which efcapes on boiling; and. even pure vital air was difcovered in the water of fome fprings by fir Benj. Thomfon, when it was expofed to the fun’s light. Philofoph. Tranfaé&. The former of thefe fluids is thus adapted to the refpiration of aerial animals, and the latter to that. of aquatic ones; and the analogy between the aerial and aquatic leaves of vegetables and the lungs and gills of animals embraces fo many circumftances, that we can fcarcely withhold our affent to their performing fimilar offices. The internal furface of the air-veflels of the lungs of men are ‘Gaia to be equal to the external furface of the whole bdr, or about fif- G teen 42 PULMONARY ARTERIES sect. IV. 1. 3. teen fquare feet. On this furface the blood is expofed to the influ- ence of the refpired air, through the medium of a thin moift pel- licle. By this expofure to the air it has its colour changed from deep red to bright fcarlet, and acquires fomething fo neceflary to the ex- iftence of life, that we can live fearcely a minute without this won- derful procefs. In aquatic animals, as fifh, the blood is expofed to the air, which is diffafed in the water by the gills; the furface of which is probably greater in proportion to the external furface of their bodies, than that of the air-veflels of the lungs of aerial animals to their external fur- faces. ‘Through thefe gills, or aquatic lungs, a current of water is made perpetually to pafs by the gaping of the fifh, as it moves, hke the air in refpiration; and from this water it is probable the fame material is acquired by the-gills of fith as from the air by the lungs of aerial animals. 3. The great furface of the leaves compared to that of the trunk and branches of trees is fuch, that it would feem to be an organ well adapted for the purpofe of expofing the vegetable juices to the influ- ence of the air. This however we fhall fee afterwards is probably performed only by their upper furfaces, which are expofed to the light as well as air, and on that account acquire greater oxygenation, as will be fhewn hereafter: yet even in this cafe the upper furfaces of the leaves muft bear a greater proportion to the furface of the bark of the tree than that of the air-cells of the lungs of animals to their ex- ternal furfaces. 5 Aerial or aquatic animals, by their mufcular exertions, produce a current of air or water reciprocally to and from their lungs, and can occafionally change the place, where they refpire, when the air or wa- ter becomes vitiated. But as vegetables have but little mufcular power to move their leaves, except in a few inftances ; and as the ait or water is frequently nearly ftationary, where they exift, it feems to have been neceffary to expofe their fluids to the air or water on a greater M 1 ‘ Infly. i Pel. D deep he ex. 5 Won. hich i obably an that al furs vater 1g Sy hike e fame > lungs > trunk an well > influ- robably he light tion, 45 faces of bark of heir ex auc 4 and cal ¢ of We pufeulat 3 the git tt , ror 0F* areal Sect. IV. I. 3. AND VEINS. 4g greater expanfe of furface than in the lungs or gills of animals, which well accounts for the exuberant extent of their foliage. In the lungs of animals the blood, after Si been expofed te the air in the extremities of the pulmonary artery, is changed in co- lour from deep red to bright {carlet, and is then colleéted and returned by the pulmonary vein. So in the leaves of plants the vegetable blood is rendered yellow in fome plants, as in celandine, chelido~ nium; white in others, as in fig-leaves, ficus; and in {purge, eu- phorbia ; and red in others, as in red beets, beta. And the ftruture of the leaf, as confifting of arteries and veins to expofe the vegetable blood to the influence of the air, and to return it‘ to the caudex of the bud at the foot-ftalk of the leaf, beautifully became vifible by the following experiment. A ftalk with the leaves and feed-veflels of large fpurge (euphorbia heliofcopia) in June 1791, had been feveral duys placed in a decoce tion of madder, (rubia tin€toria) fo that the lower part of the ftem and two of the inferior leaves were immerfed in it. After having wafhed the immerfed leaves in much clean water, I could readily difcern the colour of the madder paffing along the middle rib of each leaf. ‘This red artery was beautifully vifible both in the under and upper furface of the leaf; but on the upper fide many red branches were feen going from it to the extremities of the leaf, which on the other fide were not vifible except by looking through it againft the light. On this under fide a fyftem of branching veffels carrying a pale milky fluid, were feen coming from the extremities of the leaf, and covering the whole underfide of it, and joining into two large veins, one on each fide of the red artery in the middle rib of the ar and along with it defeending to the foot-ftalk or petiole. On flitting one of thefe leaves with fciffars, and having a common magnifying lens ready, the milky blood was feen oozing out of the returning vein on each fide of the red artery in the middle rib, but none of the red fluid from the artery. G 2 All AA PULMONARY VARTERIES SECT LEV wh ti All thefe appearances were more eafily feen in a leaf of picris treated in the fame manner; for in this:milky plant the ftems and middle- rib of the leaves are fometimes naturally coloured reddifh, and hence the colour of the madder feemed to pafs further into the ramifications of their leaf-arteries, and was there beautifully vifible with the re- turning branches of milky veins on each fide. Ina plant which was fent to me under the name of fenecio bicolor, but which Ihave not yet feen in flower, the upper furface of. the leaf is green like moft other leaves, but during the. vernal months the under furface-is of a. deep red, whence I conclude that the vege- table blood acquires the red colour in the terminations of the pulmo- nary artery in the upper furfaces of the leaves, which becomes vifible as it paffes in the large veins on the inferior furface. In the fame manner the red colour of the blood is moft vifible in the large veins beneath the leaf of the red veined dock, rumex fanguinea. 4. From thefe experiments the upper furface of the leaf appeared to be the immediate organ of refpiration, becaufe the coloured fluid was catried to the extremities of the leaf by veffels moft con{picuous, on the upper furface, and there changed into a milky fluid, which. is the blood of the plant, and then returned. by concomitant veins on the under furface, which were feen to ooze when divided with fcif- fars, and which in picris particularly rendered the under furface of the leaves greatly whiter than the upper one. : As the upper furface of leaves conftitutes the organ of refpiration, on which the vegetable blood is expofed in the terminations of arteries beneath athin moitt pellicle totheaction of theat {fphere, thefefurfaces in many plants ftrongly repel moifture, as cabbage-leaves, whence the particles of rain lying over their furfaces without touching them, as obferved by Mr. Melville, (Eflays Literary and Philof. Edinb.) have the appearance of globules of quick-filver. And hence leaves laid with their upper furfaces on water wither as foon as in the dry air, but continue green many days if placed with their under furfaces on water, ? “hg Teate d Nid]. hence Cations the Tes icolor, of the Nonths 7 Vege. pulmo- 3 vifible e fame e Veins eared to nid was 10US, On hich. 1s reins on th fcif- rface af yiration, ‘arteries {urfaces ance the hem, as b.) have yes jaid dry a gqces waters Sect. IV. Hen ANDi VEINS. 45 water, as appears in the experiment of monfieur Bonnet, (Ufage des Fevilles) ; hence fome aquatic plants, as the water-lily (nymphza) have the lower fides of their leaves floating on the water, while the upper furfaces remain dry in the air. This repulfion of the upper furfaces of the leaves of aerial plants to water bears fome analogy to the renitency of the larinx to the ad- miffion of water into the lungs of animals ; for if a fingle drop ac- cidentally falls into the windpipe, a convulfive cough is induced till it is regurgitated. For the fame reafon feveral plants clofe together the upper furfaces of their leaves when it rains, in the fame manner as in their fleep during the night, as mimofa, the fenfitive plant, and the young fhoots of chick-weed, alfine; and of kidney-bean, pha- feolus. As thofe infects which have many {piracula, or breathing apertures, as wafps and flies, are immediately fuffocated by pouring oil upon them, in the year 1783 I carefully covered with oil the furfaces of feveral leaves of phlomis, of Portugal laurel, and balfams ; and though it would not regularly adhere, I found them all die in a day or two, which thews another fimilitude between the lungs of animals and the leaves of vegetables. There is an ingenious experiment of M. Bonnet, (Ufage des feu- illes) which fhews that the upper furfaces of leaves exhale much lefs than their under furfaces. He put the ftalks of many leaves frefh plucked from trees or herbaceous plants into glafs tubes filled with water ; of thefe he covered with oil or varnifh the upper furface of many leaves, and the under furface of many others, and uniformly obferved “by the water finking in the tubes that the upper furfaces exhaled much lefs than half the quantity exhaled by: the under fur- faces, which fhews them to be organs defigned for different pur- pofes. : Il. 1. There exifts a ftri@ analogy between the leaves of aquatic plants, which are conftantly immerfed beneath the water, and the gills 3 of 46 PULMONARY ARTERIES — Secr. IV. il. 2. of aquatic animals, which confifts in the largenefs of their furface, owing to their hair-like fubdivifions, and to their being terminated with innumerable points. The gills of fifh confift of many folds of blood-veflels lying over each other, each refembling a fringe, or the downy part on one fide of a feather attached to the middle rib of it, by which means they expofe a greater furface of blood to the water than is expofed to the air by the internal membranes of the air-cells of the lungs of other animals ; and undoubtedly for this final caufe, | becaufe water contains lefs oxygen in its uncombined ftate, which is the material neceflary to life, than air, though much more of it in its combined {tate, as water confifts of eighty-five parts of oxygen to fif- teen parts of hydrogen ; but it is the uncombined oxygen only dif- folved in heat, and diffufed in water, which can ferve the purpofe df animal or vegetable refpiration. The apparatus for this purpofe, according to Duverney’s Anatomy of a Carp, is truly curious. He found 4386 bones in the gills, which had fixty-nine mufcles to give them their due motions. See Bo- mare’s Diétionaire raifoneé, Art Poiffon. And Monro obferved by the numerous divifions and folds of the membrane of the gills, that their furface in a large fkate was nearly equal to the furface of the human body. Phyfiol. of Fifth, p. 15. Headdsthat in the whole gills there exift 144,000 fubdivifions or folds, and that the whole extent of this membrane may be feen by a microfcope to be covered with a net- work of exceedingly minute veffels. 2. In this refpect the gills of fifh are refembled by the fubaquatie leaves of plants, which are flit into long wires terminated in points, as in trapa, cenanthe, hottonia, the water-violet, and the water-ranun- culus. This laft plant, and fome others, have frequently fome leaves erect in the air, and others immerfed in water, arifing from the fame ftem ; and it is curious to obferve that the aerial leaves are nearly entire, or divided only into a few lobes; whilft the aquatic leaves are flit into innumerable branches like a fringe, and have thus 5 , their Ul. Irfag, inate, OF the > of it, Water Ir=cells Caufe, hich Is it in its 1 to fif. ly dif. pofe df natomy , which see Bo- | by the at their human Is there - of this a nets aquatic pints, 4 -ranus- fome Sect. IV. Ill. 1. AND VEINS. 4? their furfaces wonderfully enlarged for the purpofe of acquiring un- combined oxygen from the air, which is diffufed in the water, and which abounds fo much lefs there than in the atmofphere; for the fame purpofe the plants on the fummits of high mountains, where the air is fo much rarer, and confequently abounds lefs with oxygen, have their leaves much more divided than in the plains, as pimpinella, petrofelinum, and others, that they may expofe a more extenfive fur- face of veffels to the influence of the thinner atmofphere. 3. This great enlargement of the furface by fo minute a divifion does not however feem to be the only ufe of this uniform ftructure of gills and aquatic leaves; but there is another very important one, which hath hitherto I believe efcaped the notice of philofophers ; and that is that points and edges contribute much to the feparation of the air, which is mechanically mixed or chemically diflolved in water, as appears on immerfing a dry hairy leaf into water frefh from a pump, on which innumerable globules of air, like quick-filver, appear on almoft every point. Nor is it improbable that points immerfed in wa- ter may in a bright day contribute to decompofe it, or certainly to fet at liberty its fuperabundant oxygene, as occurs inthe perfpiration of leaves when expofed to the funfhine, and to the green matter in the experiments of Dr. Prieftley, which is probably owing to the fine points of both of them ; and laftly, when points of ‘filk are immerfed in {pring water, which is frequently hyperoxygenated, as in the ex- periments of Count Rumford, related in the Philof. Tranfa&. See Se&t. XIII. I. 5. Ill. 1. The root-/eaves of many perennial plants, which do not produce flowers in the firft year from the feed, are different from thofe of future years, as in the rheum palmatum, palmated rhubarb, the leaves are {mall and nearly circular, and not divided into fingers till the fecond year; and in tulip the leaf the firft year from the {eed is _ {mall like a blade of grafs, rifing from a diminutive bulb. In other perennial plants the root-leaf is undivided, but at the fame time larger than 48 PULMONARY’ ARTERIES. Secr. IV. Illv2, 35 4s than thofe on the rifing ftem, as in geum, averns; in fenecio aureus, and the campanula rotundifolia, fo named from the round form of the root-leaf, which is alfo much broader than thofe on the ftem, as well as undivided. The root-leaves of many biennial, and of fome annual plants, are likewife larger, as well as of a different form from thofe on the rifing flower-{tem, as in turneps and carrots. And laftly, the ' root-leaves of fome plants, which rife’ immediately from feeds, con-= fift of the cotyledons of the feed, and are thus different from the leaves above them.. 2. In refpect to the root-leaves of palmated rhubarb and of tulips, when thefe plants are raifed immediately from feed, as thefe fir plants are not defigned to generate flowers and confequent feeds, but to produce fimply another’ plant like a leaf-bud of a tree, lefs oxygenation feems to have been neceflary, and the leaves therefore require lefs furface, and are in confequence undivided. In refpec to the:root-leaves of geum, and of campanula rotundifolia, which are larger than their {tem-leaves, it is probable that they lay up a refervoir of nutritious matter for the rifing ftem, like thofe of tur- neps and carrots, and thus require greater oxygenation, and in con- fequence a greater furface. | 3. Another difference of root-leaves from thofe of the ftem in annual plants often confifts in the latter being properly bra¢tes or floral- leaves, which will be fpoken of below, while the root-leaf refembles thofe belonging to the leaf-buds of trees. Thus in the rifing ftem of wheat the root-leaf produces the firft joint above the foil, and the fecond and third leaf produce-joint above joint, which are each a fe- parate bud rifing on that below it, as is feen by the divifion of the pith or hollow part of one joint from another, and at length the up- permoft leaf is a braéte or floral-leaf belonging to the ear. 4. And Jaftly, the feed-leaves which rife out of the ground with the firft joint of the flower-ftem, as in kidney-bean, phafeolus, as they confift of the placental artery, which was fpread on the cotyle- dons 34, Ureys, Of the S Wel] Anna | thofe Y, the » COn. 1M the tulips, fe firtt feeds, e, lefs erefore re{pect which ry upa of tur- in con- annual floral- fembles ig ftem and the “h 4 {e- , of the Sect. IV. 4.2. AND VEINS. 49 dons of the feed, and, now rifing out of the earth, when the nu- tritive part has been diffolved in the terrem moifture and abforbed, they ferve the office of an aerial pulmonary organ, or lungs, which before ferved that of an aquatic one, or gills; but wither and fall off as the true leaves become expanded. 1V. 31. The common foliage of deciduous plants conftitutes the organ of re{piration already {poken of, which belongs to the leaf-buds during the fummer months, and drops off in the autumn, when thofe buds perifh by the cold, or by the natural termination of their exif- tence. » But there is another kind of foliage diffimilar to the former, confifting of braétes or floral-leaves, which fupply an organ of ref- piration to the calyx and pericarp of the flower-bud. Thefe frequently differ in fize, form, and colour from the other leaves of the plant, and are fituated on the flower-ftalk often fo near the fructification as to be confounded with the calyx. In fome plants there are two {ets of floral- leaves, or braétes, one at the foot of the umbel, and another beneath each diftinét floret of it; and in others they appear in a tuft above the flower, as well as on the ftalk beneath it, as in fritillaria impe- rialis, crown imperial; and in others they are fo {mall as to be termed ftipula or. props. | All thefe kinds of braétes, or floral-leaves, ferve the office of lungs for the purpofe of expofing the vegetable blood to the influence of the air, and of preparing it for the fécretion, or production and, nou- rithment of the vegetable uterus, or pericarp, and of the feeds pro duced and retained in it, frequently before their impregnation, and al- ways after it. 2. It muft be obferved that in many plants thefe'floral-leaves, or bractes, do not appear till-after the corol and neétaries, with the anthers and ftigmas, drop off; that is, not till after the feed is impregnated, as in colchicum autummnale, crocus, hamamelis, ahd:in fome fruit- trees. The production of the vegetable uterus, or pericarp, with the unimpregnated feeds included, in it, isin, thefe plants accomaplifhed or : evolved, 50 PULMONARY ARTERIES Sect. IV. 4 evolved, like the bra¢tes themfelves with the corol and fexual organs, by the fap-juice, forced up in the umbilical veffels from fome previ- oufly prepared refervoir, without the neceflity of any expofition to the air in leaves or lungs, which are not yet formed, though it may acquire oxygenation in the fine arteries of the embryon buds, which are fuppoted to furround the horizontal air-veflels obferved in the bark of trees. As foon as the feeds become impregnated, the corol and neétaries with the fexual organs fall off, and the pericarp and its contained feeds are then nourifhed by the blood, which is aerated or oxygen- ated in the braétes, or floral-leaves. “Thus the flower of the colchi- cum appears in autumn without any green leaves, and the pericarp with its impregnated feeds rifes out of the ground in the enfuing {pring on a ftem furrounded with brates, and with other green leaves below them, which produce new bulbs in their bofoms. The blood, which thus fupplies nutriment to the pericarp and its included feeds, does not feem to require fo much oxygenation as that which fupplies nutriment to the embryon buds; whence the floral leaves are in general much lefs than the root-leaves in many plants, and than the common green leaves of almoft all vegetables. And in the plant mentioned in No. I. 3. of this fe€tion, under the name of fenecio bicolor, the under furfaces of the ftem-leaves near the ex- pected flower ceafed to be red like thofe of the radical leaves, which feemed to fhew that the vegetable blood was in them lefs oxygenated. Whence it may be believed that lefs irritability may be neceffary for the growth of the feed than of the embryon bud, as the former does not yet perhaps poffefs fo much vegetable life as the latter. And lafily, that as the anthers and ftigma require greater irritability, and fome fenfibility, it was neceflary a fecond time to oxygenate the blood which fupplies them with nutriment in the corols of the flowers. see Sect. VIL 2.4, 3. Recapitulation of the arguments tending to fhew that the leaves Organs, © previ, Ation to it May » Which AD the 1eCtaries ntained OXygen- > colchi- pericarp enfuing 21h leaves D and its 1 as that he floral y plants, And in name of - the ex: 3 which -genated, necellary p former rer, And lity, nate the , flowel* hele yes of Sect. IV. 5. 1. AND VEINS. 51 of vegetables are their lungs. 1. They confift of an artery, which carries the fap to the extreme furface of the upper fide of the leaf, and there expofes it undera thin moift pellicle to the action of the air; and of veins, which there colleét and return it to the foot-ftalk of the leaf, like the pulmonary fyftem of animals. 2. In this organ the pellucid fap is changed to a coloured blood, like the chyle in pafling through the lungs of animals. 3. The leaves of aquatic plants are furnifhed with a larger furface, and with points like the gills of aquatic animals. 4. The upper fides of aerial leaves repel moifture, like the larynx of animals. 5. Leaves are killed by fmearing them with oil, which in the fame manner deftroys infects by ftopping their fpiracula, or the air-holes to their lungs. 6. Leaves have mutcles appropriated to turn them to the light, which is neceflary to their re{piration, as will be fhewn in the: Se€tion on Light. 7. To this may be added an experiment of Mr. Papin related by M. Duhamel. He put an intire plant into the exhaufted receiver of an air-pump, and it foon perifhed ; but on keeping the whole plant in this vacuum except the leaves, which were expofed to the air, it continued to live a long time, which he adds is a proof that the leaves are.the organs of refpiration. Phyfic des arbres, V.I. p. 169. V. 1. The organs of refpiration already defcribed confift of the oreen leaves belonging to leaf-buds, and of the braétes belonging to fower-buds. But there is another pulmonary fyftem totally inde- pendent of the green foliage, which belongs to the fexual or amatorial parts of the fruétification only, I mean the corel or petals. In this there is an artery belonging to each petal, which conveys the vegeta- ble blood to its extremities, expofing it to the light and air under a _ delicate moift membrane covering the internal furface of the petal, where it often changes its colour, as is beautifully feen in fome party~ coloured poppies, though it is probable that fome of the “irridefcent colours of flowers may ‘be owing to the different degrees of tenuity H 2 of $2 PULMONARY ARTERIES SecT. IV. 5.2, of the exterior membrane of the petal refracting the light like foap- bubbles. The vegetable blood is then collected at the extremities of the corol-arteries, and returned by correfpondent veins exactly as in the green foliage, forthe fuftenance of the anthers and ftigmas, and for ‘ic important fecretions of honey, wax, effential oil, and the prolific duft of the anthers, and thus conftitutes a pulmonary organ, as is fhewn by the following analogies. 2. Firtt, the vafcular ftructure of the corol, as above defcribed, and which is vifible to the naked eye; and its expofing the vegetable juices to the air and light during the day evinces that it is a pulmonary organ. Secondly, as the glands which produce the prolific duft of the an- thers, the honey, wax, and frequently fome odiriferous eflential oil, are generally attached to the corol, and always fall off and perifh with it, it is evident that the blood is elaborated or oxygenated. in this pulmonary fyftem. for the purpofe of thefe important fecretions. Thirdly, many flowers, as the colchicum and hamamelis, arife naked in autumn, no green leaves appearing till the enfuing {pring ; and many others put forth their flowers, and complete their impreg- nation early in the fpring, before the green foliage or braétes appear, as mezereon, and fome fruit-trees, which fhews that thefe corols are the lungs belonging to thefe parts of the frudtification. Fourthly, this organ does not feem to have been neceffary for the defence of the ftamens and piftils, fince the calyx of many flowers, as tragopogon, performs this office; and. in many flowers thefe petals themfelves are fo tender as to require being fhut up in the calyx dur- ing the night. For what other ufe then can fuch an apparatus of ak be defenad? . Fifthly, in the helleborus niger, Chriftmas- ee after the feeds are crown toa certain fize, the nectaries, and ftamens,and {tigmas, drop off, Prolific 1, as 1s ed, and 2etable Monhary the an- tial oil, th with in this ns. is, arile {pring ; wmpreg- appeal, rols are for the wers, e petals yx dure ratus of eeds are drop of AS» &> SECT.IV. 5. 3 AND VEINS. 5 off, and the beautiful large white petals change their colour to.a'deep green, and gradually thus become a calyx, inclofing aud defending the ripening feeds; hence it would feem that the white veflels of the corol ferved the office of expofing the blood to the action of the air, for the purpofes of feparating or producing the honey, wax, and pro- lific duft; and when thefe were no longer wanted, that thefe veffels coalefced, like the umbilical veffels of animals after their birth, and thus ceafed to perform that. office, and loft at the fame time their white colour. Why fhould they lofe their white colour unlefs they at the fame time loft fome other property befides that of defending the feed-veflel, which they ftill continue to defend? Sixthly, neither the common green leaves nor the braétes are ne- ceflary to the progrefs of the corol, and ftamens, and ftigma,. or to the fecretion of honey, after the laft year’s leaves.are fallen off, as is evinced by the flowers of colchicum in the autumn, and of crocus in the {pring, in both which the feeds rife out of the earth with their common leaves and braétes fo léng after the difappearance of the flower. In deciduous plants the common green leaves ferve as lungs in the fummer and autumn to-each individualibud, which then pfo- duces the new buds in its bofom, which are either leaf-buds or flower-buds. In the enfuing {pring the new common’ leaves are the refpiratory organ belonging-to the leaf-buds, and the braces are the re{piratory organ to the pericarp, and: its included feeds before or after impregnation ; and the corols, as toon as expanded, become the lungs to the amatorial parts of the fruchification, and require neither - the green teaves nor brattes. . Hence the vine bears fruit atone joint’ without pedies; and sive at the other joint without fruit. Hence the flower of the éol- chicum rifes:out of the ground without’bra@es or other ereen leaves, and flourithes till the feed is impreonated; and the brates, which rife out of the groundiom the ftem in the followmig’ fpring, are lungs to give maturity to the pericarp and feed;:andtheother green leaves are : fos <4 PULMONARY ARTERIES Sect. IV. 5. 46 for the purpofe of producing new bulbs round the old one, but can have nothing to do with the corol, anthers, ftigmas, and nedtaries, which have long fince fallen off, and perifhed. And laftly, when cur- rant or goofeberry trees lofe their common green leaves, and their braétes, by the depredation of infects ; the new leaf- buds become {mall and weak, but the corol, anthers, ftigmas, and nectaries, continue to flourifh, and the fruit becomes impregnated, though it is lefs {weet and of lefs fize from the pericarp and included feed wanting their due nutrition by the braétes before or after impregnation. 4. It hence appears that the flower-bud, after the corol, ftamens, ftigmas, and ne¢taries fall off, becomes fimply a vegetable uterus, for the purpofe of fupplying the growing embryons with nourifh- ment, and pofleffes a fyftem of abforbent veffels, which ‘brings the {ap-juice to the foot-ftalk of the fruit, and which there changes into a pulmonary artery, which conftitutes the braétes or floral-leaves, and expofes the acquired juices to the oxygenation of the air, and con- verts them into vegetable blood. This blood is collected again: by the veins of the braétes, and conveyed by an adapted or aortal artery for the various fecretions of faccharine, farinaceous, or acefcent ma~ terials, for the nourifhment of its included cone on or the con- {truction of the fruit and feed-lobes. At the fame time, as perhaps all the veffels of trees inofculate, the fruit may become {weeter and larger when the green leaves as well as the braétes continue on the tree; but the corols with the ftamens, ftigmas, and neétaries, (the fucceeding fruit not confidered) fuffer, I believe, no injury, when the green leaves and even the bractes are taken off, as by the depredations of infects. Some florifts have ob- ferved this circumftance, and affirm that in many plants when the leaves are pulled off, the flowers become ftronger from their then producing no bulbs, as in tulips and hyacinths. “The inofculation of vegetable veflels is evinced by the increafed growth of one bud, when others in its vicinity are cut away. 5. The : 5. 4, UE cay Ctatieg EN Curis 1d their Ne {mal tinue to {S fiveet heir due ftamens, uterus, nourifh- ings the 1ges Into ives, and and con- again: by al artery sent ma- the con- slate, the 4S well as {tamens ) {uffer, ractes are have ob- when the heir thee lation ° ud, w is ™ ‘ fleep. Sect. IV. 5. 6. AND VEINS. 55 5. The fleep of plants has been much fpoken of by Linneus and others, but there 1s a wonderful circumftance occurs in it, which has not been noticed; which is, that it feems to refemble the torpor of winter-fleeping infects and other animals, as many plants do not ap- pear to refpire during this part of their exiftence ; for fome vegeta- bles clofe together the upper furfaces of their leaves, .both during their fleep and in rainy weather, as mimofa, fenfitive-plant; pha- {eolus, kidney-bean ; and the terminal fhoots of alfine, chickweed. Many other plants clofe their petals and calyxes during their fleep as well asin rain, as convolvulus ; and fome even in the bright day- light, as tragapogon ; and yet all thefe plants are believed by gardeners to grow, when young, fafter in the night. We mutt obferve, that this fleep of plants, though it may refemble the torpor of winter-fleeping animals, is not to be confounded with the ftate of deciduous plants in the winter, as that confifts in the death of the laft year’s bud, and the embryon condition of the new buds. It would hence appear, that perpetual re{piration is lefs ne- ceflary to the vegetable than to the animal world ; and that as lefs is watted during the inactive flate of fleep, it is poffible that young plants may increafe in weight, or grow fafter, during this ftate of inactivity, as animals are obferved to refpire lefs frequently during their fleep, and yet are believed when young to grow fafter during their hours of reft than of exercife. So- both in the experiments of Dr. Hales and Dr. Walker on plants during the bleeding feafon, the afcent of the fap-juice not only topped during the night, but fome- times became retrograde, which might neverthelefs be afcribed to the torpor of the abforbent fyftem induced by cold, as well as to that of 6. We may draw this general refult, that the common leaves of trees are the lungs of the individual vegetable beings, which form during the fummer new buds in their bofoms, whether leaf-buds or flower-buds, and which in refpe€t to the deciduous trees of this ch- mate 56 PULMONARY ARTERIES Szcr. IV. 5.6, mate perifh in autumn ; while the new buds remain to expand inthe enfuing fpring. Secondly, that the bractes, or floral-leaves, are the lungs of the pericarp or uterus, and to the growing feeds which it contains, as ‘the brates on the ftem of the crown-imperial, fritil- laria imperialis, and the tuft above its flowers, And thirdly, that the corol or petals are the lungs belonging to the anthers and {tigmas, which are the fexual or amatorial parts of the plant, and to the nec- taries for the fecretion of honey, and to the other glands which affords effential oil and wax. Laftly, the ftamina and ftigma with the petals and nectary, which conftitute the vegetable males, and the amatorial part of the female, as they in fome plants appear before the green leaves or bractes, as in colchicum and mezereon, and in all plants fall off when the female uterus is impregnated, would appear to be diftinct beings, totally different both from the leaf-buds, which produce a viviparous pro- eeny ; and alfo from the braétes with the calyx and pericarp, which conftitute the vegetable uterus. . They muft at firft receive nutriment from the vernal fap-juice, like the expanding foliage of the leaf-buds, or the braétes of the flower- buds. But when the corol becomes expanded, and conftitutes a new pulmonary organ, the vegetable juices are expofed to the air in the extremities of its fine arteries beneath a moift pellicle for the purpofe of greater oxygenation, and for the important fecretion of honey; and then the anthers and ftigmas are fupplied with this more nutri- tious food, which they abforb from its receptacle, the nectary, after it has there been expofed to the air, and are thus furnifhed with greater irritability, and with the neceflary amatorial fenfibility, and live like bees and butterflies on that nutritious fluid. See Sect. VID. TI. 4. SECT. ie * 5:6, qin the are the , fritj]. ly, that the nec. h affords y which > female, tes, as in e female 3 totally OUS pro 0, which uice, like > flower: tes a new ir in the purpole f honey: re nutri arys after hed with iitys and Set. vii spcl a Sect. V.1. AORTAL ARTERIES AND VEINS. &7 $B C.T.. Vv. THE AORTAL ARTERIES AND VEINS OF VEGETABLES. 3. Aortal arteries in vegetables have correfpondent veins. Shewn by experiment on + pleris, tragopogon, and euphorbia. Seen in the calyx of flowers. Circulation foewn by ingrafting ftriped-paffion-flower, and jafmine, and hardier feions on can- kered ftems, from fruit-grafts on bad flocks degenerating. 2. Vegetable circula- tion performed without a heart, as in the aorta and liver of fifo. 3. Force of the mouths of abjorbents greater than that of the heart in producing circulation. Why there is no pulfation in the vena portarum, Circulation in the veins of animals produced by abjorption. Very final refiftance in the capillaries and glands. Wounds in trees firongly abforb fluids except in the bleeding feafon. 4. Vegetable veffels too minute to carry red blood, bence not eafily injetted with coloured. fluids. Charcoal injetted with quickfilver, or meited wax. 5. Recapitulation. Circula- tion performed by irritability of the veffels, and by the great power of abforption, and the a&tion of the fides of veffels confifting of a Jpiral line. 6. Veffels unite at the lower and upper caudex gemma. Abforbents and umbilical veffels confift of a fpiral line. Experiment by placing euphorbium firft in a decoétion of galls, and then in a folution of green vitriol. ‘Funttion of great vein, abjorbent trunk, and pulmonary artery in the upper caudex gemma. Embryon bud feen in contact with the pith. Experiments with charcoal injelted with white paint, fuet, wax, and guickfilver. 1. THE two principal arteries in animal bodies are the pulmonary artery and the aorta. The former réceives the blood from the right cavity of the heart, and difperfing it round all the air-cells which terminate the bronchia, or air-pipes of the lungs, expofes it to the in- fluence of the atmno{phere through the thin moift membrane, which lines them. This we have fhewn in Se@ IV. I. 3. to be refembled in its office by the vegetable arteries, which carry their blood up the I foot- 58 AORTAL ARTERIES — Sgcr.V.1. foot-ftalks of the leaves, and expofe it on the upper furface of them to the influence of the air through a thin moift pellicle, where it changes its colour, and returns by correfpondent veins like the blood of animals. The aortal arteries of the more perfect animals receive the blood from the left cavity of the heart, after it has been expofed to the influence of the air in the lungs, and difperfe it by numerous rami- fications over the whole body for the purpofes of fecretion and nu- trition. In lefs perfec animals the aorta itfelf has a pulfation, and carries forward the blood without the affiftance of a heart, as may be feen in the back of a full-grown filk-worm by the naked eye, and very diftin@lly by the ufe of a common lens. After the blood has. paffed the various glands and capillaries, it is received by another fy{- tem of veffels, the veins, which conftitute a kind of refervoir for the / quantity of blood, that remains unexpended by the fecretions, ex- cretions, nutrition, and growth of the animal ; by thefe it is again carried to the right cavity of the heart, and again — in ithe lungs to the iuiftuence of the air. In a fimilar manner the branching veins, which bring the blood from the leaves of plants, after it has been expofed to the influence of the air, unite at the foot-ftalk of each leaf into more or fewer trunks, as may be feen in tearing off the foot-ftalk of a leaf of a chefnut-tree from the {tem ; and there without the interpofition of a heart, like the circulation in the aorta of fifh, and that in the livers of red-blooded animals, thefe venous trunks take the office of arte- ries, and difperfe the blood downwards along the bark to the roots, and to every other part of the vegetable fy{tem, performing the va- rious purpofes of fecretion, exeretion, and nutrition, as was fhewn in the experiment of placing a fig-leaf in a decoction of madder, defcribed in Se&t. IV. 1. 3. of this Gork: But as vegetables drink up their adapted sioutviueti gi perpetually from the siaik earth, and in confequence mutt be fuppofed to take up’ nV of then ? Cre it le bloog 1€ blood CO the 1S Tamj- ind py. On, and May be ‘ye, and lood has cher fyf- r for the DNS, eX- 1S again 1 in the he blood nfluence or fewer leaf of @ tion of a he livers of arte: he roots, > the v4" arn maddets rpetuall to tak? op Sect. V. 1. AND VEINS. | 59 up no more than their perpetual wafte may require, I formerly be- lieved, that this refervoir, or venous fyftem, was not neceflary in vege- tables; and that therefore probably it did not exift. I was induced to adopt this idea from having obferved in cutting afunder a ftem of large {fpurge, euphorbia heliofcopia ; in which the rifing fap could not be miftaken for the milky blood; that much more of the vegetable blood flowed from the upper part of the plant than from the lower part of it ; and I therefore fufpected, that there was no returning veins cor- refpondent to the defcending aortal arteries. But firft this muft ne- ceffarily occur from the veins returning from the root effufing their blood flower than the arteries of the. upper part of the plant. And fecondly, if there were no returning veins from the lower part. of the plant, there ought to have been no effufion of blood from it. I have fince obferved on cutting afunder a large plant of picris, and alfo a large plant of tragopogon {corzonera, and inftantly infpeéting them with a common lens ; that two concentric circles of veflels were vifible, which oozed a milky juice ; the internal circle of the upper divifion of the two plants, and the external one of the lower divi- fion, appeared to bleed more copioufly, and in quicker ftreams, than the external circle of the upper divifion, and the internal one of the lower divifion; whence I concluded, that the veffels of the internal circles were arteries, and thofe of the external ones veins ; and that the arteries of the upper part of the plant, which arife from the up- per part of the caudex of each individual bud, were thus feen to pour out more blood, and in a quicker {tream, than the veins of the lower part of the plant, as they return from the roots. Add to this, that as the pulmonary arteries in the green leaves‘ of plants, and in their petals, have correfpondent veins vifible to the eye; -and that thefe are alfo feen in the calyxes of fome flowers, which from their other evident ufes can not be efteemed pulmonary organs: There is the ftricteft analogy to believe, that the aortal arteries of the hark of the trunk and roots have alfo their correfpondent veins. £3 Neverthelefs 60 AORTAL ARTERIES Sect. V. 4, Neverthelefs to evince that the veffels returning from the roots of plants, which oozed out a milky juice, were in reality not ab- forbent veffels, I cut off the ftem of a large {purge plant, euphor- bia heliofcopia, about a foot and half from the ground, and bent it down into a cup of a decoction of madder, rubia tinctoria, in which it was confined two or three minutes ; and wiping the end clean, I pre- fently cut off about an eighth of an inch of it with a fharp penknife, and obferved with a common lens the large abforbent veflels to be coloured with the madder, while the veins continued to effufe a little ‘white blood; and thus demonftrated both the exiftence of abforbent veflels and returning veins. See Sed. Il. 2. At the fame time the upper part of the plant had alfo its ftem fet in the decoction of madder, and after two or.three minutes on cutting off about the eighth of an inch of it, or fimply by wiping the extre- mity, the large abforbent veffels were feen by the naked eye to be coloured with the madder, and the arteries continued to effufe a large quantity of milky blood. The fame experiments were tried on a plant of tragopogon with the fame event. It fhould be here obferved, that the deco¢ction of Faas fhould be frefh made, as otherwife the colouring matters liable to form it- felf into molecules, too large to be imbibed by any other veffels but the trunks of the abforbents, which may be faid to refemble the re- ceptaculum chyli of animals, as they pafs from the lower extremity of the caudex of each bud to the upper one. A proof of the circulation of the juices of plants has been deduced from the communication of white fpots from a grafted {cion to the whole of the tree in which it was ingrafted. Mr. Fairchild budded a paflion-tree, whofe leaves were fpotted with ‘yellow, into one which bears long fruit. The buds did not take, neverthelefs in a fortnight yellow {pots began to fhew themfelves about three feet above the in- ilaten ; andin a fhort time afterwards yellow {pots appeared on a shoot, nknife, S$ to be 2 little lorbent tem fet cutting € extre- re to be > a large n a plant r fhould form it- offels but e the re- extremity Secr. V. 2 AND VEINS. 6 a fhoot, which came out of the ground from another part of the plant. Bradley on Gardening, Vol. H. p. 129. And Mr. Lawrence obferves, that the yellow ftriped jaffamine has afforded a demonftration of the circulation of the juices in a trees he ‘noculated in Auguft the buds of ftriped jaffamine-trees into the branches of plain ones; and afferts, that he has feveral times expe- rienced, that if the bud lives but two or three months, it will com- municate its virtue or difeafe to the whole circumfluent fap, and the tree will become entirely ftriped. Art of Gardening, p.66. Thefe are both of them important facts, as they are related from refpectable authorities. | And I think I have myfelf obferved in two pear-trees about twenty years old, whofe branches were much injured by canker, that on in- grafting hardier pear-{cions on their {ummits, they became healthier trees, which can only be explained from a better fanguification pro- duced in the leaves of the new buds. It has alfo been obferved by an ingenious lady, that though fruit- trees ingrafted on various kinds of ftocks are fuppofed to bear fimilar fruit, yet that this is not accurately fo ; as on fome ftocks fhe has known the ingrafted fcions of apple-trees to {uffer confiderable change for the worfe compared with the fruit of the parent-tree; whereas thofe {cions, which can be made to grow by ftriking roots into the earth, fhe be- lieves to fuffer no deterioration. If this really occurs, it fhould be in a very flight degree, as the fruit is formed by the action of fecre- tion, and depends on the glands of the part more than on any flight change of the vegetable blood, from which the fecretion is fele¢ted or produced. Neverthelefs if the fact be afcertained, it confirms the truth of the exiftence of a vegetable circulation. >, The. circulation of the vegetable juices in the leaves of plants, and in their trunks and roots, is performed without a heart, and is wery fimilar to_that in the aorta of fifh. .In fith the blood, after hav- ing pafied through their gills, does not return to the heart, as from the 62 AORTAL ARTERIES Sect. V, 2, the lungs of air-breathing animals; but the pulmonary vein, taking the ftructure of an artery, after having received the blood from the gills, which there gains.a more florid colour, diftributes it to the other parts of their bodies. A fimilar ftru€ture obtains in the livers of fith, as well as in thofe of air-breathing animals; the blood is colleéted from the mefentery and inteftines by the branches of their proper veins, which unite on their entrance into the liver, branch out again, and aflume the office of an artery, under the name of vena portarum, diftributing the blood through that large vifcus for the purpofe of the fecretion of bile; whence we fee in thefe animals two circulations independent of the power of the heart. Firft, that which begins in the mefentery and inteftines, and pafles through the liver ; and fecondly, that beginning at the termination of the veins of the gills, and pafling through the other parts of the body; both which circulations are carried on by the action of thofe refpective ar- teries and veins. Monro’s Phyfiology of Fith, p. 19. The courfe of the fluids in the leaves, and in the trunks and roots of vegetables, is performed ina fimilar manner. Firft, the abforbent veffels of the roots, of the internal cells, and of the external bark, with the venous blood returning from thofe parts, unite at the foot-{talk of the leaf; and then, like the vena portarum, an artery commences without the intervention of a heart, and receiving the fap and venous blood fpreads it in numerous ramifications on the upper furface of the leaf; here it changes its colour, and becomes vegetable blood ; and is again collected by a pulmonary vein, and returns on the under fur- face of the leaf. This vein, like that which receives the blood from the gills of fith, affumes the office of an artery, which correfponds with the aorta of animals, and branching again difperfes the blood upward to the plumula or fummit of the bud, from its caudex at the foot-ftalk of the leaf, and downward along the bark of the trunk to - the roots; whereit is received by a vein correfponding to the vena cava ef animals, after having expended what was required for the fecre- tions, Collegteq P Proper Och oyt of vena for the animals irft, that ough the the veins ly; both >€tive are and roots ibforbent ark, with ‘oot-ftalk mmences d venous ce of the j; and ader fut pod from -refponds he blood ex at the rruok . yena cave e fecte 13088 Sect. V. 3- AND VEINS. «63 tions, excretions, and nutritition, and returns to the caudex of the bud, and to the foot-ftalk of the leaf. 3. The power, which produces a circulation without a heart in vegetables, aéts with an aftonifhing force. In fome of the experi- ments of Dr. Hales, who fixed glafs tubes to vine-ftumps in the {pring, the fap-juice rofe above ehirty. feet; and in fome trees muft proba~ bly arife ftill higher in the vernal months before the leaves are ex4 pended ; and this either folely by the activity of the abforbent mouths of thefe veflels, or affifted by the vermicular ation of their fides, which appear to confift of a fpiral line, as defcribed in Se&. II. 7. of this work. When the Bbinics rifes thirty-five feet high, which is about the weight of the atmofphere, the column sedtoe: about fourteen pounds on every {quare inch. Now ifthe area of the mouth of an abforbent veflel be only one ten thoufandth part of the area of a {quare inch, the ten thoufandth part of fourteen pounds is the whole that counteracts the efforts of each abforbent mouth; and as the veflels of vegetables . appear to have both very minute diameters, and very rigid fides, they are thence prevented from aneurifm or rupture by the. preffure of fo high a column of fap-juice. The fame philofopher, by fixing glafs tubes to the arteries of horfes, as near the heart as was practicable, found the blood in them to rife only nine or ten feet ; whence it appears, that a circulation of blood may be carried on more forcibly by the action of the mouths of ab- forbent veffels, than by the apparently more violent exertions of the heart, the power of which was calculated by Borelli and others to be fo enormoufly great, as to equal the preffure of fome thoufand pounds, as the counter preffure of the moving blood aéts on fo large a furface as that of the whole internal fides of the heart. But as a column of blood nine feet high prefles with lefs than one third of the weight of the atmofphere, or about four pounds on every {quare inch of furface ; and as the internal furface of the left cavity of 64 AORTAL ARTERIES Sect. V. 3. of the heart of a horfe may not exceed thirty fquare inches, its whole power does not overcome the refiftance of more than 120 pounds. Hence it becomes intelligible, how the circulation of the blood in the vena portarum of the liver is performed without any apparent ~ pulfation, or contra€tion of its fides like an artery, which fome have indeed fuppofed it to poflefs, but fimply by the force of abforption exerted by the mouths of the veins, which fupply it with blood. Secondly, how the circulation of the blood in the bodies of fith, ex- cept in their gills, is carried on through their fyftem without the ac- tion of the heart. And thirdly, how the blood in the vena cava of the human body, as well as the fluids imbibed by the lacteals and lymphatics, are carried forwards to the heart by the power alone of their abforbent mouths, which drink up their blood from the capil- laries, or their other fluids from the furfaces or cavities of the body, And laftly, how the whole circulation in vegetables is performed in very minute veflels without valves, and without a heart, folely by the power of abforption, circumftances which have long perplexed the phyfiology both of the animal and vegetable kingdoms. Another circumftance attending the circulation of the juices in ve- getables, as well as the circulation of the blood in animal bodies, has not been fufficiently attended to; and that is, that the refiftance to the paflage of thefe fluids from the terminations of the arteries, in what are termed capillaries, to the beginnings of the veins, and through the glands of various kinds, is much lefs than is generally imagined, as we fee with what great force the mouths of both the vegetable and animal abforbents imbibe their fluids 5 and that the beginnings of the veins, and the mouths of the laéteals and lymphatics, and proba- bly thofe belonging to every kind of gland, poffefs this great power of abforption. And that on this account, when wounds are made in trees in the f{ummeér months, when the umbiligal fap-veffels of the root have ceafed to aét, fuch wounds powerfully abforb any fluid, whether falutary or poifonous, which is applied to them, which does not ova SS Whol OUnds, blood in | “PPareny ome have bforptio, Ood, f hth, CX- Ut the ac. a Cava of Cteals and t alone of the capil. the body, formed in folely by perplexed ices in ve- sodies, has ance tothe s, in what d through imagined, “vegetable noi of Seer. V. dy 5- AND VEINS. 78 not occur during the bleeding feafon, as the fap-juice from the dit- fevered veffels of the alburnum ftpplies a greater quantity of fluid than the other parts of the wound can imbibe. 4. The red particles of blood have been faid by Lewenhook and ‘others, who have infpeéted them in microfcopes, to be of the fame fize in all creatures. Hence nature has formed no very {mall animals with a general circulation of warm red blood; the moufe and hum- ming-bird are perhaps the leaft.. When it was neceffary to form the veflels much more minute, a diluter kind of yellow or milky blood, or ‘one nearly tranfparent, conftitutes the greateft part of the vital fluid, ‘as in infeéts of various kinds, and in the white mufcles of fith ; whence arofe a difficulty to the anatemift of vifibly injecting thefe fmnaller feries of veflels, as they are too minute to convey almoft any’ «coloured particles. In the vegetable world the finer fyftems of their veffels have ftill greater tenuity, and hence evade our eyes and microfcopes ; and as their coats poffefs at the fame time a greater rigidity, they are in ge- neral on that account alfo incapable of receiving coloured injections, which has rendered the anatomy of plants fo much more difficult to inveftigate than that of animals, and mutt apologife for the imperfec- tions of this part of the work, but affords no argument againift the exiftence of a vegetable circulation. It is probable that by immerfing charcoal, nicely made by flow calci- nation, in quickfilver, or even in melted coloured wax, as it fo greedily abforbs almoft all fluids, when recently taken from the fire, or cooled without the contaét of air, we might produce beautiful vegetable pre- parations, and give more accurate light into the anatomy of plants. But the column of quickfilver employed to pufh forwards the injection fhould not be too high, left it fhould rupture the veffels it ought only to fill, as I fuppofe has fometimes happened in thus injecting the glands or capillaries of animal bodies. s. Recapitulation. We may finally conclude, that the circulation K of 66 AORTAL ARTERIES © Sect. Vig of vegetables is performed like that of animals by the irritability of their veffels to the {timulus of the fluids, which.they abforb.and: pro- trude; that is, that the extremities of the branching veins of the leaves forcibly abforb the vegetable blood frem the extremities of their arteries, which correfpond with the pulmonary arteries of animals ; and that it is thus. pufhed on to the foot-ftalk of the leaf, where the veins unite, and branching. out again take the office of an artery, like the ‘aorta in fifth, without perceptible pulfation. ‘The biood in this artery is puthed forwards by that behind it,.the motion of which was given by the power of abforption in the pulmonary vein, till.it ar- rives at. the extremities of thefe aortal branches, and is- there again forcibly abforbed by the. terminations of the correfpondent veins, and again, pufhed forwards to the caudex. gemma, and to the foot-ftalk. of the leaf, like the blood in the vena cava of animals.. A. part of this blood is at the fame time forcibly felected fa: ab= forbed by the various glands for the purpofes of the neceflary fecre» tions, excretions, or nutrition ;, and the fap-juice or chyle and, the. water, which.is acquired by the abforbent veffels, that correfpond to the lacteal and: lymphatic veffels of animals, is carried, as well as the remainder of the blood,. to the foot-ftalk of the leaf. Here thefe ab- forbent veffels are believed to: pufh. their contents.into the veins cor= ref{pondent to. the vena cava of animals, and which now unitirg:withe out the intervention, of a heart, affume the name and office of the pul- monary arteries; and branching out upon the leaf expofe the return- ing blood and new fap-juice to the influence of the air. And finally, all this is accomplithed by the power of abforption, as imthe:aortal are teries, and. vena portarum, of fifh, which is excited into action by the irritability of the mouths of thefe veflels to the ftimulus of the fluids,, which they abforb.. 2d. A circulation of vegetable juices, in every re{pect fimilar to-that in the common leaves above defcribed, exifts in the bractes or floral: ~ Jeaves,.except that the leaves of the cake prepare their juices. for the: een. y. é ttability of 8Nd: pro, Ins Of the i€s of thes sf animals. Caf, Where f al) artery, 1e bivod in n Of Which in, tillitar. there again t veins, and e foot-falk ted and ab- effary fecres yle and; the srref{pond to well as the sre thefe ab- e veils col niting with e of the pu » the retul And finally , “quiere Sect. V.-6. AND VEINS: oe the production and nourifhment of other ‘buds in their bofoms; but thefe bractes, which are the lungs of the fructification, prepare their juices for the nourifhment-of the pericarp and its included feeds, but not for that of the corel with its anthers and ftigmas, as thefe in many flowers exift before the production of ‘the floral-leaves, as in colchicum and hamamelis. gd. Another circulation of vegetable juices exifts in the fexual parts of flowers, including the neétaries and corols. In the corols the vegetable blood is expofed to the influence of the air, and pre- pared for the fecretion of honey, which is the food or fupport of the anthers and ftigmas, as treated of in the fection IV. V.1. and in Sec- tion VIL 4. In thefe the progreffion and circulation of the fluids muft ‘be caufed by the power of abforption, which we have fhewn to be a greater force than that of the heart of animals. 4th. The progrefs.of the fluids imbibed by vegetable laCteals from the earth, and by their lymphatics from the air, and from the fur- faces of their internal cells, is evidently began and carried on by the power of abforption of their terminating mouths, and the annular contraétion of their fpiral fibres. sth. And laftly, the wonderful force with which the fap-juice is drank up and protruded.in the umbilical veflels, which expands and nourithes.the ‘buds.of trees, and which forms the wires of ftrawberries above ground, and thofe of potatoes under ground, with the great variety of bulbs and root~fcions, is to be afcribed to this fingle princi- ple of abforption. Except that fome of thefe long cylindric veffels are evidently compofed of a fpiral line, as-mentioned in Sect, Il. 7. and which may by the annular contraction of this {piral line carry the fluids they have abforbed with great force either in a forward or re- trograde direction. 6. Finally I conclude, that the branching abforbents of the roots unite at the lower caudex of each bud, before it rifes out of the-earth, K 2 and e 68 ' AORTAL ARTERIES Sect. V. & | -and forms a large trunk, which paffés up the alburnum of the tree to the upper caudex of the bud at the foot-ftalk of the leaf, and may be compared to the receptaculum chyli of animals extended to fo great alength ; and. that it there joins the great returning vein,.which alfo is compofed of the branching veins of the roots uniting at the lower caudex of the bud, and afcending. terminates at the upper caudex of it, where it becomes again branched, and forms the pul-. monary artery. | The aorta or great artery defcends, I fuppofe, along with the great vein, or vena cava above mentioned ; and branehing in the roots’ be-- low, and on all other parts of the individual leaf-bud, performs the offices of fecretion and nutrition. The pulmonary arteries-and veins belong to the leaf; the former expofes the blood to the atmofphere- beneath a thin moift pellicle, whence it becomes oxygenated, and pro- bably acquires fome warmth, and phofphoric acid, and the fpirit of vegetable life. The latter colleéts the aerated blood by its branches,. and conveys it to the upper caudex of the bud, at the foot-ftalk of the leaf, where it becomes the aorta or great artery above mentioned. The fides of the long abforbent trunks, or receptacles of chyle,. which rife from the lower caudex and terminate in the upper caudex of each bud, as well as the long trunks of the umbilical. veffels de- {cribed in Sect. III. evidently confift of a fpiral line,.as well as thofe trunks of abforbents, which imbibe aqueous fluids from the air,. and: a part of their perfpirable matter on the furfaces of the leaves. But whether the pulmonary and aortal arteriessor great veins confit of a: fimilar ftru€ture is not yet afcertained. I fhall here relate the following experiments, which were made @ few days ago, to confirm or confute the ideas above delivered.. Some ftems of large {purge, euphorbia, were fet upright in a de- coction of oak-galls, and others in a folution of green vitriol. On the next day thefe were reciprocally removed from the one to the other, as by this management I fuppofed that the black molecules would : be ‘ h the Creat > TOOtS be. Tforms the S-and veins itmofphere d,and pro- he fpirit of s branches, talk of the sntioned. s of chyle, per caudex veftels de- ell as thole the ait, and AVES: But confilt of a ca as 2 AND VEUN SEO" 69 be produced in the veflels of the plants, and would thence appear higher in thofe veffels than if the black molecules had been formed by a mixture of the two fluids previous to their abforption. On cutting thefe horizontally flice after flice with a fharp knife, and infpecting them with a common lens, the milky blood was feen to ooze, as before defcribed, from an external ring of the bark ; and an interior ring of coloured points was agreeably vifible many inches up the ftem., but on flicing the ftem from below up to the infertion of the leaves and buds in. their bofoms, I perfuaded myfelf that I could perceive the coloured abforbents of the ftem enlarged at the part where each with the attendant vein changes into a pulmonary artery, and pafles into the leaf, forming three or more of the ribs of it, and thus-conftituting the upper part of the caudex gemme. Another circumftance was beautifully vifible, which was, that the coloured cylinder of abforbent veffels had evidently. feparated to allow the new bud to apply its interior termination to the pith; which pro- bably, when it was fecreted by the glands of the caudex of the parent bud, found in this fituation a proper nidus, and due nutriment for its embryon ftate, as in the uterus of the female. Some other kinds of experiments I dire€ted with defign to thew the part of the lower caudex of each bud, where the branching ab- forbents and veins of the root unite each into one trunk, before they afcend along the bole of the tree ; and alfo to fhew,. as in the above experiment, the upper caudex of each bud, where the veins are joined by the abforbents, and become the pulmonary arteries of each leaf, but did not fucceed quite to my with, though what I could ob- ferve feemed to confirm the above theory.. I had not leifure to re= peat the experiments with fufficient attention, but fhall here in few words defcribe the manner of making them, hoping fome one may. be induced to profecute them with fuccefs, and to inject vegetable vefiels, as the anatomifts.do thofe of animals. A part of a leaf-ftalk, and the joint to. which it adhered, with 9 about 70 | AORTAL ARTERIES, &c. Sscrt.V. 6, about half an inch of the ftem above and below the joint, were cut off from fome latt year’s twigs, and alfo the caudex of fome herba- ceous plants. ‘Thefe were covered with fand in a crucible placed on the fire, till they were red hot, fo that the vegetable joints were become charcoal. They were then taken out of the fand, and fome immerfed in melted fuet, others in melted bees-wax, others in white paint, and one or two in an amalgama of quickfilver and zinc, which happened to be prepared for the purpofes of electricity. When they were cold, on flicing them, fome horizontally, and others ver- tically, I perfuaded myfelf that the blood-veffels above mentioned, as well as the pulmonary vein and aortal artery, were vifible in the two extremities of the long caudex of the bud, as well as the long trunks of the arteries, veins, and abforbents, which conftitute the middle part of it. SECT. * Hand, ang 5) Others in and Zine, ty. When thers Vere ntioned, as iN the two Ng trunks the midds gECT “~ Sect. VI. GLANDS AND SECRETIONS. vt S.2.C.7.5VhL THE GLANDS AND SECRETIONS OF VEGETABLES. I. 1. Glands of vegetables. Their vefféls are too minute for coloured injettions. 2. They poffe/s appetency. Are ftimulated by the paffing blood. VW. 1. Mucilage in all vegetables. 2 Is a part of their nutriment, and convertable into Jugar. III. 1. Starch. not foluble in cold water. Potatoe bread. 2. Starch produced from mucilage, whence old grain better than new. Alum soagulates mucilage. Uje of it in bread. How diftinguifbed in bread by the eye. Is falutary in London bread. Is ufed in making hair-powder. 3- Froft converts mucilage into farch ; fuow pancakes. 4. Starch from poifmous plants is wholefome, and may be ob- obtained hy elutriation in times of fearcity. IV. 1. Oils may be feparated from bitter or narcotic materials, as the latter adbere to the mucilage. V.1. Sugar formed by animal digeftion. 2, By vegetable digeftion. Sugar is nutritive, but may injure the teeth. 3. In many roots it ts found ready prepared. May be fe- parated from mucilage by vinous fpirit. 4. Exifts in fruit formed from auftere acids by a vegetable procefs. 5. By heat; by bruifing auftere fruit; by drying malt. Sugar converted into farch as well as ftarch into fugar. Uje of fugar to ve- getables and animals, VI. 1. Honey guarded from infetis, and from rain. a, Is of great importance. Is expofed to the air. Is reabforbed, and is nutri- tious. 3. Depredatiow of infetts on honey is injurious to vegetation. So is the honey-dew on trees. Bees alfo collet farina from flowers. 4. Why the honey is expofed to the air. Is the food of the anthers and fligmas. Differs from fugar by greater oxygenation. Benevolent economy of nature. VII. 1. Wax preferves the anther-duft from rain. How wet feafons injure wheat. 2, Wax collected from. ciftus labdiniferus. Bees much injure flowers. 3. Wax from candleberry - myrtle, and from croton febiferum. Preferves or nourifbes the immature Seeds. 4.Wax depofited on plants by infetts in China. Gives confiftence to oil. VIII.1. Tur- pentines and effential oils are inadmiffible with water. Moift parts of uege- tables are fooneft deftroyed by fro. Evergreen trees contain moft refin. De- fends the buds of deciduous plants. 2% Origin of petroleum, jet, amber, foffil, coal, ~~ 2 “GLANDS ANIM * Bact. Videagme coal. 3 Effential oils agreeable. Poifonous. Preferve wood from infects. Ujed in Africa to poifon weapons and pools of water. 4. Some effential oils burft into flame with nitric acid, Producea vapour round dittamnus fraxinella, §. Elaftic vefin. Bird-lime. Refinous part of wheat-flower. 1X. 1. Bitter, narcotic, acrid juices, for the defence of plants. Opium exifts in the poppy-head, but not in the feed. So of hyofcyamus. Narcotic matter in walnut-bufks not in the feed. Oil of bitter almonds taftele/s. 2. Acrid, afiringent, emetic, cathartic, and colouring matters. Many potfonous plants in all our bedge-bottoms. 3. All thefe are firongeft in the hybernaculum or winter-lodge of plants. When oaks foould be decorticated. X. 1. Acids in fruit and leaves of various kinds. Con- vertible into fugar. For the nutriment of feeds and buds. For the defence of the plants. J. 1. Tue ftructure-of the glands of animals has not been yet fully afcertained. They confift of vefiels fo minute as to exclude all co- loured inje€tions, except quickfilver ; and the terminations of thefe veffels are fo tender, that the neceflary weight of the quickfilver is liable to break them, and thus mifinform the obferver, as mentioned in Se&. V.'4. Little more is therefore known of them than their effect, which is, that they fecrete, that is feparate or produce, fome fluid from the blood; as bile, falvia, urine, milk. | The veffels of vegetables being ftill more minute, and more rigid, the ftructure of their glands is {till further removed from our difco- very. ‘Their effects are however as evident as thefe of the glands of animals in the fecretion or production of various fluids, which be- come folid, as their aqueous parts are abforbed or exhaled, as mucilage, ftarch, oil, fugar, honey, wax, turpentines, effential oils, aromatics, bitters, narcotics, acrids, acids, and a variety of other materials, which fill our barns and granaries, and crowd the fhops of the drug- gilt. 2. There can be no doubt from what has been already faid of the circulation of vegetable juices, but that their various fecretions muft tbe effe&ted in a fimilar manner to that in animal bodies, which is : believed infer? Uly HG ? JM OU in, a, ry 5. Elaji, Ty Narco pad} wy ‘Cd, Out NOt ip ee ; . 2n the f rey Jed. OATH, and DRS. 4 sh 3: Al 77) I} ben oaks be , ~ kinds, Con. defence of the en yet fully ide all co- ns of thefe ick filver 1s mentioned » than their duce, fome more rigid, 9 our difco- re glands of which be 1S mucilags atics, , arom - , material of the a8" y {aid of J etjons pl pich ® Sy peliet™ Ka, Sect. VI. 2.1. 3. 1+ SECRETIONS. 73 believed to be performed by the mouth of each gland being irritated snto aétion by the ftimulus of the blood, which is brought to it, and that by a kind of appetite it drinks up a part of the blood, and con- verts it to the fluid, which it fecretes, which then becomes more or lefs folid, as its aqueous parts are abforbed or exhaled. II. 1. Mucilage is found in all parts of plants, as being an effential conftituent of vegetable as of animal bodies; fo when an extract 1s made by boiling plants in water, the mucilage makes the greateft part of this extract. The mucilage called gum arabic is obtained from mimofa nilotica, gum tragacanth exfudes from aftragalus tragacantha, as a fimilar gum exfudes from our cherry and plumb-trees; fagoe is the pith of the lycas circinalis ; and falep is the root of the orchis dried in an oven. This mucilage feems to ferve as nourifhment to the plant; firft, becaufe it is found in all vegetable as well as animal materials, as they decompofe in dunghills ; fecondly, becaufe it forwards the growth of vegetables, when fpread upon land; thirdly, becaufe thofe trees, which bleed much gum, are weakened and frequently dies and laftly, becaufe it is evidently laid up in the roots and feeds of various vege- tables for the nourifhment of the young plants. But in thefe it feems to undergo a change either in part chemical, or wholly by the digeftive organs of the embryon plant, and is converted into fugar, as in the tranfmutation of barley into malt ; and as appears from the {weet tafte of onions and potatoes, when boiled after they have ger- minated; and as fugar abounds in the vernal fap-juice of trees in fuch quantity as to be capable of fermentation. Ill. 1. Starch is another kind of mucilage, which differs from thofe above mentioned in its property of not diflolving in cold water, and can hence be eafily feparated from them. if eight pounds of good raw potatoes be erated by means of a bread-grater into cold water ; and, after well agitating the mixture, the ftarch be fuffered - to fabfide; and this ftarch be then mixed with eight other pounds of . | boiled 74, GLANDS AND sec. VI. 3.2. boiled potatoes, as good bread may be made as from the beft wheat flour; as is affirmed by Monf. Parmentier. From this it appears, that the quantity of ftarch in potatoes and in wheat produces the prin- cipal difference of their refpective flours. See Zoonomia, P. Il. Ar- ticle I; 2.33.4; 2. There is reafon to believe that the mucilage during the growth of the plant is converted into ftarch ; and that this procefs continues in grain fome time after it 1s carried into the barn or granary, which occafions old wheat to produce better flour for the baker; and old oats and old beans are univerfally believed to give more nourifhment to horfes. I fhall here adda conje&ture, that I fuppofe the ufe of alum in making bread ‘confifts in its coagulating the mucilage, and perhaps thus contributing to convert it into ftarch; for the bakers mix it principally with new wheat ; and affirm, that it makes the flour of new wheat equal to old. Where much alum is mixed with bread, it may be diftinguifhed by the eye by a curious circumftance, which is, that where two loaves have ftuck together in the oven, they break from each other with a much fmoother furface, where they had adhered, than thofe loaves do which do not contain alum. Add to this, that alum is alfo ufed by the London bakers for the purpofe of clearing the river water, with which they are fupplied, which is frequently muddy ; and alfo for inftantaneoufly deftroying the volatile alkali, which is faid to exift in fome London wells owing to the vicinity of dunghills. Thefe purpofes it probably fulfils by coagulating the mucilage, which may occafionally be mixed with the water and fupport the mud in it; or by uniting with the calca- reous earth, or with the volatile alkali which it may contain, and de- pofiting the new-formed gypfum, or its own argillaceous bafe, the defcent of which may carry down other impurities along with it, in the fame manner as fome muddy wines have been rendered fine, not by filtering them through fand, as then the mud retained on the furface he Stowth CONtin yes FY, Which > and old Urifhment ife of alum id perhaps eTS mix it he flour of guithed by -wo loaves her witha 10fe loaves srs for the > fupplied, deftroying ells owing , fulfils by ixed with the calca* in, and de ; bale, the > with ity tered fines d on thé ne yr act Sect. VI. 3. 35 4 SECRETIONS. 75 furface of the fand foon prevents the defcent of the wine through it, but by pafling clean fand in fhowers by means of a riddle through the wine, Alum is faid to be ufed by the Chinefe for the purpofe of cleaning the water of fome ftagnant refervoirs; and when ufed in {mall quantity may in all thefe refpedts be rather falutary than in- jurious to the bread of London. Alum is faid alfo to be ufed in the manufactory of hair-powder, which fheuld confift of ftarch without mucilage, that the hair may not be glued together by the perfpirable matter of the head, or by an accidental fhower. Whether it has the property of converting mu- cilage into ftarch might be eafily afcertained by experiment, by wafhing “1 cold water alone one parcel of wheat flour, atid wafhing a fimilar parcel in a folution of alum in water. Be Anotherconjecturel hall introduce here is,that it is probable that the action of froft alfo may tend to coagulate mucilage, or convert it snto ftarch; for in the colder parts of Britain it is faid, that the corn never ripens till they have frofty nights ; and I well remember many years ago having obferved, that fome book-binder’s pafte made by boiling wheat-flour.and water, after it had been frozen, ceafed to co- here on being preffed together, like the crumbs of fome bread ; and I have been told by fome houfewives that their pancakes become much lighter if fhow be mixed with the flour inftead of water. See Set. XVI. 3. 2- 4. Now as ftarch is not foluble in cold water, the bitter and acrid particles of plants may be wathed from it along with the mucilage ; whence in times of {carcity this nourifhing part of vegetables may be obtained by elutriation from poifonous plants ; on this circum- ftance principally depends the wholefomenefs of the bread made from the caflava, the acrid and poifonous particles being previoufly wathed away along with the mucilage. Monf. Parmentier found the ftarch from the root of the white bryony to contain no acrimony, and to be a wholefome article of food. L 2 1V. 1. Many “6 GLANDS AND Sect. VI. 4.1. 5.1, 2, IV. 1. Many feeds contain much oil mixed with their mucilage, or ftarch; as nuts, almonds, flax-feed, rape-feed. Some of thefe contain alfo a bitter or narcotic material, as bitter almonds, apricot kernels, acorns, horfe-chefnuts ; which, as it adheres to the muci- lage, may be feparated from the oil; as in exprefling the oil from bitter almonds, which is as good as from {weet ones. And it is pro- bable by grating to powder, and wafhing in cold water, the kernels of acorns, and horfe-chefnuts; or fimply by preffure, that a whole- fome ftarch, or oil, might be procured. It is probable alfo that the roots of fern treated in this manner would afford good nourifhment, as thefe are faid to be eaten by the inhabitants of New Zealand, and have been ufed in this country in times of great fcarcity. And that the roots of nympheza, water-lily, might be thus made into whole fome bread, (which are faid to have been eaten in Egypt by Hero- dotus) and the roots of many other water-plants, which might thus become articles of fubaquatic agriculture, which is an art much wanted in this country. See Sect. XI. 2. 5. and XVII. 2. 3 V.1. The digeftive power of animals feems to be principally ex- erted in converting their food into fugar; fince the chyle of all ani- mals refembles milk, which contains much fugar, and thence {pon- taneoufly runs into fermentation, which terminates in the production of acid, as in butter-milk. In Siberia the natives diftil a {pirituous and intoxicating liquor from milk thus fermented. Gmelin. In the diabetes there is reafon to believe, that the chyle paffes off into the bladder without being previoufly mixed with the blood; and there is a curious hiftory of a patient in the infirmary at Stafford, who la- boured under a diabetes, he eat and drank thrice as much as moft moderate men, and from fixteen to eighteen ounces, and even twenty ounces of coarfe fugar was extracted for fome time daily from his urine. Zoonomia, Vol. lL Seét. XXIX, 4. 2. In like manner the digeftive powers of the young vegetable, with the chemical agents of heat and moifture, convert the ftarch or» mucilage - aw bide le fo that the Inithment, aland, and And that ito whole. by Hero- night thus art much 3. cipally ex- of all ant- ence {pon- production fpirituous n, In the fF into the nd theres | ; who [a ‘h as mol en rwelt? , from his Sect. VI. 5.35 40 SECRETIONS, ia mucilage of the root or feed into fugar for its own nourifhment ; or they obtain fugar ready prepared for them from fome roots, as the beet-root ; from many fruits, as grapes, pears, peaches; from the milk of cocoa-nuts, and from the fap-juice of the fugar-maple, birch, and many other trees. And thus it appears probable, that {ugar is the principal nutriment of both animal and vegetable beings. That it is the moft nutritive part of vegetable fubftances is evinced by the well afcertained fact, that the flaves in Jamaica grow fat in the fugar-harveft, though they endure at that time much more labour. Yet there is an idle notion propagated amongft the people that fugar is unwholefome ; it is indeed probable, that the moft nourifhing ma- terials may be taken more eafily to excefs, but not that it is therefore in general unwholefome ; at the fame time it is probable, that fome fruits preferved in fyrup, or {weet-meats, may contribute to deftroy the teeth; fince, if the fugar fhould become in a ftate of decompos fition, and the faccharine acid fhould abound, it will diffolve calca- reous earth with greater avidity than any other acid. 3- In many plants fugar is found ready prepared, as above men- tioned ; thus in the beet-root, the cryftals of it may be difgerned by a microfcope; and may be extracted from the mucilaginous matter of the root by diffolving it in retified fpirit of wine; which will unite with fugar but not with mucilage. In the joints of grafs and of corti it may be difcovered by the tafte. In the manna-ath, fraxinus ornus, the fame faccharine matter is produced along with the eflential {alt of the plant, which is purgative ; and in the fugar-cane it abounds in fuch large quantity as to contribute much to the nourifhment of mankind, .And,—and what ?—-Great God of Juftice! grant, that it may {oon be cultivated only bythe hands of freedom, and may thence give happinefs to the labourer, as well as to’ the merchant and con- fumer. 4 Another fource of fugar in ee bee is in the fruit, which in many plants changes from an auftere acid to a faccharine sed as in goofeberries, 78 GLANDS AND sect. VI. 555. ' goofeberries, apples, oranges. This change continues to proceed af- ter the pears and apples, or oranges, are taken from the tree into our ftorehoufes, but the fruit in this fituation continues to ripen by a ve- getable procefs, as it can not be {aid to be dead, becaufe it does not yet undergo fermentation or putrefaction, or other chemical diffolu- tion; and though its progrefs in ripening may be forwarded by warmth, yet it muft flill be afcribed to a vegetable procefs; as the plants themfelves grow quicker when expofed to additional heat. s. But.there are other means of increafing or haftening the fac- charine procefs in auftere vegetable fruits, as by bruifing them, or by baking them, both which muft deftroy the life of the fruit ; thus when apples are bruifed for the purpofe of making cyder, they be- come fweeter even in the aét of bruifing them; and many pears change from an auftere to a {weet juice fimply by the heat of baking ; and it is probable that malt acquires a great part, though uot the. whole of its faccharine matter, in the act of drying. This chemi- cal produétion or increafe of {ugar in vegetable juices is worth being further inquired into ; fince if {ugar could be made from its elements without the affiftance of vegetation, fuch abundant food might be fupplied as might tenfold increafe the number of mankind! It is a curious circumftance not yet fufficiently underftood, that not only ftarch appears to be convertible into fugar by the vegetable pro- cefs of digettion, as in the germination of farinaceous feeds ; but that fugar is capable of being converted into ftarch, as appears in the ri- pening procefs of fome pears, which firft contain a {weet-juice, and afterwards become mealy. The ufe of this faccharine matter of the fruit or fap-juice in the ve- getable economy is for the purpofe of fupplying the young feed or bud with nourifhment to enable it the better to ftrike its roots into the earth, and to elevate its leaves into the air, and thus by its | quicker - TV : : PrOCee4 rn ee = OU et Es : at does ne nical dif St war cefs " N ¢ mal heat, ing the fie, them, or by > fruits thus er, they bee many pears at of baking; augh uot the This chem worth being its elements od might be ind ! ‘ood, that a0 egetable pro- eds ; but tht ars in the ™ et-julces 2 Sect, VI. 6. 1, 2. SECRETIONS. - 99 quicker growth to rival its neighbours in their contentions for air, and light, and moifture, which are neceflary for its exiftence. VI. 1. The production of honey is perhaps one of the moft im- portant vegetable fecretions, except that of the prolific farina from the anthers ; and of the favilla, or new embryon, in the axilla of the leaf. The glands for this purpofe, or certainly the refervoirs, which con- tain the honey after it is fecreted, are in many flowers vifible to the naked eye; as in crown-imperial, fritillaria imperialis; in monk{- hood, aconitum napellus; hellebore, ranunculus. It is neverthelefs probable, that this refervoir of honey is frequently placed at a diftance from the gland, which fecretes it, for the purpofe of preferving it — from infeéts and from rain, which is often effected both by a very complicated apparatus, and by an acrid or poifonous juice, as in the aconites and the hellebores above mentioned. As the neftary, or honey-gland, always falls off along with the corol, and anthers, and ftigmas; thefe appear to be parts or appen- dages to each other. The vegetable blood is expofed to the air in the corol, and thus is oxygenated or prepared for the fecretion of this important fluid; which I fuppofe is again reabforbed, and fup- plies nourifhment to the anthers and ftigmas. Some acrid juices, and odorous particles, are at the fame time fecreted from the blood thus oxygenated in the corol; which feem defigned as one ‘kind of de- fence againft the depredations of infe&s on this important refervoir of honey. 2. The univerfality of the production of honey in the vegetable world, and the very complicated apparatus, which nature has con- {tructed in many flowers, as well as the acrid or deleterious juices fhe has furnifhed thofe flowers with, as in the aconite, to proteét this honey from rain, and from the depredations of infeéts, feem to im- ply, that this fluid is of very great importance in the vegetable eco- nomy ; and alfo that it was neceffary to expofe it to the open air pre- vious to its reabforption inte the vegetable veflels. In 80 GLANDS AND Sect. VI 6.3. In the animal fyftem the lacrymal gland feparates its fluid into the open air for the purpofe of moiftening the eye ; of this fluid the part, which does not exhale, is abforbed by the punéta lacrymalia, and car- ried into the noftrils ; but, as this is not a nutritive fluid, the analogy goes no further than its fecretion into the open air, and its reabforp- tion into the fyftem. The perfpirable matter is another material fe- creted by animal glands into the external air, and is in part reabforbed, and in part exhaled. And every other fecreted fluid in the animal body is in part abforbed again into the fyftem, even thofe which are efteem- ed excrementitious, as the urine; and others are probably entirely reabforbed, as the bile, faliva, and gaftric juice. That the honey is a nutritious fluid, perhaps the moft fo of any vegetable production, appears from its great fimilarity to fugar, and from its affording fuftenance to fuch numbers of infects, which live upon it folely during fummer, and lay it up for their winter pro- vifion. Thefe proofs of its nutritive nature evince the neceflity of its reabforption into the vegetable fyftem for fome ufeful purpofe. 3. It is probable, that the depredations of infects on this nutritious fluid muft be injurious to the products of vegetation ; and would be much more fo, but that the plants have either acquired means to defend their honey in part, or have learned to make more, than is ab- folutely neceflary for their own economy. Thus in filene, catch-fly, and in drofera, fun-dew, it is defended by a vifcid juice from the attack of infeéts; in hellebore, and in aconite, it is defended, by the difficult paffage to it, and by the acrid juice of the plant, if infects fhould endeavour to creep into the neétary, or pierce it with their probofcis ; and in polygonum melampyrum, buck-wheat, and in ca- calia fuaveolens, alpine colts-foot, there feems to be a fuperabundant quantity of honey fecreted, as thofe flowers are perpetually loaded with bees and butterflies, infomuch that at Kempton-land in Ger- many, Mr.Worlidge fays, in his Myfteries of Hufbandry, Ch. IX. 3. that he faw forty great bee-hives filled with honey to the amount of I feventy + 2 Vi. « luid ; Md intg ‘Uid the ilig 3 the Par, » and Cats : . ANalooy Its reabfon, Material i. tr Cabforbe auimal body 1 are efteem. bly entirely ft fo of any > fugar, and » which live winter pro- ceflity of its urpofe. Mis nutritious and would be d means to » than isab- e. catch-fly, se from the nded, by th? t, if infet € gnu Sect. Viv 6. 4. SECRETIONS. 81 feventy pounds in each in one fortnight by their being placed near a large field of buck-wheat in flower ; and I well remember being my- felf aftonifhed at feeing the number of bees on a field of buck-wheat in Shropfhire, as well as on a plant of cacalia fuaveolens in my gar- den ; from which the fcent of honey could be perceived at many feet diftance from the flower. | In the fame manner the honey-dew on trees is very injurious to them ; in which difeafe the nutritive fluid, the vegetable fap-juice, {eems to be exfuded by a retrograde motion of the cutaneous lympha- tics, as in the {weating ficknefs of the laft century, or is devoured by infects, which pierce the lymphatic veflels of the leaves at mid- fummer, feed on the vegetable chyle, and void it almoft unchanged. See Sect. III. II. 8. and XIV. I. 7. To prevent the depredation of infects on honey a wealthy man in Italy is faid to have poifoned his neighbour's bees, perhaps by mixing arfenic with honey, againft which there is a flowery declamation in Quintillian, No. XIII. This mixture of honey and arfenic may be ufed with effe& to poifon flies, which fometimes abound in pernici- ous multitudes ; for the flies which frequent our houfes are liable to great thirft, as is feen by their drinking any fluid, which is diffufed ona table; whence if a flight folution of arfenic, with a little fugar, be put thinly on a plate or two, and fet on chimney- pieces or windows, the flies will eagerly drink it, and perifh almoft inftantly. It is pro-~ bable that wafps might be thus deftroyed in hot-houfes, if a little honey was added to attract them by its odour. As the ufe of the wax is to preferve the duft of the anthers from moifture, which would prematurely burft them, the bees, which col Je this for the conftruétion of the combs or cells, and collect the fa- rina alfo probably for bee-bread for their larvae or maggots, muft on both thefe accounts alfo injure the vegetation of a country, where they too much abound. 4. It isnot eafy to conjecture, why it was neceflary, that this fecre- tion . 82 GLANDS AND seer. VI.o.t. tion of honey fhould be expofed to the open air in. the nectary or ho- ney-cup 3 for which purpofe fo great an apparatus for its defence from infects and from fhowers feces neteflary. This difficulty increafes, when. we recollect, that the fugar in the joints. of grafs, in the fugar-cane, and in the roots of beets, and in ripe fruits, is pro- duced without expofure to the air. But on fuppofition of its fupplying nutriment to the anthers and ftigmas, it may thus acquire greater oxygenation for the purpofe of producing the greater powers of ama= torial fenfibility, as mentioned in Se&. IV. 5. 6. and probably inthis circumftance alone differs from fugar. From this provifion of honey for the male and female parts of flowers, and from the provifions of fugar, ftarch, and mucilage, in the fruits, feeds, roots, and alburnum of plants, laid up for the nue triment of the young progeny ; not only avery numerous clafs.of in- feéts, but a great part of the larger animals, procure their food. Surely this muft be called a wife p1 scotia of the Author of nature, as by thefe means. innumerable animals enjoy life and pleafure without producing pain to others ; for the embryons in thefe buds, feeds, or eggs, as well as the nutriment laid up for them, are not yet endued with fenfitive life. There is another fource of nutriment provided for young animals, which ftill further evinces.the benevolence of the Au- thor of nature; and that is the milk furnifhed by the mother to her: offspring ; by this beautiful contrivance the mother acquires pleafure in parting with a nutritious fluid, and the offspring in receiving it! VII. 1. The wax is another vegetable fecretion produced with the fecundating duft on the anthers. of flowers, which in wet feafons it preferves from rain, to which it is impenetrable ;, for the farina, or fecundating duft of plants, is liable to {well if expofed to much. moif- ture, and to burft its thell; and it either then becomes inert and in- efféGtual, or is wafhed away. Whence Mr.Wahlborn obferves, that as wheat, rye, and many of the graffes, and plantain, lift up their anthers on. long filaments, and thus expofe the enclofed fecundating duft bably in thi ale parts of AUucilace, jy for the nue 5 clafs. of in. ood. Surely iture, as by ire without 1s, feeds, ot yet endued provided for > of the Au- sther to het res pleafure ~eiving It. od with the rf fea{ons it e farida, ¢ much mo! : yert and ef fervess ft Up i au"o Fecund ff Sror. Vii 7.2.3 SECRETIONS. 83 dut to be wafhed away by the rains; a {carcity of corp is produced in wet fammers; hence ‘the neceflity of a careful choice of feed- wheat ; as that, which had not received the duft of the anthers, will not grow, though it may appear well to the eye. >. A fubftance fimilar to this is faid to be collected from extenfive underwoods of the ciftus labdaniferus in fome eaftern countries by this fingular contrivance; long leathern thongs are tied to poles, and drawn over the flowers of thefe fhrubs about noon, which thus col- » leét the wax or refin with part of the anther duft, which adheres to the leathern thongs, and is occafionally fcraped off for ufe. Thus in. fome degree the depredation of the bee isimitated, except that fhe loads her thighs only with the anther-duft, which according to Mr. John Hunter conftitutes the bee-bread found in hives for the fupport of the larva or bee-maggot ; and that the {wallows the wax for the conftruétion of her combs, as well as the honey for her winter pro- vender; and thus every way injures the fecundity of flowers. 3. A wax in America 's obtained from the myrica cerifera, candle- berry myrtle, the berries of which are boiled in water, and the wax feparates. The feeds of the croton {ebiferum are lodged in a kind of tallow ; in both thefe plants the wax or tallow probably ferves the purpofe of preferving the immature feeds from moitture ; or like the oil found in flax-feed, rape-feed, and.in many kernels, they may con- ftitute in part the nourifhment of the new plant. It mutt neverthelefs be obferved, that Mr. Sparman fufpects, that -the green wax-like fubftance on the berries of the -myrica cerifera is depofited by infe&ts. Voyage to the Cape, V. Lp. 145. And Du Halde defcribes a white wax made by infeéts in great quantity round the branches of a tree in China, which is-called Tong-tfin. Defcript. of China, V.1..ps 230. And laftly, fir G. Staunton mentions a white wax ona plant in Cochin-China, which he believes to be ftrewed on the plant in the form of white powder, which has this fingular pro perty, that one part of this white powder mixed with three parts of M 2° olive 84 GLANDS AND Secr. VI. 8.°2, 2, 3 olive oil made hot, gave it when cold the confiftence of bee’s-wax.. iumbafly to China, Vol. I. p. 354. VIU. 1. Turpentines or balfams, refins, and effential oils, are ana~. | logous to the vegetable fecretions laft mentioned, in their being inad- miflible with water. TThofe vegetables, which contain in their veflels the leaft water, bear cold climates the beft; becaufe when water is frozen, it occupies more {pace than before; and hence burfts the bottles which contain. it; in the fame manner when any f{ucculent vegetable is frozen, its veflels become burft or bruifed by the expan fion of the ice, and the plant is deftroyed ; on this account thofe parts of plants, which are the moft juicy, as the laft fhoots of vines, are fooneft deftroyed in winter. Hence many of the evergreen trees of this climate are replete with turpentine or refin, which by occupying the place of fo much water, contributes to their hardinefs. There is alo a partial fecretion of balfam or turpentine in many deciduous plants for the purpofe of defending their buds during the winter, both from froft and from wet, which is repelled by. their balfamic varnifh, as on the buds of the populus.tacamahacca, 2. The balfams and refins of the fhops are either-extraéted from the wood by fire, or exfude from wounds of the tree; thus what is called Venice turpentine is obtained from the larch by wounding the bark about two. feet from the ground, and catching it-as it exfudes. Sandarach is procured from commen juniper, and incenfe from ano- ther juniper ; and there is reafon to believe that bitumen, or petro- leum, with jet, amber, and all the foffile coal in the world, owes its inflammable part to the recrements of deftroyed forefts of terebinthi= nate vegetables, fo important to the prefent race of mankind-has been this vegetable fecretion ! 3. The effential oils are fometimes raifed by diftillation from bale fams or refins, as oil of turpentine.; but are chiefly extracted from flowers ; where their office has been to prevent the depredations of mites ; though many. of them are fo agreeable to the human fenfe of {mell, B, t, " Se Sway ¢ are ana. my ina d. it vel Water jg urfts the fucculens he EXDan. hofe parts Vines, arg Qh trees of cCupying There is deciduous 1¢ winter, : balfamic ted from 1 what 13 nding the t- exfudes. From ano- or petro- ; owes its erebinthi" | has beet from bal? Ared from jations df 0 fenle fmael! Sect, VI. 8. 4,5 SECRETIONS. 8 fmell, when thefe effential oils are diffolved or mixed with water in diftillation, they have been called the fpiritus rector of the plant, and. cconftitute the odour of it, whether aromatic or fetid. Some of thefe effential oils poffefs the moft poifonous qualities, as thofe of Jauro-cerafus, and of tobacco; and.are ufed by Indian nations for the purpofe of poifoning their weapons, which they cover like a varnifh. And hence fome of the refinous woods are faid never to be: devoured by infects, as the unperifhable chefts of cyprefs, in which the Egyptian mummies have been preferved for fo many ages, and the cedar in which black lead is inclofed for pencils. The acrid poifon of the large euphorbium of Africa exifts in the oil: of that plant 5: as M. Vaillant obferves, that the natives fometimes poi- fon the waters with flicing this plant into them, and that the poifon- ous oil fwims upon the furface, and may thus be avoided by a care- ful drinker. This in a country where water is {carce, and generally in: ftagnant pools, may be readily effected ; as a few fpoonfuls of oil will cover a large {heet of water, as it becomes diffufed. upon. it without friction, as mentioned, in Botanic Garden, Vol. I. Addition. Note XXIX. 4. Some of the effential oils are fo inflammable as to burft into-a: vehement flame on. being mixed with nitrous acid, as oil of cloves; and even the {mall quantity diffufed in the air round the dictamnus fraxinella will take fire on a. ftill evening at the approach of a lighted: candle. 5. Witlythefe fhould be arranged the elaftic refin called Caoutehous, which is faid to exfude from a tree in Guaiana, called Jatropha elaftica, by M. de la Borde, phyfician at Cayenne. A fimilar elaftic refin 1s {aid to be obtained from. a. plant in Madagafcar, called’ Finguere, a kind of wild fig-tree, according to Abbe Rochon; and the bird-lime extraéted from the bark of the hollies of our climate feems to be a fimilar material; as like the caoutchouc it becomes foft. by heat, and. is.impenetrable by water, but {oluble in ether.. Another elaftic fub- ftance,. ~ 2 86 GLANDS AND Suor. VI. 9. 1,2 ftance, which is infoluble in water, is procured from wheat by long maftication, or by agitating the flour of it in water; which has been faid to approach to animal matter, and is believed to be the moft nu- tritious part of that aliment, and was once much talked of, or fold under the name of alimentary powder for the nourifhment of march- ing armies. IX. 1. The bitter, narcotic, and acrid juices of plants are fecreted ‘by their glands for the defence of the vegetable from the depredation “of infe€ts and -of larger animals. Opium is found in the leaf, ftalk, and head of the poppy, but not in the feeds. A fimilar narcotic qua- lity exifts in the leaf and ftem of hyofcyamus, henbane, but not in the feeds. An acrid juice exifts in hufks of walnuts, and in the pel- licle, or fkin, of the kernel; but not in the lobes, or nutritious part ‘of it. Thefe feem to have been excluded from the feed, left they might have been injurious to the tender organs of digeftion of the embryon plant. In fome feeds, however, there is a bitter quality, but which refufes to mix with the oleagenous part; as the oil exprefled from bitter almonds is as taftelefs as that from the {weet almonds. 2. Other vegetables poflefs glands adapted to the fecretion of va- rious fluids more or lefs aromatic, acrid, or aftringent ; as the herb of water-crefs, the root of horfe-radifh, the feeds of muftard, the flowers of rofes, the fruit of quince, and the bark of oak. ‘To thefe fhould be added thofe which have emetic and cathartic qualities; and other vegetable preparations, which are ufed in the arts of dying, tanning, varnifhing; and which fupply the fhops of the druggift with medi- cines and with poifons. All which deleterious juices feem to have been produced for the proteétion of the plant againft its enemies, as appears ‘by the number of -poifonous vegetables, which are feen in all our hedge-bottoms and commons, as hyofcyamus, cynogloffum, jacobza, and common nettles; which neither infeéts nor quadrupeds devour, and which are therefore of no known ‘ufe but to themfelves; and poflefs are fecres, > depredat , re Lea, fal 1arcotic qua. >» but not in d in the pel- Itritious part dy lett they ={tion of the quality, but oil exprefled - almonds, retion of vee the herb ot |, the flowers thefe fhould ss and other Srot. VE. 9g. 3.10. I. SECRETIONS. 8%. poffefs a ‘fafer armour inthis’ panapoly of poifon, than’ the thoras of hollies, -briar's, and goofeberri¢s.. 3. As the pitter, narcotic, acrid, and terebinthinate, as well as the farinaceous, oily, and faccharine matters, are fecretéed in fummer from the vegetable blood, and referved for the nutrition and defence of the new buds and bulbs, they are in this climate generally found more concentrated in the hybernaculum, or winter-lodge of plants, before the new fap is raifed by the umbilical or abforbent veffels in the fpring. Hence roots and barks, as well as fruits and feeds, are beft collected in autumn, or in winter, for the purpofes of medicine or of other arts. Thus the bark of oaks fhould be taken off for the ufe of the tanner in the winter, or in early fpring, before the leaves pullulate, as then a great part of its aftringent or bitter juices is reabforbed, and carried to the new foliage along with the faccharine fap-juice, which has been depofited in the cells 6f the alburnum or fap-wood. But as the barks of trees become loofer, and much more eafily detached from the wood, when the fap-juice rifes in the fpring, this is the beft time’ for debarking them ; but the naked bole and branches fhould ftand till autumn, till the faccharine matter collected in the alburnum has been expended in unfolding the new leaves ; otherwife it will foon ferment and putrefy ; and the fap-wood will thus quickly decay by | -what is termed the dry-rot of timber, as mentioned in Sect. Hl. 2. 3: X.1. The acids produced by vegetable fecretion have of late been: much fubjeéted to chemical inquiry, and have been found: to be fo: numerous, that they have been named from the vegetables, or parts of vegetables, from which they have been extracted ; as the gallic acid, malic acid, oxalic acid. Many unripe fruits contain. an auftere acid, which is gradually converted into fugar by vegetable or chemical’ proceffes for the nutriment of their feeds, as defcribed in No. V. 4-. of this fe@tion, In other plants it exifts in the foot-ftalks of the leaves,, as: 33 GLANDS, &c. SECT. VI. 10. 1. asin rheum, rhubarb; or in the leaves themfelves, as in oxalis, forrel ; in thefe fituations alfo I fuppofe it is fecreted both for the defence of ‘thofe plants from the depredation of infeéts and of larger animals ;. and alfo for the purpefe of its being converted into a faccharine juice ‘by the digeftion of the young bud in the bofom of the leaf. sch Sect. VII. ORGANS OF REPRODUCTION. 8 S:bC T= Vi. THE ORGANS OF REPRODUCTION OF VEGETABLES. The theory of Linneus for vegetable reproduction too mechanical, and without analogy. Every new fluid is fecreted by glands, as the liquor amnii and albumen ovi. So alfo is the favilla vite, or living entity. I. 1. Lateral progeny. The new bud is fecreted in the axilla of the leaf, and requires no female apparatus. It ad- heres to its parent not by inofculation of vefféls, but refembles the-chick in the egg. 2. Difference of the chick and fetus. Their nutriment and oxygenation. The em- bryon may be feen in the buds of horfe-chefaut, It is a paternal progeny. 3. This lateral offspring refembles the parent. Not univerfally Jo. More perfeet than feeds. Buds of diacious plants bear fimilar fexes. The lateral progeny degenerates from hereditary difeafes. Whence curled potatoes, blighted firawberries, bears fruit at the fame time, and of the fame kind. Plants live longer if prevented from flower- ing. Art of producing double hyacinths, ranunculus, tulips. 4. Lateral progeny of corallines and fea-anemonies. Polypi are all males. Wires of knot grafs like the joints of the tape-worm, which are all males. 5. Aphis, viviparous and ovi~ parous like vegetable generation. 6. Veffels of the bud and leaf do not inofculate. Viviparous, oviparous, and paternal generation. 7. Leaves on twigs like the pro- geny of volvox. But in fome twigs the pith is divided, and the buds fucceffiive. Hermapbhrodite generation. Buds from every part of the caudex. Thofe from be- low the graft are jike the ftock. Find numerous uteri like eggs and fpawn. Pa- ternal generation preceded fexual generation. The laft more excellent. \I. 1. Sexual progeny. Seeds before impregnation. Eggs before impregnation. Seed-embryon fufpended by oppofite points like the cicatricula of the egg. 2. Seed-bud and flower. Stamens and ftigmas. Males bend to females, and females to males. Style of f{partium bends round like a French horn. Onanifm of epilobium. Male flowers of vallifneria fwim to the females. Flowers with long filaments injured by rain. Sub- marine plants projet? a liquor. 3.The petals are reéfpiratory organs. 4. Honey is the food of the anthers and ftigma; which like butterflies propagate and die. N 5. Seeas 90 ORGANS OF Sect. VIL, 5. Seeds are formed and nourifoed by the umbilical veffels previous to Fecundation, or by the braétes or floral-leaves. Difperfion of feeds by plumes, by books, by twifted awns. Creep on the groand. Fygrometer of a geranium feed. 6. Sexual generation the chef d’euvre of nature. Produces variety of fpecies. Mixed breed of cab- bage. Mixed breeds of beans. An apple four on one fide. Vegetable mules. 7. Ani-~ mal mules. They externally refemble the male, internally the female. Mule Krom the horfe and female afs. From the mare and male afs. From Spanifo rams and Swedifh ewes, and the contrary. From the goat of angora. Ram without horns, 8. How to improve the varieties of fruits and flowers, and produce new ones, Many plants were originally mules, and many animals. How to produce new ani- mal monfters, both quadrupeds and fifh, by the method of Spallanzani. Mules more frequent in antient- times. If. Vegetable generation. 1. 4 triple tree by in- graftment. The caudex of each bud is triple. Lateral or paternal mules. Con- ferva fontinalis fplits. 2 The lateral propagation of the polypus. The hydra fentorea fplits. Two halves of different polypi unite. So the vegetable filaments or caudexes in ingrafted trees. 3. Triple lateral mule. Each part of the triple caudex is produced from that in its vicinity, not from the plumula of the bud. 4. Worms multiplied by dividing them. So the caudenes of the buds of trees. 5. The parts of the long caudenes of trees are fecreted from the adjoining parts of the parent caudexes, and combine beneath the cuticle of the tree. Every part of a compound caudex can produce a new bud, refembling the part of the compound fiock, where it rifes. Lateral mules confift of parts from three. or four parents. Could there be a threefold fexual mule? 6. Power of attraltion. Aptitude to be attratted. Chemical combinations by fingle attrattion. By double affinity. 7. Union of animated bodies with inanimate matter, as in fwallowing food. In abforption by the laéieals. Vitality of the blood. Fibrils with nutritive appetencies. Mole- cules with nutritive propenfities. 8. Fibrils with formative appetencies, and mole- cules with formative propenfities Jecreted beneath the cuticle of trees, and coalefee. Hunger and love, thirft, fuckling children, they reciprocally flimulate and embrace each other. 9. Great fecret of nature. Formative or nutritive particles. in the blood more than neceflary. Secreted by numerous glands. Arranged under the- cuticle of trees. Acquire new appetencies, and produce new parts. 10. In fexual generation they are fecreted by two glands only. Thofe of the anther and pericarp unite in the matrix. 4. Without formative molecules as well as formative fibrils there Mm wit} "od broduce new Ali samt, Mulp, whore triple tree by i. nal wules, Cy, pus.’ The bya egetable. filaments part of the trigh wmnula of the bu ne buds of tree adjoining parts f Every part f of the compound gor four part Aptitude tt affinity Ui 4, In aii potencies. Moke rencias, 01d and coang UCP nom “¢é hey One, : Sect VIL. REPRODUCTION. 5 there could be no mules, or any refemblance to the mother. The néw dgétrine of threefold vegetable mules applied to animal generation. 12. Conclufion. Tur theory of Linneus in refpect of the reproduction of vegeta- bles maintains, that the internal medullary part muft be joined with the external or cortical part of the plant for the purpofe of produc- ing a new one. If the medulla be fo vigorous as to burft through its containing veffels, and thus mix with the cortical part, a bud is pro- duced either on the branches or roots of vegetables ; otherwife the medulla is extended, till it terminates in the piftillum, or female part of the flower; and the cortical part is likewife elongated, till it termi- nates in the anthers, or male part of the flower ; and then the fe- cundating duft from the latter being joined to the prolific juices of the former, produces the feeds or new plants; at the fame time the ‘nner rind is extended into the corol or petal, and the outer bark into the calyx. After the feeds are thus produced, the parent bud dies ; and in this refpect the buds bear a very great analogy to thofe annual infects, which change from their caterpillar or larva-forms, putting forth painted wings and organs of reproduction, and after depofing their eggs ceafe to exift. See the account of the vegetable kingdom by Linneus, pre- fixed to the fyftem of vegetables tranflated by a botanical fociety at Lichfield. Leigh and Sotheby, London. However fimple and ingenious the firft part of this theory may ap- pear, in which the medulla is fuppofed to extend itfelf, till it burfts the inclofing or cortical part, and joining with that produces a new bud ; yet it feems too mechanical for a living organized fy{tem ; and fo totally different from any thing we know of fexual production either in animals or flowers, as not readily to fatisfy a reafoning mind. Every new fluid or folid produced in the organic fy{tem of vegeta- ble or animal bodies is fecreted from their blood, as the various fluids N 2 of \ 92 ORGANS OF Secr. VIL. 1.1, 2, of bile, faliva, tears, in animals ; and thofe of gum, refin, fugar, in vegetables. Amongft thefe are the juices which conftitute the nu- tritious fluid of the amnios in the uterus of viviparous animals, or that of the albumen of the egg in oviparous ones. And lafty, the flavilla vite, the new fpark of being, or living entity, is alfo fecreted from the blood of male animals by adapted glands to be received into a pro- per nidus, and nourifhed by the female. I, LATERAL PROGENY, r. As the leaf with its petiole, or foot-f{talk, and its caudex down the bark of a tree, with its radicle beneath, conftitutes an individual plant ; and the bud in its bofom fucceeds, and is evidently produced by it; it may be concluded from the ftrongeft analogy that this new progeny is fecreted from a gland or glands of the parent; and that, as it adheres to the parent, it requires no female apparatus for its re= ception, nourifhment, or oxygenation, : I was formerly induced to believe, that there was a communication of blood, or inofculation of veifels between the parent leaf, and the new bud in its bofom, as expreffed in Zoonomia, Sect. XX XIX. 2. 2. and that this conftituted the difference between paternal geftation and maternal geftation. But that the veffels between the new bud and the parent leaf-bud do not inofculate may be well feen by taking away the bark of the foot-ftalk of a leaf, and of the new bud in its bofom ; as the remains of the arteries of the late leaf, as well as the rudiment of the new bud, are feen to terminate in the alburnum, or “to penetrate the pith, but without any apparent communication ; and I therefore fufpe€t, that the embryon bud is not ferved with vegeta- ble blood from the vefiels of the parent, but that it acquires both nu- triment and oxygenation much in the fame manner as the chick in the ege. See Sect. III. 1. 5. 2. The condition of the chick in the egg differs from that of the fetus Caudex dow, AN individual ntly produced that this new nt; and that, tus for its ree ymmunication leaf, and the KX XIX. 2.2 | geftation and new bud and sen by teks ew bud in Its 5 well 2 the [ a alburnu™: 0 with vee" Sect. VII. Tee REPRODUCTION. 93 fetus in the womb of viviparous animals in the whole of its nutriment being at firft provided for it, which confifts of the albumen, or white of the egg, which is contained in cells, and is of different degrees of confiftency, that which 1s moft fluid being firft confumed ; whereas the liquor amnil, or nutriment of the fetus in utero, is gradually fe- creted by adapted glands from the blood of the mother, as it is wanted. | Another difference between the condition of the chick and of the fetus confifts in the manner, by which their blood acquires its necef- fary oxygenation. In the fetus this is done by means of the placental veffels, whofe extremities are inferted into the blood-veffels of the uterus, and receive oxygen through their moift membranes from the pafling currents of the mother’s blood, as defcribed in Zoonomia, Vol. I. Se&t. XXXVIII. Whereas in the egg after a few days incu- bation a membrane is feen, which includes the albumen, and fpreads the extremities of its fine blood-veflels on the moift membrane, which covers the air at the broad end of the egg; which air is occafionally renewed, as would appear by its being feen fo eafily to pafs through the fhell, when an egg is covered with water in the exhautted re- ceiver of an air-pump. The condition of the embryon bud, when the parent leaf-bud dies, I conceive to be fimilar to that of the chick in the egg, when that is feparated from its parent. Each of them has at this time a refervoir of nutriment provided for it; that of the chick confifts of the albu- men, or white of the egg above mentioned ; and that of the bud con- fifts of mucilage and fugar, which are depofited in the alburnum or {ap-wood, or in the roots of the plant. And fecondly, I conceive that the extremities of a fine fyftem of veflels belonging to the bud may terminate on the moift membrane, which covers the horizontal air-veffels defcribed in Seét. III. 2. 6. as thofe on the chorion of the chick terminate on the air-bag of the egg, and thus acquire the ne- ceflary oxygenation of their vegetable blood. This 94 ORGANS OF Sect. VII. 1, 3. This analogy between the vegetable and animal fetus in refpect to their production, nourifhment, and oxygenation, is as forcible in fo _ obfcure a fubjeét, as it is curious; and may in large buds, as of the horfe-chefnut, be almoft feen by the naked eye. If with a penknife the remaining rudiment of the laft year’s leaf, and of the new bud in its bofom, be cut away flice by flice, the feven ribs of the laft year’s leaf will be feen to have arifen from the pith in feven diftin@ points, making a curve; and the new bud to have been produced in their center, and to have pierced the alburnum and bark, and grown with- out the afliftance of a mother. And laftly, by in part cutting, and in part tearing, the pith and alburnum from the bottom of a new leaf-ftalk of horfe-chefnut about the middle of May, an oval prominence may be feen in the internal. part of the leaf-ftalk, which fills up a {pace between the veflels of the bottom of the leaf-ftalk and thofe of the new bud, and feems to connect them by its extremities, and to prefs on the pith beneath it. From this apparent gland I conjecture that the now living fibres, or animalcules, are probably fecreted, which form the new bud adher- ing to the pith, and nourifhed by the parent leaf; that thus a paternal progeny 1s produced without the affiftance of a mother. 3. This paternal offspring of vegetables in their buds and bulbs is attended with a very curious circumftance ; and that is, that they exactly refemble their parents, as is obfervable in grafting fruit-trees, and in propagating flower-roots ; whereas the feminal offspring of plants, being generated by two parents, and certainly fupplied with nutriment by the mother, is liable to perpetual variation. This alfo in the vegetable clafs dicecia, where the male flowers are produced on one tree, and the females on another, the buds of the male trees uni- formly produce either male flowers, or other buds fimilar-to them- felves; and the buds of the female trees either produce female flowers, or other buds fimilar to themfelves; whereas the feeds of thefe trees produce either male or female ‘plants. See Sect. III. 2. 1. . This Vit. Ly relpeg t ible iy fy 88 of th, a Penknif, lew bud i lat year’, net Pomnts, d in the; ‘OWn with. re pith and e{nut about he internal e veflels of id feems to beneath it, x fibres, of bud adher- $a paternal nd bulbs 1s that they fruit-trees; offspring D tied with This ali Sccr.VIl. 1.3 REPRODUCTION. ‘ This fimilarity of buds and bulbs to their parents is to be under- ftood only to exift after the maturity of the plant, that is after it has produced a fexual offspring in flowers and feeds ; for a bulb, as of a tulip, and a bud of a fruit-tree, when firft raifed from their feeds, are very {mall, but produce one or more improved bulbs, or improved: buds annually, for fome years; which differ from their parent bulbs or buds in the fize, form, and colour of their leaves, till it arrives at its maturity, or acquires the power of generating a fexual progeny ; from whence it appears, that the leafbuds of thofe trees, and the leaf- bulbs of thofe roots, which have acquired their puberty, if it may be fo called; that is, their power of generating flowers, are a more per- fect progeny than the feeds of thofe plants, as thefe latter, when fe- parated from their parent either by tranfplantation or by ingrafting, can immediately produce feeds, or a fexual progeny; but the buds: from many feeds are fome years before they can produce feeds. The fame is probably true of many annual or biennial plants, as of wheats, which produce many fucceffive buds upon each other previous to the: flower-bud, as appears by the joints of the ftem;. all which may be confidered as. individual plants growing on each other like the annual fucceffion of the buds of trees. ’ Another curious occurrence in this lateral’ produétion of vegetables: by their buds has been lately publifhed by Mr. Knight in the Phil. Tranf. for the year 1795,who obferves, that thofe apple-trees, which: have been continually propagated: for above acentury by ingrafting, are: now become fo difeafed by eanker, or otherwife, that though the fruit continues of the fame flavour, the trees are not worth propagating $ as. thefe grafts, though tranfplanted into other trees, he efteems to be fill an elongation of the original tree, and muft feel the effect of age like the tree they were taken from, If this idea fhould: prove true en further examination, there is reafon to fufpeat the fame may occur in the too long propagation of plants from bulbs and wires, as-potatoes and ftrawberries, which may have occafioned:the curled tops. of pota=- toes,. 96 ORGANS OF Secr. VIL. 1. 3 toes, and the black blight in the flowers of the hautbois {trawberry, which fome have afcribed to its only bearing male flowers ; the cure of which mutt arife from our applying to other varieties more lately derived from a feminal offspring. This degeneracy of trees or perennial herbaceous plants propagated by buds or root-fcions is not I think to be afcribed fimply to the age of the original feedling-tree, becaufe each fucceflive generation of buds or bulbs are as diftin& from the parent, as the generation by feeds. But as the lateral progeny of vegetables have no fource of improvement after they have arrived at their maturity, but are liable like other plants and animals to injuries from food and climate, which injuries produce hereditary difeafes, it is to this circumftance that their degeneracy ought rather to be afcribed; whereas the fexual pro- geny of vegetables are liable to improvement by the intermixture of the individuals of the fame, or even of different {pecies to counteract the effects of hereditary difeafes. | | Another curious fimilarity which buds bear to their parent tree is alfo obferved by Mr. Knight, Phil. Tranf. for 1795. Part II. p. 292. ‘* Cuttings from feedling apple-trees of two years old were inferted on ftocks of twenty years old, and in a bearing ftate; but thefe have now been grafted nine years ; and, though they have been frequently tranfplanted to check their growth, they have not yet produced a fingle blofiom. I have fince grafted fome very old trees with cuttings from feedling apple-trees of five years old. Their growth has been extremely rapid, and there appears no probability that their time of producing fruit will be accelerated, or that their health will be in- jured by the great age of the ftocks. A feedling apple-tree ufually bears fruit in thirteen or fourteen years; and I therefore conclude, that I have to wait for a bloffom, till the trees, from which the grafts were taken, attain that age; though I have reafon to believe from the form of their buds that they will be extremely prolific. Every cutting therefore taken from the apple, and probably from 5 | every Nore lately Propacated tO the ae 1Eration of Leration by } fource of It are hiable late, which tance that fexual prd- mixture of counteract rent tree is II. p. 292 ere inferted thefe have . frequently produced @ th cutting? th has been eir time ° Skct-WIL trae «| REPRODUCTION. 97. every other tree, will be affected by the {tate of the parent ftock. If that be too young to produce fruit, it will grow with vigour, but will not bloffem; and if it be too old, it will immediately produce fruit, but will never make a healthy tree, and confequently never anfwer the intention of the planter. ‘6 The durability of the apple and pear I have long fufpeéted to be different in different varieties ; but that none of either would vege- tate with vigour much, if at all, beyond the life of the parent ftock, provided that died from mere old age. The oak 1s much more long- lived jn the north of Europe than with us, though the timber is lefs durable ; the climate of this country, being colder than its native one, may in the fame way add to the durability of the elm ; which may poflibly be further increafed by its not producing feeds in this cli- mate; as the life of many annuals may be increafed to twice its na- tural period, if not more, by preventing their feeding.” It is obferved above, that the firft bulb of a tulip raifed from feed produces a more perfect bulb annually for five or fix years, and perhaps more than one lefs perfect ones, before it acquires the power of ge=- nerating feeds. Now when this period arrives, if the feed-ftem be pinched off, I fuppofe that the next year’s bulb or bulbs will become more vigorous of juxuriant, and if this be continued for three or four years I fufpeét the double flowers, which are perhaps owing to a more luxuriant growth, may be formed ; and that in this, with fuperfluous nourifhment by manure, warmth, and moifture, confifts the art of obtaining hyacinths, ranunculus, and fometimes tulips, with fuch wonderful multiplication of petals or nectaries. See Sect. Ain. 40%. 4. The analogy, which exifts between this lateral production of vegetables and that of fome tribes of infects, is worth inveftigation. 1. This paternal or lateral generation of plants, which conftitutes the buds on the ftems of trees, and the fcions on their roots, which con- tinue to adhere to them, are fo far refembled by the branching in- feéts, which form'the corals or corallines'; and by many other fea-’ a animals, 98 ORGANS OF Sect. VII, 1. ¢, animals, as the fea anemonies, which are faid to adhere to the fhores, or fubmarine earth, by one extremity, while they pullulate, or fpread out by the other into living ramifications of unmeafurable lengths. Thofe who have attended to the habits of the polypus, which js found in the ftagnant water of our ditches in July, affirm, that the young ones branch out from the fide of the parent like the buds of trees ; and after a time feparate themfelves from them. This is {o analogous to the manner in which the buds of trees appear ‘to be pro= duced, that thefe polypi may be confidered as all male animals, pro- ducing embryons, which require no mother to fupply them with a nidus, or with nutriment and oxygenation. Secondly, this paternal or lateral vegetable progeny is beautifully feen in the wires of knot-grafs, polygonum aviculare ; and in thofe of ftrawberries, fragaria vefca; and in the roots of potatoes. The la. teral generation of thefe plants by wires, while each new plant is thus chained to its parent, and continues to put forth another and another, as the wire creeps onward on or beneath the ground, is ex- actly refembled by the tape-worm, or tenia, fo often found in the bowels, ftretching itfelf in a chain quite from the ftomach to the rectum. Linneus afferts, ‘* that it grows old at one extremity, while it continues to generate young ones at the other, proceeding ad infi- nitum, like a root of grafs. ‘Phe feparate joints are called gourd- worms, and propagate new joints like the parent without end, each joint being furnifhed with its proper mouth and organs of digeftion.” Syftema Naturz, vermes, tenia. In this animal there evidently ap- pears a power of reprodution without any maternal apparatus for the purpofe of fupplying nutriment and oxygenation to the embryon, as it remains attached to its father till its maturity, and in this re{pect exactly refembles the lateral generation of vegetables. 5. This fubject of the lateral production of vegetables from male parents without the intervention, of a female is further refembled: by the innumerable progeny of the aphis, which rifes from an.egg in the fpring, \ ee ee ee ae eC > oe 60 8 atten tele ~~ FF __ —- — a. «CY —T — an » Pld. is beautiful id in thofe af Ss. Thek new plant i | another and round, Is ex ‘ound in the omach to the emity, while ding ad inf called goutd- yut end, each of digeltion evidently 4? apparatus ft 00 i £3 yi in this 6? es from yf resembled : p anegs”. {prio ale Sect. Vll.1.6,775 REPRODUCTION. : 99 fpring, asa vegetable rifes from a feed, and produces a viviparous offspring for many generations like the fucceflive buds of a feedling apple-tree, or of a feedling tulip; and then it generates both males and females, which copulate and depofit eggs, like the anthers and - ftigmas of flowers, and their confequent feeds; which at length ap- ‘pear on feedling apple-trees and on feedling tulips; as is further fpoken of in Sect. IX, 2. 7. and XIV. tr. 6. 6. Whence I conclude, that in fexual viviparous generation the new entity, or embryon, is fecreted by the male, and received into a nidus prepared for it by the female, and nourifhed by fluids fecreted into the uterus, as ‘they are required, which is probably owing to the ftimulus of the fetus againft the fides of it; that in {exual oviparous generation a refervoir of nutriment is prepared, and inclofed in the egg, previous to the reception of the embryon, which is fecreted by the male, and depofited in this refervor of nutriment; becaufe the fetus in thefe animals is to be feparated from the parent before its due maturity ; and the egg, in which it is inclofed, may be confidered as an uterus, or womb, feparated from the mother. And laftly, that in paternal or male generation the new entity, or embryon, is as cer tainly fecreted from a gland of the male, but probably remains in an adapted refervoir belonging to this gland, correfpondent to the ve- ficulz feminales of moft viviparous animals, and that here it exifts like the cicatricula in the egg, and has a refervoir of nutriment pre- pared for it like that in the egg to {upport it; when the paternal leaf-bud by its death is feparated from it in the autumn, as the egg is feparated from its living mother. >. The produétion of buds in the axilla of every leaf may thus be eafily conceived, as the new buds are furnifhed with their caudexes or bark-filaments over thofe of their dead parents, which thoot out root-fibres beneath in the enfuing fpring, and that I fuppofe both in deciduous plants and in evergreens ; as in the latter alfo I believe the parent leaf-bud annually falls off, though not by the immediate in- O2 fluence 100 ORGANS OF Secr. VII.4. 7. fluence of the cold of autumn. But how longa twig or {cion of leaves, as in the vine or willow, fucceed each other, fome producing em- bryon buds in their bofoms before others become expanded, is not eafy to underftand ; but the embryons of all thefe new leaves, though not of the buds in their bofoms, probably exifted in the paternal womb, though in different degrees of maturity, which accords with the ob- {ervations of fome naturalifts on the fucceflive generations of the vol- vox globator, which Linneus afferts to be diaphanous, and that it car- ties within itfelf fons and grandfons to the fifth generation, but which are probably living fetufes produced by the father, of different degrees of maturity, and to. be detruded at different periods of time like the “unimpregnated eggs of various fizes, which are found in poultry. See Zoonomia, Vol. I. Sect. XXXIX. 2. and Linnei Syftem. Nature. Vermes. Volvox. In fome trees however, as in the vine, vitis, and in many herbace- ous plants, as in wheat, fouthiftle, teafel, triticum, fonchus, dypfacus, each fucceffive joint of the plant is evidently an individual vegetable being ; becaufe the pith, which conftitutes the brain or f{pinal marrow of each individual, terminates at every joint by a divifion, as {poken of in Sect 1, 8. whence in thefe vegetables every fucceflive joint appears to be produced by that beneath it ; whereas where there is no divifion of the pith, the twig feems to be fimply an elongation of the caudex of the leaf-bud, like the wires of {trawberries and other creeping plants. It thould neverthelefs be added, that there are many hermaphrodite infeéts, as fhell-fnails and dew-worms, which contain both male and female organs of generation ; and as they are perpetually feen to co- pulate with each other, it is believed, that they can not impregnate themfelves. Now it may be conceived, that the buds of trees poffefs both male and female organs of generation, and that they can impreg- nate themfelves, and that thus the new buds might be termed an hermaphrodite offspring rather than a paternal one. ‘This would however ternal W on With the th MS of the Vol. nd that it Cat. on, but Which ferent degree time like the 1 poultry, Ses (tem. Nature, many herbace- hus, dypfacus, dual vegetable fpinal marror n, as {poken of -e joint appee -e is 00 divifion of the caudes other creepilg hermaphrotl Sect. VII. 1.7: REPRODUCTION. 10f however produce a confufion of terms, as the eggs of fnails and of worms, as mentioned above, are properly an hermaphrodite off- {pring. — Another circumftance occurs in this paternal generation, which dif- fers from that of thofe hermaphrodite infects above alluded to, which is, that though in vegetables the new embryon is generally produced in the bofom of the leaf-ftalk, which is believed to be its parent 5 yet new buds are occafionally protruded from almoft any part of the bark, when the fummit of a branch ts taken off, or the fide branches of a tree, fo as to admit light and air, and a fupply of more nutriment ; whence it would feem, that though hermaphrodite infects poflefs but one male and one female apparatus for the production and reception of the new entity or embryon, yet that in paternal generation the pro- lific fluid is occafionally fecreted in any part of the caudex of each in- dividual bud from its fummit on the branch ofa tree to its termina- tion in the root; and that wherever a proper nidus can be found, which is fupplied with nutriment, and expofed to light and air, that there the new embryon can adhere and grow ; although this occurs moft conveniently, and thence moft frequently, in the bofom of the leaf- ftalk, where the prolific fluid is probably firft. fecreted, and the nutriment moft copioufly. fupplied from. the vegetable blood newly oxygenated in the leaf. In this I fuppofe to confift the great differ-~ ence between paternal and fexual generation ; and that this mode of reproduétion forms an exception to the general axiom of the great Harvey, ‘¢ all things from eggs.” The exiftence of a power of generation in every part of the caudex of a vegetable bud from the fummit to. the root is not only fhewn by the new buds, which grow on the trunks of trees, which: were felled in the fpring, but alfo from a curious circumftance which occurs in ingrafted trees; which is, that whenever after many years any new buds or fcions grow from the ftock beneath the graft, it is always ' fimilar to the parent ftock, and not to the ingrafted {cion ; which fhews, 102 ORGANS OF Sect. VIL. 1, 9, fhews, that this new bud was generated in the old ftock, and not that it was owing to an abforption and depofition of a prolific fluid fecreted in any part of the ingrafted head. It muft however be re- membered, that the caudex of each bud extends from the leaf-ftalk to the root, whether it be a fimple caudex as in a feedlin g tree, or a compound one as in a grafted tree; and that the generation of new buds in perennial herbaceous plants exifts in every part of the broad caudex on the root, as it does here in every part of the long caudex on the trunk. Nothing known in the animal world refembles this univerfality of the generative faculty throughout almoft the whole of an individual vegetable being, except the number of new poly pi faid to arife at the we time from different ee of the fame indi- vidual animal. Wherever the new vegetable embryons are fecreted, they alfo find a fituation or uterus, where they can adhere and be nourithed to almoft any number; which however is not unfupported by fome _ analogy even in viviparous animals; as there have been many in- ftances of extra-uterine fetufes, which have attached or inferted their veffels into the peritoneum, or on the vifcera of the mother, in the fame manner as they naturally attach or infert them into the fides of the true uterus. And in refpect to the number of uteri produced we may recollect the number of eggs, and of fith-{pawn, or frog-fpawn, or of feeds, which may all be termed fo many diftin® uteri, as they contain every thing, which is found in the uteri of viviparous ani- mals. The aphis, and probably many other infedts, poffefs both the fo- litary and fexual mode of propagation, as is pofleffed by moft veget- ables; but the polypus and tenia, and hydra ftentorea, and volvox, appear only to be reproduced by the folitary or lateral generation ; and it is probable that the truffle’ amongft vegetables, and fome fub- marine plants, and others of the clafs cryptogomia, whofe feeds have not been yet difcovered, may ftill be only propagated by the lateral oft the Whole of new poly ve fame inf, ed, they alfy e nourithed ty rted by fom: sen many in inferted thei nother, in the to the fides of ‘| produced we or frog-fpaws, uteri, as they iviparous aul rs both the ir eget agated dl Secr. VII. 2.1. REPRODUCTION. 103 lateral mode of reproduétion, as is well obferved in an ingenious work bya lady of very accurate botanic knowledge, called “Botanic Dialogues, defigned for the ufe of fchools,” one volume ofavo, Johnfon, London ; but which may be ftrongly recommended to the adult in botany as containing much ufeful information agreeably imparted. This curious fubje& of lateral or folitary’ generation is well worthy more accurate inveftigation, as it is the fimpleft, and was probably the firft mode of reprodu€tion which exifted; and if any accurate knowledge can ever be acquired of animal generation, it will poffibly occur from a more nice attention to the produétion of the buds and bulbs of vegetables! which is further fpoken of in Sed. IX. 2 and 3 At the fame time it muft be obferved, that the fexual reprodu@tion is the chef d’ouvre, the mafter-piece of nature, as by the paternal or lateral reproduétion the fame {pecies only are propagated ad infinitum . whereas by the fexual mode of reproduétion a countlefs variety of animals are introduced into the world, and much pleafure is afforded to thofe, which already exift in it. II, SEXUAL PROGENY, 1. We come now to the feminal mode of the produétion of vege tables, which originates from the congrefs of the male and female parts of flowers, and may be therefore termed the fexual or amatorial progeny of vegetation. From the aceurate experiments and obfervations of Spallanzani it appears, that in the Spartium Junceum, rufh-broom, the very mi- nute feeds were difcerned in the pod at leaft twenty days before the flower is in full bloom ;: that is, twenty days before fecundation. At this time alfo the powder of the anthers was vifible, but glued faft to, their fummits. The feeds however at this time, and for ten’ days. after the bloffom had fallen off, appeared’ to confift of a gelatinous. fubftance, 104 ORGANS OF Sec... WIL. 206 fubftance. On the eleventh day after the falling of the bloffom the feeds became heart fhaped, with the bafis attached by an appendage to the pod, and a white point at the apex ; this white point was on preffure found to be a cavity including a drop of liquor. On the twenty-fifth day the cavity, which at firft appeared at the apex, was much enlarged, and ftill full of liquor ; it alfo contained a: very {mall femi-tranfparent body of a yellowifh colour, gelatinous, and fixed by its two oppofite ends to the fides of the cavity. In a month the feed was much enlarged, and its fhape changed from a heart toa kidney; the little body contained in the cavity was increafed in bulk, and was lefs tranfparent, and gelatinous, but there yet appeared no organization. On the fortieth day the cavity now grown larger was quite filled” with the body, which was covered with a thin membrane; after this, membrane was removed, the body appeared of a bright green, and was eafily divided by the point of a needle into two portions, which manifeftly formed the two lobes; and within thefe attached to the lower part the exceedingly {mall plantule was eafily perceived. The foregoing obfervations evince, 1. That the feeds exift in the ovarium many days before fecundation. 2. That they remain for fome time folid, and then a cavity containing a liquid is formed in them. 3. That after fecundation a body begins to appear within the cavity fixed by two points to the fides, which in procefs of time proves to be two lobes containing a plantule. 4. That the ripe feed confifts of twe lobes adhering to a plantule, and furrounded by a thin membrane, which is itfelf covered with a hufk or cuticle. Spallanzani’s Differta- tions, Vol. II. p. 253. The analogy between feeds and eggs has long been obferved, and: is confirmed by the mode of their produation. The egg is known to be formed within the hen long before its impregnation. C. F. Wolf afferts, that the yolk of the egg is nourifhed by the veffels of the mother, and that it has from thofe its arterial and venous branches; ; but STV, 4 1e blo for, a 1 appends, ¢ s\ POlnt Way Qy PPeared at the ss tained, “ Selatingys Vity, thape Change{ the Cavity was US, but ther vas quite fille rane ; after thi , sht green, an ortions, which attached to the rerceived. ods exift in the emain for font med in them -hin the cavity time proves {0 feed contits# thin membiath +9. T)jfier™ zai s Dif ony t epou Seer. VII. 2. 2. REPRODUCTION. Los but that after impregnation thefe veflels gradually become imper- - vious and obliterated ; and that new ones are produced from the fetus, and difperfed into the yolk. Haller’s Phyfiol. Tom. VIL. p.94. The young feed after fecundation I fuppofe is nourifhed in a fimilar man- ner from the gelatinous liquor, which is previoufly depofited for that purpofe ; the uterus of the plant producing or fecreting it into a re- fervoir or amnios, in which the embryon is lodged; and that the young embryon ‘s furnithed with veflels to abforb a part of it, as in the very early ftate of the embryon in the egg. Another curious analogy feems to exift between the embryon of the {eed and of the egg in their mode of fufpenfion. The cicatricula of the egg refts on the yolk, which is fufpended by two points, called chalazze, fomewhat above its center of gravity; whence, however the ége is moved, this embryon is always kept upwards, probably the better to receive the warmth of the mother during incubation, The {eed-embryon feems to be fupported in the famg manner by the above relation of Spallanzani by two points, and may thus receive a greater warmth from the fummer fun. 2. The feeds are thus produced in their unimpregnated ftate in the vegetable uterus, and nourifhed by the flower-bud, which was formed in the deciduous trees of this climate during the preceding fummer, and which now puts forth the brates, or floral-leaves, for the oxy- genation of its blood ; and protrudes its roots and abforbents into the ‘ground from the lower part of its caudex, for the purpofe of acquir- ing nourifhment; and on the fummit of this fexual apparatus are at the fame time produced the corol and neétaries of the flower, with the ftamens, and ftigmas, which are evidently defigned to give fecunda- tion to the vegetable feeds, or eggs, previoufly depofited in the peri- carp or uterus; becaufe, as foon as thefe are impregnated, the corol and neétaries, with the ftamens, and ftigmas, fall off and difappear. The anthers have been proved by many experiments to be necef- fary to the fecundation of the vegetable feeds by the farina, or duft; which 106 ORGANS OF Secr. VIL. 2. 2. which they difperfe, and which adheres to the moift ftigma on the fummit of the ftyle or pericarp. “The amatorial attachment between thefe ftigmas and the anthers on the fummits of the ftamens has at- tracted the notice of all botanifts. In many flowers the anthers or males bend into contaét with the ftigmas or females, as in kalmia, fritillaria perfica, parnaffia, cactus, and ciftus. In the kalmia the ten ftamens lie round the piftil, like the radii of a wheel, and each anther is concealed in a nich of the corol to proteét it from eold and moif- ture; thefe anthers rife feparately from their niches, and approach the ftigma of the piftil for a time, and then recede to their former fituations. In the fritillaria perfica the fix ftamens are of equal lengths, and the anthers lie at a diftance from the piftil; of thefe three alternate ones approach firft, and furround the female; and when thefe decline, the other three approach ; and in parnaffia the males alternately approach and recede from the female; and laftly in the moft beautiful flowers of caétus grandiflorus, and of ciftus lab- daniferus, where the males are very numerous, fome of them are perpetually bent into conta& with the female; and as they recede, others advance. In other flowers the females bend into contact with the males, as in nigella, epilobium, fpartium, collinfonia. In nigella, devil in the bufh, the females are very tall compared to the males, and bending down over them in a circle, give the flower fome refemblance to a regal crown. The female of the epilobium anguftifolium, willow- herb, bends down amongft the males for feveral days, and becomes upright again when impregnated, In the fpartium fcoparium,.com- mon broom, the males or ftamens‘are in two fets, one fet rifing a quarter of an inch above the other. . The upper fet does not arrive at their maturity fo foon as the lower; and the ftigma, or head of the female, is produced amongft the upper or immature fet. But as foon as the piftil grows tall enough to burft open the keel-leaf, or head of the flower, it bends itfelf round in an inftant like,a French horn, and TV hat on th Aen es ‘he =e RRA: as ~ Kali, almig the tey each anthe ‘Old and moif. and approach their forme are of equ iftil 5 of thef female; and parnafiia the le; and laftly 1 of ciftus lab. of them ate A \ ; they recede, . the males, # a, devil in the 5, and bending emblance t0 # jium, willow and becoa® . com” ots zrench Free iad Sect: Nil. 2,2 REPRODUCTION. 107 and inferts its head, or ftigma, amongft the lower or mature fet of males. The piftil or female then continues to grow in length ; and in a few days the ftigma arrives again amongft the upper fet, by the time they become mature. This wonderful contrivance is readily feen by opening the keel-leaf of the flowers of broom, before they burft fpontaneoufly. And laftly, in the collinfonia the two. males widely diverging from each other, the female bends herfelf into con- tact firft with one of them; and after a day or two leaves this, and applies herfelf to the other; the anther of which was not mature fo foon as the former. See Sect. VIII. 8. of this work. Dr. Pefchier of Geneva thinks, he has difcountenanced this idea of amatorial fenfibility of vegetables by two experiments, which are re- lated in Journal de Phyfique de Lametherie, T. II. p. 343. One of thefe confifted of his tying down the ftigma of epilobium anguftifo- lium, and yet in due time the anthers burft and fhed: their pollen, and thus committed a kind of vegetable Onanifm ; and alfo that he caf- trated the ftamens of this flower, and yet the ftigma opened and arofe, as if the anthers had been prefent. The other experiment confifted in his‘confining a branch of barbery, berberis, in a glafs, and fubject- ing the ftamina of the flowers to the vapour of nitrous acid, which by this ftimulus arofe from their petals to the ftigma, and after a few minutes again retired to their petals. Both thefe experiments rather feem to confirm than to enfeeble the analogy between plants and animals ; as the amatorial motions of thefe flowers were thus pro- duced by internal or external ftimuli, as in the healthy or difeafed {tates of animals. Another mode, in. which the prolific duft is difperfed, is by the burfting of the anther, and its confequent diffufion in air, either fo as to make a cloud near the females, which exift in the fame flower, or on the fame plant, which is the moft ufual manner; or. by its being carried by the winds to a greater diftance, as in the flowers of the clafs monoecia, or one houfe. So in urtica, nettle, the male es - flowers 108 ORGANS OF. Scr. VIL. 2. 2. flowers are feparate from the female, and the anthers are feen in fair weather to burft with force, and to difcharge their duft, which ho- vers about the plant like a cloud. In plants of the clafs dicecia, or two houfes, the fecundating farina is carried to the diftance of many miles by the winds, as has been proved by the impregnation of fome female date trees, which were at a great diftance from the male ones. And the male flowers them- felves of vallifneria are carried many miles down the rivers, which it inhabits, to the female ones. ‘This plant has its roots at the bottom of the Rhone; the flowers of the female plant float on the furface of the water, and are furnifhed with an elaftic fpiral ftalk, which ex- tends or contraéts, as the water rifes and falls, The flowers of the male plant are produced under water, and as foon as their farina, or duft, is mature, they detach themfelves from the plant, and rife to the furface, continue to flourifh, and are wafted by the air, or borne by the currents, to the female flowers. In this refembling thofe tribes of infects, where the males at certain feafons acquire wings, but not the females, as ants, coccus, lampyris, phalaena, brumata, licha- nella. See vallifneria in thee amilies of Plants, tranflated from Lin- neus. Johnfon, London. The plants, which grow in the air, are frequently injured in wet feafons by the moifture occafioning the cells of the anthers, which contain the fecundating farina, to burft, and to fhed it on the ground. To which a fcarcity of the quantity of wheat, or an imperfeétion of its fecundating quality, and the uftilago, or {mut, have rationally been afcribed, as its anthers are expofed on long filaments to the weather. On this account many flowers clofe their corols before rain, and the aquatic plants of rivers perform their impregnations in the air. But M. Bonnet remarks another method of the difperfion of the fecun- dating influence of fome marine plants, in which the male organ does not project a fine powder, but a liquor, which forms a perceptible cloud m the water; and adds, that the male falamander darts his 5 : femen , Vit . > feey in f ae. wich by dating fating = has bee hich Weres WETS thet. ETS, Which ’ t the bottom he furface of Ky Which eX. lowers of the deir farina, of > and rife to air, or borne mbling thofe re wings, but umata, lich -d from Lin pjured in wet thers, which n the ground a nperfection © ationally beet Secr. VII. Ze 354° REPRODUCTION. 109 femen into the water, where it forms a whitifh cloud, which is af- terwards received by the {wollen anus of the female, and fhe be- comes impregnated. “Nor is this vegetable impregnation in water unanaldgous to other animal impregnations, as the fpawn of frogs and of fith is delivered from the female before it is fecundated; and its fecundation is feen to fucceed in water ; and Spallanzani found, that the feminal fluid even of dogs, as well as of frogs, retained its pro- lific quality when diluted with much water. Bonnet’s CEuvres Phi- lof. in a letter to Spallanzani. 3. The other parts, which rife on the edge of the pericarp, and ex- pand themfelves before the impregnation of the feed, are the corol and ne&taries. The former of thefe has been fhewn to be a refpiratory organ for the purpofe of oxygenating the blood to a greater degree than in the green foliage, as it is there expofed to the air beneath a finer pellicle, and acquires variety of colours. See Set. IV. 5. 1. to which may be added, that ‘as the corol in helleborus niger, Chrift- mas rofe, changes after the fecundation of the feed into a calyx, lof- ing its white colour, and becoming green. So in many flowers the calyx falls off along with the corol; in thefe it fhould be efteemed a part of or appendage to the corol; whereas thofe calyxes, which are permanent after the corol falls off, are properly parts of the pericarp or vegetable uterus. | 4. The netary, or honey-cup, is evidently an appendage to the corol, atid is the refervoir of the honey, which is fecreted by an ap- propriate gland from the blood after its oxygenation in the corol, as mentioned in Se@. IV. 5. 5. and is abforbed for nutriment by the fexual parts of the flower. This purpofe however has as yet efcaped the refearches of philofophical botanifts. M. Pontedera believes it defigned to lubricate the vegetable uterus. (Antholog. p. 49.) Others have fuppofed, that the honey, when reabforbed, might ferve the pur- pofe of the liquor amnn, or white of an egg, as a nutriment for the young embryon, or fecundated feed, in its early ftate of exiftence. But T10 ORGANS OF Sect. Vil. 2. 4. But as the nectary is found equally general in male flowers as in fe- ‘male ones, and as the young embryon, or feed, grows before the petals and ne¢tary are expanded, and after they fall off; thefe feem to be infurmountable objections to both the above-mentioned opi- nions. In many tribes.of infects, as the filk-worm, and perhaps in all the moths and butterflies, the male and female parents die, as foon as the eggs are impregnated andexcluded, the eggs remaining to be per- fected and hatched at fome future time. The fame thing happens to the male and female parts of flowers; the anthers and filaments, which conftitute the male parts of the flower, and the ftigma and ftyle, which conftitute the fenfitive or amatorial organ of the female part of the flower, fall off and die, as foon as the feeds are impreg- nated, and along with thefe the petals and nectary. Now the moths and butterflies ee mentioned, as foon as they acquire the paflion and the apparatus for the reproduction of their {pecies, lofe the power of feeding upon leaves, as they did before, and become .nourifhed by ‘whati?—by honey alone. ‘Hence we acquire a {trong analogy for the ufe of the neétary, or fecretion of honey, in the vegetable economy; which is, that the male parts of fowers, and the female parts, as foon as they leave their fetus-ftate, expanding their petals, (which conftitute their lungs) be- come fenfible to the paffion, and gain the apparatus, for the repro- duétion of their fpecies; and are fed and nourifhed with honey Jike the infe€ts above defcribed; and that hence the neary begins its office of producing honey, and dies or ceafes to produce honey, at the fame time with the birth and death of the anthers and the ftig- mas; which, whether exifting in the fame or in different flowers, are feparate and diftinc& aeomee beings. Previous to this time the anthers aan their filaments, and the ftigmas with their ftyles, are in their fetus-{tate fuftained in fome plants by their umbilical veffels, like the unexpanded leaf-buds, as in 3 colchicum ape 10 all th a$ loon a5 the 1S £0 be pe. ng happens to ind filaments 1 ftigma anf of the female is are Imprey. ow the moths ire the pafiion lofe the power » nourithed by re nettary, of 1 is, that the ney leave thelt seir lungs) & for the spl” ith, honey ht tary begins { 1uce honey’ g - and the #s | Secr. VII. 2.4. REPRODUCTION. IIT colchicum autumnale, and daphne mezereon ; and in other plants by the braétes, or floral-leaves, as in rhubarb, which are expanded long before the opening of the flower; the feeds at the fame time exifting in the vegetable womb yet unimpregnated, and the duft yet unripe in the cells of the anthers. After this period the petals become expanded, which have been fhewn to conftitute the lungs of the flower ; the umbilical veflels; which before nourifhed the anthersand the ftigmas, coalefce, or ceafe to nourifh them; and they acquire blood more oxygenated by the air, obtain the paflion and power of reproduction, are fenfible to heat; and light, and moifture, and to me~ chanic ftimulus, and become in reality infects fed with honey ; fimi- lar in every refpeét except that all of them yet known but the male flowers of vallifneria, continue attached to the plant, on which they are produced. | So water infects, as the gnat, and amphibious animals, as the tad- pole, acquire netv aerial lungs, when they leave their infant ftate for that of puberty. And the numerous tribes of caterpillars are fed upon the common juices of vegetables found in their leaves, till they ac- quire the organs of reproduction; and then they feed on honey, all 1 believe except the filk-worm, which in this country takes no nou- rifhment after it becomes a butterfly. And the larva or maggot of the bee, according to the obfervations of Mr. Hunter, is fed with raw vegetable matter, called bee-bread, which is collected from the an- thers of flowers, and laid up in cells for that purpofe, till the maggot becomes a winged bee, acquires greater fenfibility, and is fed with honey. Phil. Tranf. 1792. Laftly, though the filaments and ftyle, as well as the corolla and nectary, belong to the fexual organs of vegetables; yet it is the an- thers alone of the. ftamina, and ftigmas alone of the piftilla, which pofiefs the power, and I fuppofe the paffion of reproduétion, as appears from the mutilated filaments of many flowers, as of curcuma, of linum or flax of this country, of gratiola, and hemlock-leaved ge- ranium, 112 ORGANS OF Sect. VIL 2. 5. ranium, which have half their ftamina unterminated by anthers, and in confequence produce no prolific farina. And fecondly, from the florets, which form the rays of the flowers.of the order fruftraneous polygamy of the clafs fyngenefia, as the fun-flower, which are fur- nifhed with a ftyle only, and no ftigma, and are thence barren. There is alfo a ftyle without a ftigma in the whole order of dioecia gynan- dria, the male flowers of which are thence barren, and fhews the neceflity of the exiftence of the ftigma to the fecundation of the ve- cetable uterus, probably owing to its amatorial action in conveying the living principle to the included feeds like the fallopian tubes of the animal womb. 5. The feeds are produced in the pericarp, and at firft acquire nu- triment by the umbilical veffels previous to their fecundation, like the unexpanded leaf-buds ; and then by the caudex down the bark with its radicles, which is oxygenated by the braces, or floral-leaves, as foon as thefe are expanded, they afterwards become in one day im- pregnated in fome flowers, as in the oenothera, cactus grandiflorus, and ciftus ; and the corol or petals, with the ftamens and ftigmas, and nectaries, wither and fall off. In other flowers many days elapfe be- fore the various cells of feeds are fecundated, and thefe more ani- mated parts of fexual reproduétion perifh. But in all cafes the feeds remain in the pericarp or uterus after fecundation as before it, except in thofe plants, which are called proliferus, as the polygonum vivi- parum, and magical onions, which immediately begin to vegetate ; in all other plants the feed either fleeps till the italiane {pring, as in the colchicum and hamamelis ; or they continue to grow to maturity, and to be nourifhed in the pericarp by the blood of the parent flower- bud, which is oxygenated i in the braétes or floral-leaves, till they be- come perfected like eggs, and fall on the ground, or are otherwife difperfed, for the purpofé of taking root in the earth. Whence it appears, that in the fexual reproduction of vegetables the amatorial organ is diftinét from the uterus, as is probably the cafe ; in FM - Y ther ly, fro er frultrane, Which arf, M TED. They dlocia SY Day, 2nd thews th tion of the ye N in Conveying OPlaN tubes of » dy irft acquire ny, dation, like the 1 the bark with floral-leaves, 1 in one day - us grandiflony, ind ftigmas, aud days elapfe be thefe more al 1 cafes the feet! before it, ex ng prings . ‘ ° to matutt if 1€ parent off ves, til sa : other 1 gc Secr. VIL 2.5. REPRODUCTION. mG in animals ; which ih female quadrupeds would feem to fleep after impregnation during the time of geftation and laétefcence, and after- wards to revive; whereas this amatorial organ in vegetable flowers perifhes, when the uterus is impregnated, along with the male organs, neither of which are any longer of ufe in thefe annual beings. The various methods, which nature has employed for the difperfion of feeds, are worth the attention of the farmer and gardener, both for the purpofe of preventing the growth of noxious feeds, and of col- leéting the profitable ones. The pericarp of fome plants burfts with fudden violence, when the feed is mature, and difperfes it to confider- able diftance ; as that of wood-forrel, oxalis acetocalla; and of im- patiens, touch me not. The feeds of many plants of the clafs fyn- genefia are furnifhed with a plume, by which admirable mechanifm they are difleminated by the winds far from their parent ftem, and look like a fhuttlecock, as they fly. Other feeds are difleminated by animals; of thefe fome attach themfelves to their hair or feathers by a gluten, as mifletoe ; others by hooks, as clivers, galium aperine 5 burdock, arétium lappa; hound’s-tongue, cynogloflum. Others are {wallowed whole for the fake of the fruit, and voided uninjured, as the hawthorn, crategus, juniper, and fome grafles. And the feeds of aquatic plants, and of thofe which grow on the banks of rivers, are carried many miles by the currents into which they fall. Other feeds are feparated from each other, and difperfed by the twifting of the awn at the fummit of them, when moiftened by rain, | as a black oat, avena fatua, with hairy awns, which feems to crawl like an infeét when moiftened ; geranium alfo, and barley; and as this happens in wet weather, the moift ground is then fit to receive and nourifh them. The awns of the geranium have been ufed as hygrometers by fticking the bafe of the feed into a cork for a pedeftal, and marking divifions on a paper circle beneath it; and the awn of barley is furnifhed with {tiff points, which, like the teeth of a faw, are all turned towards oneend of it; as this long awn lies upon the ground, it II4 ORGANS OF Sect. VII. 2. 6, it extends itfelf in the moift air of night, and pufhes forward the barley-corn, which it adheres to; in the day it fhortens as it dries; and as thefe points prevent it. from receding, it draws up its pointed end; and thus, creeping like a worm, will travel many feet from the parent {tem ; and may thus be ufed as a travelling hygrometer, when Jaid on a cloth on the floor, like the automaton of Mr. Edgeworth, defcribed in Botanic Garden, article Impatiens, Vol. IE. 6. The formation of the organs for fexual generation, in contra+ diftin&tion to. thofe for lateral generation, in vegetables, and in fome animals, as the polypus, the tania, and the volvox, feems the chef d’oeuvre, the mafter-piece of nature, as appears: from many flying in- fects, as moths and butterflies, which feem to undergo a general change of their forms folely for the purpofe of fexual reprodu@ion:; and in all other animals thefe organs are not complete till the maturity of the creature ; whereas the lateral generation commences with the infancy of the germ or bud, as on the roots of young herbs, and on the ftems of infant trees. There feems neverthelefs to be one circumftance, in which the fo- litary generation of the buds of plants, when the plants are at their maturity, is fuperior tothe fexual generation by feeds. This confifts in the progeny of the former being more perfec than that of the latter, in refpect to the power of the reproduction of their fpecies. Thus in many plants, as.in tulips and apple-trees, the young vegetable from the feed produces other bulbs, or buds, for fome years, which feem annually to improve, till at length they acquire a puberty, if it may be fo called, and become furnifhed with fexual organs. for the purpofe _of feminal reproduction; whereas the leaf- buds, or. leaf-bulbs, of the apple-tree and tulip during their firft years produce other leaf=buds, or leaf-bulbs, rather more perfect than their parents; and when thefe bulbs, and buds, arrive at their puberty, or maturity, fo as to be ca- pable of fexual generation, their new bulbs and new buds. alfo,:if taken from their dying parents, and tranfplanted or ingrafted, or left 8 adhering CTV or S$ forwarg n isd NP its Poin y feet From ometer, wh tT. Edgey , ; 5 Ort), ‘ q he LON 10 contr 8, and in fo, CEMS the chef ne oir: 5 lying it. ETgYo a gener reprodudton; till the matunty ences with the g herbs, and 0 n whicli the {o nts are at thet This confifisi at of the latter {pecies Tho - vegetable from ich {eel ars, W hich fee Sect Vi. 2c6 ~=REPRODUCTION. 115 adhering to them, are immediately capable of producing flowers, and a confequent feminal progeny. As the progeny by lateral generation fo exactly refembles the parent ftock, it follows, that though any new variety, or improvement, may be thus continued for a century or two, as in grafted fruit-trees, yet that no new variety or improvement can be obtained by this mode of generation ; though fome hereditary difeafes, as the canker, are beljeved to arife in ingrafted trees, which have long been propagated by lateral ceneration, as explained in No. 1. 3. of this Se¢ction. But from the fexual, or amatorial, generation of plants new varie- ties, or improvements, are frequently obtained; as many of the young plants from feeds are diffimilar to the parent, and fome of them fuperior to the parent in the qualities we with to poflefs ; which is another proof that the anthers and ftigmas of plants are animated be- ings, different from the green foliage of the tree on which they grow; as they produce varieties in the form of their offspring like fexual ani- mals, which buds do not. Befides the production of different, and fometimes more excellent, varieties in the fpecies of vegetables from feeds, another advantage occurs from fexual generation, which is the production of new fpecies of plants, or mules, by fhedding the fecundating duft of fome flowers on the ftigmas of others of a different fpecies, though generally of the fame genus. A mule cabbage is defcribed in the Bath Agriculture, Vol. I. Art. 4, which is faid to fatten a beaft fix weeks fooner than turneps. It is there. faid, ** that the fort of cabbage principally raifed is the tallow-loaf or drum-head cabbage; but it being too tender to bear fharp froft, I planted fome of this fort and the common purple-cab- bage ufed for pickling, (it being the hardieft I am acquainted with) alternately; and when the feed-pods were perfectly formed, I cut down the purple, and left the other for feed. This had the -defired effeét, and produced a mixt ftock of a deep green colour with purple y . &) 2 | Veils, 116 ORGANS OF Sect. VII. 2. 6. veins, retaining the fize of the drum head, and acquiring the hardi. nefs of the purple.” In another curious paper of the Bath Society, Vol. V. p. pe Mr, Wimpey relates, that he planted a field with garden-beans in rows about three feet afunder in the following order, mazagan, white- bloffom, long-podded, Sandwich-toker, and Windfor-beans. The mazagan and white-bloflom were thrafhed firft, when to his great furprife he found many new.fpecies of beans; thofe from the maza- gan were mottled black and white ; the white-blofloms were brown and yellow inftead of their natural black ; and they were both much larger than ufual. See Sect, XVI. 4. of this work. There is an apple defcribed in Bradley’s work, which is faid to have one fide of it a {weet fruit, which boils foft, and the other fide a four fruit, which boils hard. This Mr. Bradley fo long ago as the year 1721 ingenioufly afcribes to the farina of one of thefe apples impreg- nating the other ; which would feem the more probable, if we con- fider, that each divifion of an apple is a feparate womb, and may therefore have a feparate impregnation, like puppies of different kinds in one litter. The fame is faid to have occurred in oranges and lemons, and grapes of different colours. Vegetable mules are faid to be numerous, and, like the mules of the animal kingdom, not always to continue their f{pecies by feed. There is an account of a curious mule from the antirrhinum linaria,, toad-flax, in the Amoenit. Academ. V.I. No. 3. and many hybrid plants are deferibed in No. 32. The urtica alienata is an evergreen plant, which appears to bea ncele from the male flowers, anda pel- litory (parietaria) from the female ones and the fruit, and is hence be- tween both.’ Murray, Syft. Veg. Amonft the Englith indigenous plants, the veronica hybryda, mule fpeedwell, is fuppofed to have originated from the officinal one, and the fpiked one; and the Sib- thorpia Europza to have for its parents the golden faxifrage and marfh penoywort. Pulteney’s View of Linneus, p. 253. There ere both Much r Is faid to have her fide a {oy 3 as the yey apples impreg- ble, if we COll* mb, and my — different kind es and lemons, » the mules ¢ ecies by feet hinum linatt, many hybe 5 an evergre 5 anda pet Sect. VII. 2. 7 REPRODUCTION. 117 There is another vegetable faé& publifhed by M. Koelruter, which he calls <¢ a complete metamorphofis of one natural f{pecies of plants ato another ;”’ which fhews, that in feeds as well as in buds, the embryon proceeds from the male parent, though the form of the fabfequent mature plant is in part dependent on the female, M. Ko- elruter impregnated a ftigma of the nicotiana ruftica with the farina of the nicotiana paniculata, and obtained prolific feeds from it. With the plants, which fprung from thefe feeds, he repeated the experiment, impregnating their piftilla with the farina of the nicotiana paniculata. As the mule plants, which he thus produced, were prolific, he con- tinued to impregnate them for many generations with the farina of the nicotiana paniculata, and they became more and more like the male parent, till he at length obtained fix plants in every refpect per- feétly fimilar to the nicotiana paniculata, and in no refpeét refembling their female parent the nicotiana ruftica. Blumenback on Genera- tion. | Mr. Graberg, Mr. Schreber, and Mr. Ramftrom, feem of opinion, that the internal ftruéture or parts of fru@tification in mule plants re- femble the female parent ; but that the habit or external {tructure re- fembles the male parent. See treatifes under the above nanfes in Vol. VI. Amoenit. Academic. _ 7. Something fimilar to this feems to obtain in mixing the breeds of the fame fpecies of animals, and in animal mules, which may be worth the attention of the grazier. The mule produced from a horfe and a fhe afs refembles the horfe externally with his ears, mane, and tail; but with the nature, or manners of an afs. But the hinnus, or creature produced from a male afs and a mare, refembles the father externally in ftature, afh-colour, and the black crofs on his fhoulders, but with the nature or manners of a horfe. The breed from Spanifh rams and Swedifh ewes refembled the Spanifh fheep in wool, ftature, and external form; but was as hardy as the Swedith fheep; and the contrary occurred in the breeds which were produced from Swedifh Tams i$ OR'GANS OF Sect. VII. 2. 8. rams and Spanifh ewes. The offspring ‘from the male goat of An- gora and the Swedifh female goat had long {oft camel’s hair; but that from the male Swedifh goat, ‘and the female one of Angora, had no improvement of their wool. An Englih ram without horns, and a Swedith horned ewe, produced fheep without horns. Ameen. Acad. Vol. VI. p. 13. 8 From thefe circumftances it appears, that not only new varie- ties may be procured from the {eminal offspring of plants; where thofe from the lateral offspring become difeafed by age, as the can- kered apple-grafts, and perhaps the curled potatoes, and barren ftrawberries; but that more curious or ufeful fruits or flowers may be obtained by fhedding the farina of fome valuable plant on the ftigma of another variety of the fame fpecies, as of two different but equally excellent. apple-trees, or tulip-flowers, hyacinths, anemonies, and geraniums. And thirdly, that mules may be produced by a mix- ture of different fpecies of plants, and perhaps of different genera ; as of pines and melons; grapes and goofeberries ; oranges and apples ; apricots and neétarines ; nuts and acorns; which may be afterwards propagated by the lateral progeny, if not by the feminal one. The facility of generating vegetable mules feems forcibly to have firuck the great Linneus; who in the preface to his natural orders of plants at the end of his Genera Plantarum thinks, that about fixty vegetables were at firft created correfponding with his natural orders. That a mixture of thefe orders amongft themfelves produced the ge- nera:; that a mixture of the genera amongft themfelves produced the fpecies; and that a mixture of the fpecies produced the varieties, “hich he believes to accord with the general progrefs of nature « from fimpler things to the more compound.”* In the fame manner it may be fuppofed, that many of the prefent fpecies of animals were originally mules produced by a mixture of animals of different genera; and that all fuch mules, as had perfec& organs of reproduction, continued their fpecies. But as thefe organs feem MOEN, Acad Y NEW varie Ants Where » as the cap. and barre, flowers may plant on the different but S, anemonics, sed by a mie erent genera; 5 and apples; be afterwards 1 one. rcibly to have natural ordet jat about fixty natural order’ duced the 5 roduced he the yarictl -efs of natu? Sect. VII. 26 ¥; REPRODUCTION. lig feem to be the chef d’ceuvre of nature, as above remarked, they often become imperfeé& in the generation of mules, and the fpecies then becomes extiné; as it could not be propagated by fexual generation, it is poffible,. that many new kinds of mules, which might be ufeful for labour, or by their milk or wool, or for food, might {till be pro- duced by the method of Spallanzani; who diluted the feminal fluid of a dog with much warm water, and by injecting it’ fecundated a bitch, and produced puppies like the dog. Thus new animal combinations might poffibly be generated numeé- rous as the fabled monfters of antiquity ; as between the ram and the female goat ; the {tag and the cow 5 the horfe and the doe; the bull and the mare ; boar and bitch ; dog and fow. And fecondly, as Spal- lanzani diluted the feminal fluid of a male frog with water, and fé- cundated fome female {pawn with it, and produced perfect tadpoles, there is reafon to conclude, that new combinations of fifth might thus be generated, and people our rivers with aquatic moniters. And laftly, that it is not impoflible, as fome philofopher has already fuppofed, if Spallanzani fhould continue his experiments, that fome beautiful productions might be generated between the vegetable and animal kingdoms, like the eaftern fable of the rofe and nightingale, and which might be propagated by lateral or paternal, though not by fexual or feminal generation. The claffic. reader will here be reminded of the metamorphofes of Ovid,. of gods turned into bulls and fwans, men into frogs and par- tridges, ladies into trees and flowers, of fphinxes, griffins, dragons, mermaids, centaurs, and minataurs ; Pafiphae and her bull ; Leda and her fwan; Arethufa.and her fith-god Alpheus, and conclude that mules in early times were more frequent than at prefent, which oc- cafioned the poets and the priefts of antiquity to invent fo many fa-- bulous monfters, and impofe tlrem on the credulity of mankind. iit. VE-= 120: ORGANS OF Sect. Vil. gen, lII.. VEGETABLE GENERATION. 1. The intelligent reader is become, I hope, by this time fo much interefted in the further inveftigation of the circumftances attending the lateral and fexual generation of vegetables, that he will not be difpleafed with the continuance of the fubject for a few more pages, fo agreeable from its novelty, and fo important from its future ap- plication to animal reproduCtion. - Ifa fcion of a nonpareil apple be ingrafted on a crab-ftock, and a golden pippin be ingrafted on the nonpareil, what happens? The caudex of the bud of the golden pippin confifts of its proper abforbent veflels, arteries, and veins, till it reaches down to the nonpareil- {tock ; and then the continuation of its caudex downwards confifts of veflels fimilar to thofe of the nonpareil; when its caudex defcends ftill lower, it confifts of veffels fimilar to thofe of the crab-{tock. The truth of this is fhewn by two circumftances ; firft, becaufe the lower parts of this compound tree will occafionally put forth buds fimilar to the original ftock. And fecondly, becaufe in fome in- grafted trees, where a quick-growing {cion has been inferted into a ftock of flower growth, as is often feen in old cherry-trees, the upper part of the trunk of the tree has become of almoft double the diameter of the lower part; both which occurrences fhew, that the lower part of the trunk of the tree continues to be of the fame kind, though it muft have been fo repeatedly covered over with new circles of wood, bark, and cuticle. ; Now as the caudex of each bud, which paffes the whole length of the trunk of the tree, and forms a communication from the upper part, or plumula, to the lower part, or radicle, muft confift in thefe doubly ingrafted trees of three different kinds of caudexes, refembling thofe of the different ftocks or {cions; we acquire a knowledge of what may be termed a lateral or paternal mule, in contradiftin@ion 5 to Vi. 3:1 time {5 ur CES attendins > will not le d More paces its future aps D-ftock, and: ppens! The oper abforbent the nonpareil ards contifis of udex defcends crab-ftock. firft, becaule put forth bis e in fome Il nferted nto rees, the upp le the diame hat the Jowet Sect. VIL.3.2% REPRODUCTION. 123 to a fexual mule. For as in thefe trees thus combined by ingraftment every bud has the upper parts of its caudex that of a golden Pippin, the middle part of it that of a nonpareil, of the lower part of it that of a crab; if thefe caudexes, which conftitute the filaments of the bark, could be feparated intire from the tree with their plumules and radicles, they would exhibit fo many lateral or paternal mules, con- fitting of the conneéted parts of their three parents ; the plumula be-: longing to the upper parent, and the radicle to the lower one, and the. triple caudex to them all. A feparation of thefe buds from the parent plant is faid to have been obferved by Mr. Blumenback in the conferva fontinalis, a vegetable which confifts of {mall fhort flender threads, which grow in our foun- tains, and fix their roots in the mud. He obferved by magnifying glaffes, that the extremities of the threads {well, and from {mall tu- bera, or heads, which gradually feparate from the parent threads, at- tach themfelves to the ground, and become perfec vegetables; the whole progrefs of their formation can be obferved in forty-eight hours. Obfervations on Plants, by Von Uflar, Creech, Edinb. 2. The lateral propagation of the polypus found in our ditches in July, but more particularly that of the hydra ftentorea, is wonder- fully analagous to the above idea of the lateral generation of vegeta- bles. The hydra ftentorea, according to the account of monfieur Trembley, multiplies itfelf by {plitting lengthwife; and in twenty- four hours thefe divifions, which adhere to a common pedicle, refplit, and form four diftiné animals. Thefe four in an equal time fplit again, and thus double their number daily, till they acquire a figure fomewhat refembling anofegay. The young animals afterwards fe- parate from the parent, attach themfelves to aquatic plants, and give rile to new colonies. Another curious animal fact is related by Blumenback in his treatife on generation, concerning the frefh water polypus. He cut two of them in half, which were of different colours, and applying the upper T part 122 ORGANS OF Secr..VIT. 7 3. part of one to the lower part of the other, by means of a’ glafs-tube,. and retaining them thus for fome time in conta& with each: other,, the two divided extremities united, and became one animal. The attentive reader has already anticipated me in’ applying thefe wonderful modes of lateral animal reprodu@tion and: conjundtion to the lateral propagation and ingraftment of vegetables. ‘Fhe junction: of the head-part of one polypus to the tail-part of another is exadtly: reprefented by the ingraftment of a fcion on the ftock of another tree. The plumula, or apex of each bud, with the upper part of its: caudex, joins to the long caudex of the ftock,. which pafling down the trunk terminates in the radicles of it. And if this compound ve- getable could be feparated longitudinally from the other long filaments: of the bark in its vicinity, like the fibres of the bark of the mulberry- tree prepared: at Otaheite, or as the bark of hemp and flax are pre~ pared in this country, as the young ones of the hydra ftentorea fepa rate from their parents, it might claim. the name of a lateral: or pater nal mule,. as above mentioned. 3. It hence appears, that everynew bud of a tree, where two fcions have been inferted over each other on a ftock, if it could be feparated: from the plume to the radicle, muft confift of three different kinds. of caudex, and might therefore be called a triple lateral mule. And: that hence it follows, that every part of this new triple caudex,. muft: have been: feparated or fecreted laterally from the adjoining part of the trunk of the tree ; and that it could not be formed,. as I for- merly believed, from the roots of the plume of the bud defcending from the upper part of the caudex of it to the earth. A circum- ftance of great importance in the inveftigation of the curious fubje& of the lateral ceneration of vegetables, and of infects. One might hence fufpeét, that if Blumenback had attended to the propagation of the polypus, which he had compofed of two half po~ lypl, that the young progeny might have poflefied two colours re- fembling: apply; PP Ying the( CONJUN ion ty he jun Gig ther js eXaly Ick PPer part of i palling dow, COMpound ye. “long filaments * the mulberry. rd flax are pre ftentorea fepr. jateral or pater: here two {cio ald be feparate different kinds -q] mule. And triple caudes, e adjoining pa ormed, as . bud defcenditg he A circu . curious fale? 0 the endeee atte” pall Sor. WM. 3.455 REPRODUCTION. 12% fembling the compound parent, like the different caudexes of ingraft- ed trees; an experiment well worthy repeated obfervation. 4. Another animal fat ought alfo to be here mentioned, that :many infe€&ts, as common earth-worms'as well as the polypus, are faid to poffefs fo much life throughout a great part of their fyftem, that ‘they may be cut into two or more pieces without deftroying them, as each piece willacquire a new head, or a new. tail, or both; and the infect will thus become multiplied. How exactly this is re- fembled by the long caudex of the buds of trees, which poifefs fuch vegetable life from one extremity to the other, that when the head or plume is lopped off, it can produce a ‘new plume; and when the lower \part as cut off, it can produce new radicles; and may be thus wonderfully multiplied. s. Hence we acquire fome new and important ideas concerning the lateral generation of vegetables, and which may probably contri- bute to elucidate their fexual-generation. Thefe are, firft, that the parts of the long caudex of each new bud of anangrafted tree, and confequently of all trees, are feparated or fecreted from the corre- fpondent or adjoining parts of the long caudex of the laft year’s bud, which was its parent; and not that it confifts of the roots of each new bud fhot down from the plumula or apex of it, as I formerly fuppofed; and that thofe various molecules, or fibrils, fecreted from the caudex of the Jaft year’s buds, adjoin and grow together beneath the cuticle of the trunk of the tree, the upper ones forming the plu- mula of the mew bud, which is its leaf or lungs, to acquire oxygen from the atmofphere ; and the lower ones forming the radicles of it, which are abforbent veffels to acquire nutriment from the earth. * Secondly, that every part of the caudex of an ingrafted tree, and confequently of all trees, can generate or produce a new bud, when — the upper part of itis ftrangulated with a wire or cut off, or other- wife when it is fupplied more abundantly with nutriment, ventila- tion, andlight. And that each of thefe new buds thus produced R 2 refembies 124 ORGANS OF Secr. VII. 3, 6, refembles that part of the {tock in compound trees, where it arifes, Thus in the triple tree above mentioned a bud from the upper part of the long caudexes, which form the filaments of the bark, would become a golden pippin branch ; a bud from the middle part of them would become a nonpareil branch; and a bud from. the lower part a crab branch. Thirdly, another wonderful property of this lateral mule progeny of trees. compounded by ingraftment: confifts in this, that the new mule may confift of parts from three, or four, or many parents, when {o many different fcions are ingtafted on each other; whence a quef= tion may arife, whether a mixture of two kinds of anther-duft previ- ous to its application to the ftigma of flowers might not produce a threefold mule, partaking of the likenefs of both the males > 6. On this nice fubject of reproduction fo far removed from com= mon apprehenfion the patient reader will excufe a more prolix invef- tigation. The attraction of all matter to the centres of the planets, or of the fun, is termed gravitation; that of particular bodies to each other is generally called chemical affinity ; to which the attractions belonging to electricity and magnetifm appear to be allied. In thefe latter kinds of attraction two circumftances feem to be required ; firft, the power to attract poflefled by one of the bodies, and fecondly, the aptitude to be attratted poffefled by the other. Thus when a magnet attraéts iron, it may be faid'to poflefs a fpecific tendency to unite with the iron; and the iron may be faid to poffefs a fpecific aptitude to be united: with the magnet. The former appears to refide in the magnet, becaufe it can be deprived of its attractive power, which can alfo be reftored to it ; and the iron appears to pof- fefs a f{pecific aptitude to be united with the magnet, becaufe no. other metal will approach it. In the fame manner a rubbed ftick of fealing-wax may be faid to poffefs a {pecific tendency to unite with a light ftraw, but not with a glafs bead. Here the ftraw feems to poflefs.a {pecific aptitude to unite with the rubbed fealing-wax, becaule ; many that © ew Parents, Whey Vhence g quel. her -duft previe Not produce ; nales > ved from com. re prolix invel. “the planets, o bodies to each the attractions lied. ices feem tole of the bodies by the other. yoflets 2 spect e faid to polls , former ape of its attract raw fee x ecitl? -wa) 1g pill Sect. VII. 3.77 REPRODUCTION. 125 many other bodies refufe to do fo, as glafs, filk, air; and laftly, the {pecific attraction of the rubbed fealing-wax can be withdrawn or re- ftored; to which may be added, that fome chemical combinations may arife from the fingle-attraction of one body, and the aptitude to be attraéted of another; or they may be owing to reciprocal attrac- tions of the two bodies, as in what is termed by the chemifts double affinity, which is known to be fo powerful as to feparate thofe bo- dies, which are held together by the fingle attraction probably of one of them to the other, which other poffeffes only an aptitude to be at- traéted by the former. 7. The above account of the tendencies to union by unorganized or inanimate matter is not given as a philofophical analogy, but to facilitate our conception of the adjunctions or concretions obfervable in organized or animated bodies, which conftitute their formation, their nutrition, and their growth. Thefe may be divided into two kinds ; firft the junction or union of animated bodies with inanimate matter, as when fruit or fleth is {wallowed into the ftomach, and be- comes abforbed by the laéteals; and the fecond, where living parti- cles coalefce or concrete together, as in the formation, nutrition, or conjunétion of the parts of living animals. In refpect to the former, the animal parts, as the noftrils and palate, poftefs an appetency, when ftimulated by the feent and flavour of agreeable food, to unite themfelves with it; and the inanimate ma+ terial poffeffes an aptitude to be thus united with the animal organ. The fame occurs when the food is {fwallowed into the ftomach; the mouths of the laéteal veflels being agreeably ftimulated poffefs an ap- petency to abforb the particles of the digefting mafs, which is in-a fituation of undergoing chemical changes, and potfefles at fome pe- -riod of them an aptitude to: be united with the mouths of the abfor- bent lacteals. But when thefe abforbed particles of inanimate matter Have been circulated in the blood, they feem gradually to obtain a kind of vi- tality 5; 126 ORGANS OF Sect. VII. 3. 8, tality ; thence Mr. John Hunter, and] believe ,fome ancient philo~ fophers, and the divine Mofes,' afferted, that the blood is alive; that is, that ‘it poffefles fome degree of organization, or other properties different from thofe of inanimate matter, which are not producible by any chemical procefs, and which ceafe to exift along with the life of the animal. -Hence ‘for the purpofe of nutrition there is reafon te fufpe&, ‘that two circumftances are neceflary, both dependent upon life, and confequent activity ; thefe are -firft an appetency of the fibrils of the fixed organization, which wants nutrition; and fe- condly, a propenfity of the fluid molecules exifting inthe blood, or fecreted from it, to unite with the organ now ftimulated into ation. Sothat nutrition may be faid to be affeéted by the embrace or cohe- fion of the fibrils, which poffefs nutritive appetencies, with the molecules, which poffefs nutritive propenfities. 8. If the philofepher, who thinks on this fubjeét, fhould not be inclined to believe that the whole of the blood is alive; he can not eafily deny life to that part of it which is fecreted by the organs of generation, and conveys vitality tothe new embryon, which it pro- duces. Hence though in the procefs of nutrition the activity of two kinds of fibrils or molecules may be fufpected, yet in the procefs of the generation of a new vegetable or animal, there feems great reafon to believe, that both the combining and combined -particles are en- dued with vitality ; that .is, with fome degree of organization or other properties not exifting in inanimate matter, which we beg leave to denominate fibrils with formative appetencies, and roles with formative propenfities, as the former may feem to pofflefs a greater degree of organization than the latter. And thus it appears, that though nutrition may be conceived to be produced by the animated fibrils of an organized part being ftimu- lated into a€tion by inanimate molecules, which they then embrace, and may thus be popularly compared to the fimple attractions of chemifiry ; yet that in the produdtion of a new embryon, whe- ther 1 dis alive ‘ - op Produg Ng W ith the li ere js Teafon., dependent j ™ rpetency of 4, rition : ; and § in the bi blood, » lated into Bin mabrace or coh. ACies, with thy fhould not he ive; he cannot y the organs 0 Dy which it pros e activity of tw in the proceld ems great realdl sarticles are el nization o oth ve beg leave ld : nl A Sect. VII. 3. 8. REPRODUCTION, | ¥27 ther vegetable or animal, both the fibrils with forma itive appetencies, and i molecules with formative propenfities, recriprocally {timulate and embrace each other, and inftantly coalefce, and may thus popu- larly be compared to the double affinities of chemiftry. But there are animal faés, which refemble both thefe,. and are thence more philofophically analogous to them ;, and thefe are the two great fup ports of animated nature, the paffions of hunger and of love. In tHe former the appetency refides only in the feteaclis or perhaps in the cardia ventriculi, but the objeét confifts of inanimate matter ; in the latter reciprocal appetencies and propenfities exift in the male and fe- male, which: mutually excite them to embrace each other. Two other animal facts are equally analogous ;. the thirft, which refides at the-upper end of the efophagus, and though it poffeffes appetency it~ felf,, its obje& is inanimate matter ; but in la€tefcent. females, when: they. give fuck to their young, there exifts a reciprocal appetency in the mother to part with her ull and in. the young offspring to re= Celve-it. This then finally I conceive to be the manner of the production of the lateral progeny of vegetables. ‘The long caudex of an exifting bud ofia tree,.which conftitutes a fingle flament of the prefent bark,, is furnifhed with glands numerous: as the perfpirative or mucous: glands of animal bodies:; and that thefe are of two kinds, the one fe« ereting from the vegetable blood the fibrils with formative appeten- cies,. cotrefpondent to the mafculine fecretion of animals; and the other fecreting from the vegetable blood the molecules with forma- tive propenfities, correfpondent to the feminine fecretion ef animals 3 andithen that both thefe kinds of formative particles are depofited ‘be- neath the cuticle of the bark along the whole courfe of it, and nearly at the fame time by the fympathy of the fecreting organs, and in- {tantly embrace and coalefce, forming anew caudex along the fide of its parent’ with vegetable life, and’ with the additional powers of nu- trition, and of growth. 4 9. This 128 ORGANS OF Sect. VIL. 3. 9, 10, 9. This then is the great fecret of nature; more living particles are produced by the powers of vitality in the fabrication of the vege- table blood, than are neceffary for nutrition or reftoration of decom- pofing organs. Thefe are fecreted, and detruded externally, and produce by their combination a new vital organization beneath the cuticles of trees over the old one. ‘Thefe new combinations of vital fibrils and molecules acquire new appetencies, or fabricate molecules with new propenfities, and thus poffefs the power of forming the leaf or lungs at one extremity of the new caudex; and the radicles, or abforbent veffels at the other end; and fome of them, a in the central buds which terminate the branches, finally form the fexual or- gans of reproduction, which conftitute the flower. That new organizations of the growing fyftem acquire new ap- petencies appears from the production of the paffion for generation, as foon as the adapted organs are complete; and from the defire of laétefcent females to fuckle their offspring, and alfo from the variation of the palate, or defire for particular kinds of food, as we advance in life, as from milk to flefh. Thus as a popular allufion, and not as a philofophical analogy, we may again be allowed to apply to the combinations of chemiftry ; where two different kinds of particles unite, as acids and alkalies, a third fomething is produced, which poffeffes attractions diffimilar to thofe of either of them; and that new organizations form new molecules appears from the fecretions of the feminal and uterine glands, when they have acquired their maturity ; and from the breafts of lactefcent females, to. In the lateral propagation of vegetable buds as the fuperfluous fibrils or molecules, which were fabricated in the blood, or detached from living organs, and poflefs nutritive or formative appetencies and propenfities, and which were more abundant than were required for the nutrition of the parent vegetable bud, when it had obtained its full growth, were fecreted by innumerable glands on the various parts of its furface beneath the general cuticle of the tree, and there em- bracing on beneath th Nations Of rity ricate Molecy|s of forming i aNd the radics them, a8 in hs m the fexual. ACqUITE New a. for generatiay, ym the defire of om the variation is we advance i ifion, and nota to apply to the nds of patticls produced, wc them ; and i n the fecretiot e acquired thet 8 fuperfivo® or detach! Sect. VII. 3. 11. REPRODUCTION. 129 bracing and coalefcing, form a new embryon caudex, which gra- dually produces a new plumula and radicles. And as the different parts of the new caudex of a compound tree refemble the parts of the parent caudex, to which it adheres, it was fhewn, beyond all doubt, that different fibrils or molecules were detached from different parts of the parent caudex to form the filial one. So in the fexual propagation of vegetables the fuperfluous living fibrils, or molecules, floating in the blood, appear to be fecreted from it by two kinds of glands only ; thofe which conftitute the anthers, and thofe which conftitute the pericarp of flowers. By the former I fuppofe the fibrils, with formative appetencies and with nutritive ap- petencies, to be fecreted ; and by the latter the molecules, with for- mative and with nutritive propenfities. Afterwards that thefe fibrils with formative and nutritive appetencies, become mixed in the peri- carp or uterus of the flower, with the correfpondent molecules with formative and nutritive propenfities ; and that a new embryon is in- {tantly produced by their reciprocal embrace and coalefcence. And that parts of this new organization afterwards acquire new appe- tencies, and form molecules with new propenfities, and thus gradually produce other parts of the growing feed, which do not at firft ap- pear, as the plumula, radicles, cuticle, and the glands of reproduc- tion in the pericarp and anthers, which correfpond in the animal fetus to the lungs, inteftines, cuticle, and the organs, which diftin- guifh the fexes. 11, From this new doétrine of a threefold vegetable mule by la- teral propagation, as the new bud on the fummit of a tree, which has had two f{cions ingrafted on it one above another, in which it is inconteftibly fhewn, that different fibrils, or molecules, are detached from different parts of the parent caudex to form the filial one, which adheres to it; and that it then acquires the power of producing new radicles, or a new plumula; we may fafely conclude, as it is dedu- cible from the ftrongeft analogy, that in the production of fexual S mules, 130 ORGANS OF Sect. VII. 3. 12. mules, whether vegetable or animal, fome parts of the new embryon were produced bigs? or detached from, fimilar parts of the parent, which they refemble. And that as thefe fibrils, or molecules, floated in the circulating blood of their parents, they were collected fepa- rately by appropriated glands of the male or female ; and that finally, on their mixture in the matrix the new embryon was immediately eenerated, refembling in fome parts the form of the father, and in other parts the form ok the mother, according to the quantity or ac- tivity of the fibrils or molecules at the time of their conjun@tion. And laftly, that various parts of the new organizations afterwards acquired new appetencies, and formed molecules with new propen- fities, and thus gradually produced other parts of the growing fetus, as the fkin, ‘nails, hair, and the organs which diftinguifh the fexes. If the molecules fecreted by the female organ into the pericarp of flowers, or into the ovary of animals, were fuppofed to confit of only unorganized or inanimate particles ; and the fibrils fecreted by -the male organ only to poflefs formative appetencies to felect and com- bine with them; the new embryon muft probably have always re-_ fembled the father, and no mules could have had exiftence. But by the theory above delivered it appears, that the new off- {pring, both in vegetable and animal reproduction, whether it be a mule or not, call fometimes more refemble the male parent, and fometimes the female one, and fometimes appear to be a combination of them both, as the epigram of Martial : Dum dubitat natura gravis puerum faceretne puellam, Factus.es, O pulcher, pene puella, puer. 12. The certain proof above given, that fome parts of the triple caudex-of the new bud of a tree, which has been compounded by in- graftment, are formed from fimilar parts of the triple caudex of the parent bud, carries us one ftep further back into the myfterious pro- cefs nd that ™ : imomediy ather, ang i QUantity or 5. OD uN Gioy, ions afterward 1 DEW prope. oTOWing ety ifh the (ores, the pericarp of d to confit o ils fecreted by ave always It tence. t the new oft Aether it be: ale parent, a e a combinatia -jlam, “de . of the arts of t vit 2 fa U ‘ ppour oft Sect. VII. 3.122 REPRODUCTION. 131 cefs of reproduction, and fomewhat countenances the ingenious con- jectures of monfieur Buffon. And the analogy here obferved, that as in chemical union there muft be fome particles of inanimate matter with attractions, and others with aptitudes to be attracted ; fo in the conjun@tions of animated particles in the nutrition or formation of organized beings, there muft exitt fibrils or molecules with forma- tive or nutritive appetencies, and others with formative or nutritive aptitudes or propenfities, one of which may be fecreted by the male, and the other by the female parent, may facilitate our reafoning upon this dark fubjeét, which will be refumed and enlarged upon in the next edition of Zoonomia, in the fection on generation. S2 SECT. 132 MUSCLES, NERVES, BRAIN. Sscr. VIII, 1. | the! i wh par ¢ S£eT, Mil. sae ; ftist I. THE MUSCLES, NERVES, AND BRAIN OF VEGETABLES. it f or ! 1. Vegetable mufcles evinced by their clofing their corols, and calyxes, and moving their hole leaves in confequence of ftimulus. Hence alfo vegetable nerves both of fenfe and mo- the tion. When one part of a leaf of mimofa ts touched the whole leaf falls. Hence ] alfo a vegetable brain or common fenforium. 2. Their irritability foewn by the ab- ide Sorption, and circulation of their fluids. By elettric foocks. By the afcent of fap- b juice. 3. Their fenfibility foewn by the collaps of mimofa. By clofing their petals - from defeét of ftimulus, as in darkne/s and cold. By the males and females bending of to cach other, 4. Their volition fhewn from hedyfarum gyrans. From polymorpha i marchantia. From tendrils of vines. From their fleep. 5. Their affociations of be motion foewn by their clofing their petals, performing abforption and circulation of be fiuids. Their acquired habits. Grains and roots from the fouth vegetate fooner. le Apple-trees. Senfitive plant. Berberry. 6. Vegetables poffe/s a fenfe of beat, p fi of light, and of moifture, and confequently poffe/s a brain or common fenforium. C 7. They poffe/s a Jenfe of touch and a common fenforium. 8%. How do the anthers Py and ftigmas find each other ? by afenfe of fmell, Adultery of collinfonia. 9. From fi their abforptions, fecretions, Jenfes, love and fleep, they muft poffé/s a brain. Does this refide in the pith of each individual bud ? bi n 1. THE various motions of peculiar parts of vegetables evince the “9 exiftence of mufcles and nerves in thofe parts, fuch as the clofing of q their petals, and calyxes, at the approach of night, or in cold or wet 8 weather ; though the fibres and nerves, which conftitute thefe mufcles, h are too fine for anatomical demonftration. . Some vegetables fold the older leaves over the new buds at the ex- tremity of their ftalks during the night, as alfine, chickweed ; others, as the mimofa, fenfitive plant, fold the upper or polifhed fides of their i Si Vay ETABLEs Sy Git i d Moving thew #9 Of Jenfe ang » t leaf falls, 1, ne falls, Hay Ly foewn } Ly Joewn by the g. by the aj — Ghee of ) chOfing their pon and females benjn : ) ka f » From Polymorply Their affociatios ¢ etr affociations ¢ n and circulation i uth vegetate fun fiefs a fene of be - commen fenforitt How do the ante ollinfonta. 9 Frew ffefs 4 brain. Des ables evince u okweed | is y Ssct. VIII. 2. .MUSCLES, NERVES, BRAIN. ea their leaves together during their fleep. The hedyfarum gyrans whirls its leaves in various directions, when the air is ftill, by an ap- parently voluntary effort, probably for the purpofe of refpiration. The dionoea mufcipula, Venus’s fly-trap, clofes its leaves from the {timulus of infe@s, which crawl upon them, and pierces them with its prickles. And the apocynum androfemifolium contraéts its petals or neétaries round the probofcis of the flies, which ftimulate it, and | holds them till they die, or till the fleep of the plant releafes them by the relaxation of its mufcular action. From thefe circumftances it appears, that there are not only muf- cles about the moving foot-ftalks or claws of the leaves and ‘petals above mentioned; but that thefe mufcles muft be endued with nerves of fenfe as well as of motion. Now, as when one part of a leaf of mimofa is touched, the whole leaf falls, it follows, that there muft be a common fenforium, or brain, where the nerves communicate, belonging to this one leaf-bud. To evince this further another leaf- let was flit with tharp fciflars, and fome feconds of time elapfed, be- fore the plant feemed fenfible of the injury and then the whole plant collapfed as far as the principal ftem. Afterwards a fmall drop of oil of vitriol was put on the bud in the bofom of a leaf of another fen- fitive plant ; and, after about half a minute, when the brain of this bud could be fuppofed to be deftroyed, the whole leaf fell, and rofe no more. If the individual buds of plants poffefs mufcles and nerves with a brain, or common fenforium; the following queftions confe- quently occur, and fhould be an{wered in the affirmative. Have ve- getable buds irritability ? have they fenfation ? have they volition ? have they affociations of motion? Iam perfuaded they poffefs them all, though in a much inferior degree even than the cold blooded animals. 2. The irritability of vegetable fibres is demonftrated by the ab- forption and circulation of their fluids in their roots, leaves, and pe- tals; which can not be explained by any mechanic law, and exactly correfponds 134 MUSCLES, NERVES, BRAIN. Sect. VII. 3. eorre{ponds with the abforption of the aliment, and the circulation of the blood in animals ; which Phyfiologifts have demonftrated to des pend on the mufcular motions of the veffels themfelves, which pof- fefs irritability, and are excited into aGtion by the ftimulus of the fluids, which they acquire or ‘contain. The irritability of vegetable veffels is fhewn by a curious experi- ment of Von Uflar, who paffed {trong electric fhocks through a plant of euphorbia, fo as to deftroy the life of the plant; and he then ob- ferved on cutting off a branch, that it did not bleed ; though a fimilar branch cut off before the death of the plant -effufed much milky juice; whence he juftly concludes, that the ele€tric percuffion had deftroyed the irritability of the plant. | Mr. Cavallo afferts in his Treatife on Electricity, that he found by repeated experiments, that the plant balfam (impatiens) was deftroy- ed by lefs quantities of ele€tricity than any other vegetables, which he fubjeéted to it; and that on examining the plant afterwards no injury on the external or internal parts of it could be difcovered ; whence it may be concluded that the irritability fimply, and not the organization of the plant, was deftroyed by the unnatural quantity of ftimulus. He adds, that not only fhocks from fo finall a coated fur- face as fix or eight fquare inches, but even {trong {parks from a large conductor deftroyed thefe plants, which fometimes recovered inva day or two, but not frequently, See Sect, XIIE. 3. and Sea. XIV. 2. 3. of this work. The afcent of the fap-juice during the vernal months in the ex- periments both of Hales and Walker, being retarded or quite topped during the cold parts of the day, and in the: night ;. and on the north fide of the tree in cool:days, when it continued to flow on the fouth fide, can only be afcribed to the irritability of the vegetable veffels being decreafed by the deficient ftimulus of heat. See this fubjeét further treated of in Se&. XIV. 1. 10, 0f this-work. 3. Uhe fenfibility of fibres is diftinguithed' from their irritability LT, Vit CUlation ¥ ed tg de Which mt lus of the 10u§ Exper. ugh a plan he then oh, igh a fimily nuch milky rcuffion had he found by was deftroy. ables, which fterwards no ; difcovered; and not the ] quantity o a coated fur from a large rered in day t, XIV. 23 » eabilitf ew sepita Y Seer, VIL, 3. | MUSCLES, NERVES, BRAIN. 135 by the pain or pleafure, which precedes or attends any animal action; and therefore fuppofes the exiftence of a common fenfor:um; now when one divifion of a leaf of mimofa is injured by a wound or touch, sna fhort time the whole leaf clofes, which is owing to the a€tions of the diftant mufcles about the footftalks of the fubdivifions of the leaf. Does not this prove, that there is a brain or common fenfo- rium, where the nerves communicate in fome part of this bud or leaf, as the injury of one diftant part of it thus affedts the whole? or in other words, that the difagreeable fenfation is propagated from a part to the whole, and caufes the actions of fome diftant mufcles, in the fame manner as I draw away my hand when my finger is hurt ? There are mufcles placed about the foot-ftalks of the leaves or leaflets of many plants, for the purpofe of clofing their upper furfaces together, or of bending them down fo as to fhoot off the fhowers or dew-drops, as in fenfitive plant, mimofa ; kidney-bean, phafeolus ; and many trees. The claws of the petals, or of the divifions of the calyx of many flowers, are furnifhed in a fimilar manner with muf- cles, which are exerted to open or clofe the corol. and calyx of the flower, as in tragopogon, anemone. This action of opening and clof- ing the leaves or flowers does not appear to be produced fimply by ir- ritation on the mufcles themfelves, but by the connexion of thofe mufcles witha fenfitive fenforium, or brain, exifting in each individual bud or flower. 1ft. Becaufe many flowers clofe from defect of fti- mulus, not by the excefs of it, as by darknefs, which is the abfence of the ftimulus of light; or by cold, which is the abfence of the ftimulus of heat. Now the defect of heat, like the abfence of food, or of drink, affeéts our fenfes with pain, which had been pre- vioufly accuftomed to a greater quantity of them, and a cutaneous fhivering may be excited in confequence of the pain; but a mufcle cannot be faid to be ftimulated into agtion by a defect of ftimulus, _though fome modern writers on medicine have called cold a ftimulus to animal fibres, which it always renders torpid or inactive ; a theory 5 derived 136 MUSCLES, NERVES, BRAIN. _ Sscr. VIII. 4, derived from Galen, and which muft have originated in his total ig norance of chemiftry and natural philofophy. In fome flowers the males bend into conta& with the females, as in ciftus, kalmia, fritillaria perfica, lithrum falicaria; in others the female bends to the males, as in collinfonia, gloriofa, genifta, epilo- bium; which fhews a fenfibility to the paffion of reproduétion. In irritation the ftimulated mufcles only are brought into a@ion, with- out being perceived by the other parts of the fyftem; but in fen/ation the whole fyftem is affeéted by means of the brain or common fenfo~ rium, and thence very diftant mufcles are brought into aétion to ac- quire an agreeable object, or to repel or withdraw from a difagreeable one. See Zoonomia, Vol. I. Set. XIII. 2. 4. That plants poffefs in fome degree the power of volition would appear firft from the hedyfarum gyrans, which moves its leaves in circular dire&tions when the air is too ftill. Secondly, from the marchantia polymorpha, in which fome yellow wool advances from the flower-bearing anthers, while it drops its duft like atoms. Mur- ray’s Syftem of Vegetables. Thirdly, from the tendrils of vines, and the ftems of other climbing vegetables, which continue to move round, till they find fomething to adhere to, or till they have rolled themfelves up in a fpiral line like a cork-fcrew. And laftly, from the efforts of almoft all plants to turn the upper furface of their leaves, or their flowers, to the light. But there is an indubitable proof of plants poffeffing fome degree of voluntarity, and that is deduced from their fleep. In animal bodies fleep confifts in a fufpenfion or temporary abolition of voluntary power ; the organs of fenfe being at the fame time clofed, or by fome other means rendered unfit for the perception of external bodies. Now the fleep of plants is proved by the hanging down or clofing of the Jeaves of many plants, and of fhutting the petals and calyxes of many flowers in the dark, and their again opening or expanding them in the light, or at certain hours of the day. 5. In ut | in Senfatiy °MMon feng, action to ats a difacrecah) volition woul 3 its leaves in dly, from the advances from atoms. Mur 5 of vines, ald ynue to more ey have rolled id laftly, from of their leaves o fome degrtt ‘e) ‘ _ animal bodies Sect. VIII. 5,6. MUSCLES, NERVES, BRAIN. 137 5. In refpe& to vegetables acquiring affociations of motion, or ha- bits of action, the former is feen in the abforptions and circulations of their fluids, and in the various movements above defcribed ; which whirl their leaves or tendrils, and clofe or open their corols and ca- lyxes, which could not be performed without the fynchronous and aflociated a@tions of many mufcles; as in the abforptions and circu- lations ef animal bodies, and the movements of their limbs, Other acquired habits of vegetable actions appear from the grains and roots. brought from more fouthern latitudes, which germinate here fooner than thofe which are brought from more northern ones, owing to their acquired habits. Fordyce on Agriculture. And from the apple trees fent from hence to New York, which bloflomed for a few years too early for the climate, and bore no fruit; but after- wards learnt to accommodate themfelves to their new fituation. Tra- vels in New York by Profeflor Kalm. The divifions of the leaves of the fenfitive plant have been accuf- tomed to contra& at the fame time from the abfence of light ; hence if by any other circumftance, asa flight ftroke or injury, one divi- fion is irritated into contraction ; the neighbouring ones contraé alfo, from their motions being aflociated with thofe of the irritated part. So the various ftamina of the barberry have been accuftomed to con- traat together in the evening; and thence, if you ftimulate one of them with a pin, according to the experiment of Dr. Smith, they all contract from their acquired aflociations. 6. This leads us to a curious inquiry, whether vegetables poftefs , any organs of fenfe ? Certain it is, that they poffefs a fenfe of heat and cold, another of moifture and drynefs, and another of light and darknefs ; for they clofe their petals occafionally from the prefence of cold, moifture, or darknefs. And it has been already fhewn, that thefe actions cannot be performed fimply from irritation, becaufe cold and darknefs are defective quantities of our ufual ftimuli; and that on that account fenfation or volition are employed; and in confe- a % quence 138 MUSCLES, NERVES, BRAIN. Secr. VIII 4,8. quence a fenforium or union of the nerves muit exift. So when we go into the light, we contract the iris, not from any ftimulus of the light on the fine mufcles of the iris, but from its motions being af- fociated with the fenfation of too much light on the retina, which could not take place without a fenforium or center of union of the nerves of the iris with thofe of vifion. 7. Befides thefe organs of fenfe, which diftinguifh cold, moifture, and darknefs, the leaves of mimofa, and of dionzea, and of drofera, and the ftamens of many flowers, as of the barberry, and of the nu- merous clafs of fyngenefia, are fenfible to mechanic impact ; that is, ‘they poflefs a fenfe of touch ; and as many of their diftant mufcles are in confequence excited into ation, this alfo evinces, that they poffefs a common fenforium, by which this fenfation is co to the whole, and volition occafionally exerted. - 8. Laftly, in many flowers the anthers when mature approach the ftigma, in others the female organ approaches to the male. I afk, by what means are the anthers in many flowers, and ftigmas in other flowers, directed to find their paramours? Is this curious kind of ftorge produced by mechanic attraction, or by the fenfation of love? The latter opinion is fupported by the ftrongeft analogy, becaufe a reproduction of the f{pecies is the confequence ; and then another or= gan of fenfe muft be wanted to dire& thefe vegetable amourettes to find each other; one probably analagous to our fenfe of {mell, which in the animal world directs the new-born infant to its fource of nourifhment ; and in fome animals directs the male to the female ; and they may thus poffefs a faculty of perceiving as well as of pro- ducing odours. A moft curious example'of the exiftence of fome kind of fenfe, which may direét the piftils, or female parts of the flowers of col- linfonia, which way to bend for the purpofe of finding the mature males, is related in Botanic Garden, Vol. I. Canto IV. 1. 460, where fome of the piftils miftake the males, or {tamens, of the neighbouring flowers Anion of the Nd, Moifture id of drofer, 1d of the Dye “ pact 5 that i t mutcles ae it they poffef nicated to the approach the male. I ak, gmas in other rious kind of ation of love! oy; becaule a on) another 0 Je amourettss fe of fel t to its fourte Sect. VIII. 9. | MUSCLES, NERVES, BRAIN. 139 flowers for their own hufbands ; and bending into contaét with them become guilty of adultery. See Se&t. VII. 2. 2. of this work. 9. ‘Thus, befides a kind of tafte or appetency at the extremities of their roots, fimilar to that of the extremities of our lacteal veffels, for the purpofe of feleCting their proper food ; and befides different kinds - of irritability or appetency refiding in the various glands, which fepa- rate honey, wax, refin, and other juices from their blood; vegetable life feems to poflefs an organ of fenfe to diftinguifh the variations of leat, another to diftinguifh the varying degrees of moifture, another of light, another of touch, and probably another analogous to our fenfe | of fmell. To thefe muft be added the indubitable evidence of their paflion of love, and of their neceflity to fleep; and I think we may truly conclude, that they are furnithed with a brain or common fen- forium belonging to each bud. But whether this brain, or common fenforium, refides in the me- dulla, or pith, which occupies the central parts of every bud and leaf, like the {pinal marrow of animals, has not yet been certainly deter- mined. By this medulla is meant only the pith of each individual bud, not that which is feen in the center of a tree, which, like the wood which furrounds it, has long ceafed to have vegetable life. The pith, or medulla of each bud, is fuppofed by its elafticity to pufh out the central part of the bud; as the veficular productions on the infide of young quills are fuppofed to pufh forwards their early growth, and in fome birds are faid by Mr. Hunter to receive air from the lungs. It is more probable that this pith, or medulla oblongata of plants, fupplies the fpirit of vegetation, fince it exifts in all buds in their moft early ftate, and does not communicate from one bud to another, and thus diftinguifh them from each other, and evinces their individuality. See Sect. I, 8. and IX, 2.4. T 2 PHYTO- PHYTOLOGIA. PART FHE SECOND. ECONOMY OF VEGETATION. S EC T.- IX. THE GROWTH OF SEEDS, BUDS, AND BULBS. fF. 1. Szeps refemble eggs. 2. The embryon is of different maturity. The leaves wifible in fome feeds. 3. Why the plumula afcends and the root defcends. Is nou- rifbed by the feed-lobes, by the fruit. Becomes a dwarf if deprived of them. Melons and cucumbers are too luxuriant. Turnep-Jeed foould be new. 4. Seeds have hard foells, have acrid rinds with bitter or narcotic juices, but pure farch may be procured from them. 5. Umbilical veffels, and roots of feeds. Annual, biennial, and perennial plants. Refervoirs of nutriment in their roots. Al plants ave bi- ennials. Bulbs and buds fucceed each other many times before they flower. 6. Wheat. Stems and roots round the firft joint. Has no neftary. Is greatly increased by tranfplanting. II. 1. Buns are a viviparous progeny. Protetied by Seales and varnifh, Grow by piping with more heat and moifiure as they exbale le/s. Are individual, annual, or biennial plants. 2. Buds of herbs. Evergreens have- no bleeding feafon. 3. Buds of deciduous trees are in different fiates of maturity,, as in hepatica, daphne, ofinunda. Some buds are invifible. 4. Importance of the pith like the /pinal marrow ; it lines hollow fialks. §. Refervair of nutriment for buds. Their umbilical vefféls. 6. A bud contains many embryous. The firft leaf-buds often defiroyed by infetis. The flower-buds only injured by them. 7. Vi- gorous branches produce leaf-buds, weak ones flower-buds. Why feedling apples are long before they bear. Why pears bear only at their extremities. 8. New: buds ‘may be made either leaf-buds by lopping a part of the branch, or flower- buds ky bending the branch down, or cutting a ring in the bark, or frangulating f ak 142 SEEDS, BUDS, BULBS. _— Sec. IX. 1-1, it with a wire. Debarked oaks pullulate. Sap-juice in the alburnym. 9. A paufe in vegetation about midfummer. Trees then fecrete nutriment in their roots aid fap-wood for the new buds. Are then beft tranfplanted without lopping their branches. 10. Caudexes of the buds form the bark, whofe veffels inofeulate. Heart- wood dies. Sap-wood atis as umbilical veffels, and afterwards as capillary tubes, or as capillary fyphons. 11. Flower-buds perifh without increafing the bark by new caudexes. Are convertible into leaf-buds. Vegetable monfters. 12. Central part of an adult bud. WII. 1. Buss. Leaf-bulbs precede flower-bulbs in the tulip as leaf-buds in apple-trees, as joints in the flalk of wheat. Solitary ge- neration of infects. 2. Bulbs of onions. Orchis. Tulip. Hyacinth. Ranan- culus. Iris. 3. Roots of potatoes. Wares of firawberries. Seeds of orchis, Flowers of potatoes. 4. Stem-bulbs on magical onions are fimilar to root-bulbs. 5. Root-grafting. Root-inoculation. Root-propagation. Suckers of trees. Root- buds of herbaceous plants. Internal parts of which decay. 6. Tuberous roots of turnep and carrot are refervoirs of nutriment for the fucceeding flower-ftem. No Slower-bud is ever produced from a feed without previous leaf-buds. Why feedling apple-trees are ten or twelve years before they bear fruit. Magazines of aliment in almoft all roots. 7+ Ufe of the horfe-hoe to accumulate earth round the wheat- plants. Wheat dropped on the foil fhoots up but one fiem. Covered with the fril it fooots up many. And tranfplanted deeper in the foil many more. Potatoes, vines, and figs, produce lateral roots from their joints. So does the bark if wounded cir- cularly. Uje of eating down forward wheat with sheep. I. 1. Havine treated of the phyfiology, we now ftep forwards to contider the economy of vegetation, as far as it may ferve the pur- pofes of agriculture and gardening. | After the production of the feed, or vegetable ege in the pericarp of flowers, and its enfuing impregnation by the farina of the anthers fhed upon the ftigma, a coagulated point appears on the feed-lobes according to the obfervations of Spallanzani, like the cicatricula on the yolk of the egg. The feed continues to grow in the pericarp fuftained by adapted fecretions from the vegetable blood, which is previoufly oxygenated in the Seeds of orechis, ur £0 root-byl} of trees. Rey. uberous roots of wer-ftem. Ny s. Why feeding gzines of alimen ound the whttl- red with the fl Potatoes, vis, if qvounded ti P forwards 0 arve the pu" , the perical? of the anthes the {eed-lob6 cicatt jcula® cen oxYo ihe Sect. 1X.1.2,3- | SEEDS, BUDS, BULBS. ve fo the braétes or floral-leaves of many plants; in others the feed is it- felf inclofed in an ait-veflel probably for that purpofe, as in ftaphylea, bladder nut, and tagetes, African marygold. At the fame time a re- fervoir of nutriment is fecreted, and depofited in the feed-lobes or co-~ tyledons, which are fingle ones in the feeds of palms, grafles, and lilies ; though twofold in thofe of moft other herbs and trees; whence the ftricteft analogy exifts between feeds and eggs. 2. In fome feeds, when they leave the vegetable uterus, this eme bryon is much more mature than in others. In the feeds of the nymphza nelumbo the leaves of the future plant were feen fo dif- tinétly by Mr. Ferber, that he found out by them to what plant the feeds belonged. The fame in the feeds of the tulip-tree, lirioden- dron tulipiferum.» Amen. Acad. V. VI. No. 120. And Mr. Baker afferts, that-on diffecting a feed of trembling grafs, he difcovered by the microfcope a perfect plant with roots fending forth two branches, from each of which feveral leaves or blades of grafs proceeded. Mi- crofc. Vol. Is p. 252." While in other feeds the corculum, or heart only of the feed, is diftinétly vifible, as in the kernel of the walnut, and the feed of the garden-bean. So in the animal kingdom the young of fome birds are much more matureat their birth than thofe of others, The chickens of pheafants, quails, and partridges, can ufe their eyes, run after their mothers, and peck their food, almoft as foon as they leave their fhell; but thofe of the linnet, thrufh, and blackbird, con- tinue many days totally blind, and can only open their callow mouths for the offered morfel. 3. When the feed falls naturally upon the earth, or is buried arti- ficially in fhallow trenches beneath the foil, the firft three things ne= ceflary to its growth are heat, water, and air. Heat is the general - caufe of fluidity, without which no motion can exit; water is the menftruum, in which the nutriment of vegetable and animal bodies is conveyed to their various, organs; and the oxygen of the atmo- {phere is believed to afford the principle of excitability fo perpetually neceflary 644 SEEDS, BUDS, BULBS: Seer. IX. 1.3, neceflary to all organic life; and which renders the living fibres both » of the vegetable and animal world obedient tothe ftimuli, which are uaturally applied to them. | Whence we may in fome meafure comprehend a difficult quef- tion; why the plume of a feed fowed upon, or in the earth, fhould afcend, and the root defcend, which has been afcribed to a myfterious inftin@; the plumula is ftimulated by the air into action, and elon- gates itfelf, where it is thus moft excited ; and the radicle is ftimu- lated by moifture, and elongates itfelf thus, where it is moft excited, whence one of them grows upwards in queft of its adapted objeé, and the other downward. The firft fource of nutriment fupplied to the feminal embryon, af- ter it falls from the parent plant, exifts in.the feed-lobes, or cotyle- dons, which either remain beneath the earth, and are permeated by the umbilical veflels of the embryon plant, which abforb the muci- laginous, farinaceous, or oily matter depofited in them, as in the bean} pifum ; or the feed-lobes rife up into the air along with the young | plant, as in the kidney-bean, phafeolus, become feed-leaves, and ferve both as a nutritive and refpiratory organ. Thefe cotyledons or feed- lobes generally contain mucilage, as in quince-feed ; or ftarch, as in wheat; or oil, as in line-feed. Some of thefe nutritive materials are probably abforbed unchanged, or diffolved only by the moifture of the earth; others are converted into fugar partly by a chemical procefs, and partly by the digeftive powers of the young plant, as ap- pears in the procefs of germinating barley, and converting it into malt ; thefe refervoirs of nutriment are hence perfectly analogous to the white of the egg, a part of which is probably abforbed unchanged by the lymphatics of the young embryon, and a part of it converted into a fweet chyle for the nourifhment of the chick, when it has acquired a ftomach. ‘If the feed be deprived of thefe cotyledons, foon after the root ap- pears, it will continue to grow, but with lefs vigour, and is {aid to pro- duce Roy. lx AL}, ine i "hs i I difficy} " > arth, thy - a My fet, . Ole dicle is 4 imy. S Mok excita ) adapted Objet, il embryon, x. bes, or Cotyles > permeated dy forb the mu as in the bea vith the young saves, and ferv: Jedons or feel: or ftarch, asi itive materia sy the moiltur by a chemicd ig plant, 377 verting | into ys 0 Jy analoge “Y oe Sect. TX. 1. 3 SEEDS, BUDS, BULBS. 145 duce a dwarf plant from three to nine times lefs than the parent. Hence the feeds of plants, which are liable to produce too vigorous roots, and thence have not time to ripen their fruits in the fhort fum- mers of this climate, or which fill our hot-beds with too luxuriant fo- liage, as melons, and cucumbers, fhould in this climate be kept three or four years; by which part of the mucilaginous, or farinaceous, or oily matter of the cotyledons becomes injured or decayed, and the new plant grows lefs luxuriantly. : Another fource of nutriment for the feminal embryon of many. plants exifts in the fruit, which envelopes the ftone or feed-veffel, after the growing fetus has burft its confinement, and fo far re- fembles the yolk of the egg, which becomes a nutriment to the chick, after it has confumed the white, and eloped from its fhell. When mature fruit, as an apple or a cucumber, falls upon the ground, it fupplies, as it ripens or decays, a fecond fource of nou- rifhment, which enables the inclofed feeds to fhoot their roots into the earth, and to elevate their ftems with greater vigour. Hence fruits generally contain a faccharine matter, or juices capable of be- ing converted into fugar, either by a {pontaneous chemical procefs, as in baking four apples; or by a vegetable procefs, as in thofe four pears, which continue to ripen for many months both before and af- ter they are plucked from the tree, as long as life remains in them ; that is, till they ferment or putrify ; and laftly, by the digeftive power of the young embryon, as above mentioned. If the feed be deprived of the fruit, it will indeed vegetate, but with lefs vigour. Hence thofe feeds which are liable to produce too vigorous fhoots for this climate, as the feeds of melons and cucum- bers, fhould be wafhed clean from their pulp, before they are hoard- ed, and. preferved three or four years" before they are fown in hot beds. But thofe feeds, which are fown late in the feafon for the pur- pofe of producing winter fodder, as the feeds of turneps, fhould be colleéted and preferved with every poffible advantage; and on this U account 146 SEEDS, BUDS, BULBS. Sect. IX. 1.4, 5, account new feed is much to be preferred to that which has been long kept. 4. Many feeds when mature are difperfed far from the parent, tree, for the purpofe of their growth, by various contrivances, as men- tioned in Seé&t. VII. 2. 5. Some of thefe are furrounded with hard fhells, which are impenetrable by infeéts, as they lie on the earth to take root, as peaches, nectarines, nuts, cocoa-nuts. Other feeds are furnifhed with an acrid covering to prevent the depredation of infects, as the peel of oranges and lemons, the outward hufk and inward rind of walnuts, and of cafhew-nuts, and the fkin of muftard-feed, and rape-feed ; other feeds for the fame purpofe abound with bitter or narcotic juices, as the horfe-chefnut, acorn, apricot, cherry, many of which fupply materials to the fhops of medicine, and may fupply nu- triment in times of fcarcity; as the ftarch, which they contain, may be procured by grating them into cold water, and wafhing away the mucilage, and the poifonous material, which adheres to it, or which is foluble in water. 5. The plumula of the feed, or embryon plant, abforbs the nutri- ment laid up for it in the feed-lobes by veffels, which permeate them for that purpofe, and have been termed umbilical veffels; and after- wards fhoots its roots down into the fruit, or into the earth, in fearch of other nourifhment ; and expands its leaves in the air as an organ of re{piration. : Thofe plants, which are ufually termed annuals, produce their flowers and die in the fame year in which their feeds are fown; as barley, oats, and a variety of garden flowers. Thefe neverthelefs in accurate language fhould be termed biennials, becaufe the feed in this climate is produced in one {ummer ; and the embryon plant be- comes mature in the next; as the feed is generally preferved in our granaries, or feed-boxes, and not committed to the ground till the en- fuing {pring ; for many of thefe vegetables are not natives of this climate, TY. a hich hag bes ne Parent te ne a te, Jed. with . on the earth Jther fees, i ation of Inet bd inward 5 | tard-feed, and b with bitter ¢ herry, many nay fupply ny y Contain, my nd fhing away the to it, or which forbs the nutri permeate them Tels ; and alter earth, 10 feat ir as an organ" ; 5 are fowns® nevertneles? Sect. IX. 1.5.’ SEEDS, BUDS, BULBS. 147 climate, and would perifh if the feeds were fown in autumn, when it is naturally fcattered on the earth. Thofe which are ufually termed biennial plants, differ from the former, firft in the time of fowing the feed, which is generally in the early autumn, as foon as it is ripe, as of turneps, carrots, wheat ; and thus thefe produce their flowers in the fecond year after the feed is fown, which has given them the name of biennials. Many of thefe plants, perhaps all of them, lay up a refervoir of nutritious matter’ during the fummer or autumn in their roots. This nutriment is fecreted from the vegetable blood, which is previoufly oxygenated for that purpofe in the large leaves, which generally {urround the caudex of the plant, as in turneps and carrots. Thefe leaves furvive the winter in many plants, which the more fucculent ftems probably would not ; and the nutriment depofited in the root is expended in the growth of the {tem and the production of feed in the enfuing {pring. As in thefe vegetables one of our fummers is too fhort for their growth from the feed to the fruétification ; and it is for this refervoir of nutriment that thefe plants are generally cultivated. _ But thofe plants, which are termed perennial, when firft raifed from feed, are many of them fome years before they produce flowers. Some of them form bulbous roots, as the tulip, hyacinth, onion, which are three or four years before they flower, during which time I believe all the bulbs die annually, producing one larger than that of the preceding year, and perhaps fome fmaller ones, all which an- nually increafe in fize till they flower. ‘The fame occurs in potatoe- roots raifed from feed, which do not flower as I am informed till the third year, and then only thofe which feemed of ftronger or for- warder growth. i 3 Other perennial plants have palmated or branching roots ; in fome of thefe, as in feedling apple-trees, the flower is faid not to appear till ten or twelve years after the feed is fown; the buds neverthelefs annually dying and producing other buds over them, perhaps more Ea perfect 148 SEEDS, BUDS, BULBS. — Sect. IX. 1. 5. perfec: ones, as they acquire after a few years the power of produc- ing fexual organs, and in confequence a feminal progeny. — In thefe perennial herbaceous plants and trees a magazine of nutriment is pro- vided in their roots or fap-wood, to fupply the new buds, which are to grow in the enfuing fpring. Whence it appears, that all the vegetables of this climate may be termed biennial plants; as the feeds of fome, and the buds or bulbs of others, are produced in one fummer, and flourifh and die in the next ; thofe which are called annuals or biennials leaving behind them a future progeny of feeds only; thofe, which are termed perennial herbaceous plants, leaving behind them the firft year or two a pro- geny of bulbs or root-buds only, and afterwards a progeny of feeds alfo; while the perennial arborefcent vegetables leave behind them a progeny of buds only for feveral fucceflive years, and afterwards a progeny of both buds and feeds. Thus the bulb from a tulip-feed produces a more perfe& bulb an- nually, till it flowers, I believe, on the fifth year. It then produces a flower, and alfo one perfect bulb, which flowers the next year ; and fome other lefs perfect bulbs, which are fucceeded by more perfect ones annually, till they alfo flower. Whence I conclude, that no tulip bulb flowers till the fourth or fifth generation. It is probable, that a fimilar circumftance occurs in other vegeta- bles, as in apple-trees ; and that the buds of thefe do not produce fexual organs, and a confequent feminal progeny, till the twelfth or fourteenth generation of the bud from the feed ; each of thofe buds neverthelefs producing one principal bud annually more perfeé& than itfelf, and many lateral buds lefs perfeé than itfelf ; that is, at a greater diftance from that ftate of maturity which enables it to form a flower. This art of diftinguifhing the greater or lefs maturity of buds is a matter of great importance in the management of fruit-trees, as in many of them the central bud becomes a fpur one year, and flowers the -- paeaeyt Bie th a> oO \ are } fan} oe | Cis Dp Mn and die in th & behind then ‘Med perenni Or twoa Dro geny of feel behind them, 1 afterwards ; erfe& bulb 2. then produce the next year; yy more perfet clude, that 29 1 other vege Sect. 1X.1.6. SEEDS, BUDS, BULBS. 149 the next ; and the lateral buds one or two years afterwards, as will be mentioned in Sect. XV. on the prodution of fruit. 6. In wheat there exifts about the caudex a refervoir of nutritious juices depofited in the autumn for the purpofe of raifing the ftem in the enfuing fpring like that of turneps and carrots ; but which +s attended with other circumftances peculiar I fuppofe to the graffes, and other plants, which poffefs only one cotyledon or feed-lobe. The early leaf, which furrounds the firft joint of the ftem, withers, as the | {pring advances; in which joint it had previoufly depofited a faccha- rine juice, and probably fome new embryon buds were at the fame time generated in the caudex ; for through this withered leaf, which furrounds the firft joint of the ftem within the earth, a circular fet of new ftems iffue adhering to it, and a circle of roots below them ad- hering to the caudex or bafe of it. Thefe new buds rife into air, and fhoot their roots into the earth; and in this manner many ftems are produced in the fpring from one feed fowed in the autumn preced- ing; though in fome kinds of wheat the whole procefs of the feed rifing from earth, and producing other {tems round the principal one, and of ripening its feeds, may be performed in one fummer even in this northern climate. Another peculiarity attends the growth of wheat and other graffes; the leaf, which furrounds and ftrengthens the ftem by its foot-ftalk, depofits at every jower joint a faccharine matter for the purpofe of nourifhing the afcending part of the young ftem; and in the upper- moft joint, I fuppofe, to ferve inftead of honey for the ftamens and ftigmas, as their flowers have no vifible neétary; and as the fcales of the flower may with good reafon be efteemed a calyx rather than a corol, according to the opinion of Mr. Milne; as thefe fcales attend the feed-veffel to its maturity, which the corol does not. Milne’s Bo- tanical Dig. Art. Gramina. Owing to this fecretion of faccharine matter at the foot-ftalk of every leaf, and its collection round the joints of graffes, it happens that 150 SEEDS, BUDS, BULBS. Secr. IX, 22:5; that when thefe joints are furrounded with moift earth, and are plac- ed but a certain depth from the air, that new buds will put forth round thefe joints, and ftrike their roots into the foil. Whence the agrarian hufbandman may derive great advantage from tran{planting his wheat, after it has produced a circle of new {tems from the firft joint of the {traw ; for if he then parts and replants them an inch or two deeper in the ground, fo as to cover the firft joint of each of thefe additional ftems, he may multiply every one of them four or fix times, and thus obtain twenty or thirty {tems from one original feed. See No. III. 1. and 7. of this fe¢tion. II. 1. Other vegetable embryons are produced in the buds on the {tems or branches of trees, which may be termed the viviparous pro- geny of plants, in contradiftinction to thofe from feeds, which may be termed their oviparous progeny. Thefe buds are either leaf-buds or flower-buds, or both in one covering; the bud is termed hyber- naculum, or winter-cradle, of the embryon fhoot, and is covered with {cales, and often with a refinous varnifh, as in tacamahacca, to pro- tea it from the cold and moifture of the enfuing winter, and from the depredation of infects, Thefe by inoculation or ingrafting on other {tems of trees, or by being planted in the earth, become plants exactly fimilar to their pa- rents. A {mall glafs inverted over thefe buds, when fet in the earth, contributes to infure their growth by preventing too great an exhalation ; otherwife they are liable to perfpire more than they can abforb, before they have acquired roots 5 this the gardeners call pip- ing a flip, or a cutting, of a plant. In this fituation a greater heat as in hothoufes, without increafing their quan- which ceafes as foon as the air in the glafs is fa- and the increafe of heat much contributes to may be given them, tity of perfpiration, turated with moifture ; the protrufion of their roots and new buds, as they can at the fame time bear to be fupplied with a greater quantity of moifture. Every bud of moft of the deciduous trees of this climate may there- 8 fore T.Ty a | Mate Dac, Put fort V henee the @Niplanting M the fr 1 an Inch " of each of 1m four or NE original buds on the iparous pro- which may er leaf-buds ‘med hyber- sovered with cca, to pro- r, and from trees, of by to their p* fet in the too great al Sect. IX. 2. 2. SEEDS, BUDS, BULBS. Psy fore be confidered as an individual biennial plant, as diftinétly fo as a feed; that is, the bud like a {eed is formed in one fummef, grows to maturity in the next, and then dies. In fome trees neverthelefs of _this climate, as the mock orange, philadelphus, acacia, viburnum ;. and in the evergreen fhrubs or trees, as holly, laurel, vinca, heath, and rue; and in all thofe herbs commonly called annuals ; and in moft of the trees of warmer climates; the buds appear to be formed in the vernal months, and to arrive at their maturity during the fame year; and may therefore properly be called annual plants. 2, The bud of thefe herbs, which are commonly called annuals, rifes in the bofom of a leaf; and, as it adheres to its parent, requires. no female apparatus to nourifly it, but gradually {trikes down roots from its caudex into the ground, which caudex forms a part of the bark of the increafing plant. ‘Fhis occurs in thofe herbaceous vege- tables, which have juft rifen from feeds; the buds of which are pro- perly individual annual plants, which grow to maturity adhering to. the parent, and do not therefore refemble a feed. or egg, as there is. no refervoir of nutriment laid up for them.. This circumftance alfo happens, I fuppofe, to the evergreen fhrubs. and trees of this climate, as to heath, rue, box, pine, laurel; for in: thefe vegetables, as the leaf does not die in the autumn, it continues: to oxygenate the blood, and to fupply nourifhment to the bud in its. bofom during the fine days of winter, and in the fpring, and furvives. till near midfummer ; that is, till the new bud has expanded a leaf of its own. Whence I fuppofe thefe evergreens. lay up in fummer no. {tore of nutriment in their roots or alburnum for the fuftenance of their enfuing vernal buds ; and have thence probably no bleeding fea- fon like deciduous trees. But the embryon in a bud of a deciduous plant leaves in the fpring- of the year its winter cradle, or hybernaculum, like*the embryon in a feed, or a chick in the egg; and like thefe the young plants of different vegetables have previoufly arrived at different ftates of matu- rit ys. 152 SEEDS, BUDS, BULBS. Sect. IX. 2. 2. rity. Thus Mr. Ferber afferts, that he was delighted in obferving in the buds of hepatica, and pedicularis hirfuta, yet lying in the earth, and in the gems of the fhrub daphne mezereon, and at the bafe of ofmunda lunaria, a perfect plant of the future year difcernible in all its parts ; thus alfo in horfe-chefnut the leaves, and in cornel-tree the flowers, are each diftin@ly vifible during the winter in their refpec- tive buds. Ameen. Acad, Vol. VI. No. CXX. Milne’s Dict, Art. Gemma. While in buds of many other trees, and probably in all the more backward buds, which are formed late in the fummer on the lower parts of branches, and much deprived of light and air, the embryon is not fo forward as to be eafily difcernible ; and in thofe fhrubs or trees, which are deciduous in this climate, and yet have no apparent buds in winter, as the philadelphus, mock orange, viburnum, and many fhrubs. I fufpeé there is neverthelefs an embryon fecreted from the blood at the foot-ftalk of each leaf, though it is not fo forward as to protrude through the bark, and produce a prominent bud, or hybernaculum. The fame I fufpect to occur in refpect to trees, which lofe their leaves in winter, in warmer climates, in which they are faid not to produce autumnal buds; as I can not conceive by what means frefh leaf-buds can be generated in the fpring, when the leaves, which conftitute the lungs of the mature living part of the tree, are dead ; and the whole of that mature living part, or laft year’s bud, confequently dead along with them. But if the caudex of the new bud be generated without the plumula, or vifible bud, it can cer- tainly produce a plumula for itfelf in the enfuing fpring, as is feen by the production of new buds, when a branch is cut off, round the remaining trunk, as is done frequently to the ftems of willows. In fimilar manner the viviparous offspring of different animals arrive at different {tates of perfection before they are born, as calves and foals can ftand ereét in an hour, and quickly learn to ufe their eyes, and to run after their mothers ; while the blind puppy; and eos an 7 CT, IX, ‘i bs bfery, 10 the cant tt the bur! : . bafe Of ernible ip r Nel-tree the their rele, s Dia. Ae tall the more On the lowe the embryo, ofe thrubs © 10 apparent burnum, and fecreted from 10t fo forward inent bud, ot pect to trees, res, in whic _ not concelt : {pring when he ft ing parto Sect. 1X. 2. 4. SEEDS, BUDS, BULBS. 153 and the downlefs rabbit, are long before they can leave the neft which the parent has provided for them. | 4. The prefence of the pith or medulla is of great importance to the growth of the new bud, as may be obferved by gradually flicing a fhoot of a horfe-chefnut in autumn, or in the early fpring. The rudiments of the feven feparate ribs of the late parent-leaf, and the central pith of the bud in its bofom, are feen to arife or terminate near the pith of the parent fhoot, where the embryon plumula ts probably fecreted by a gland at the bottom of the parent leaf-ftalk, finds there its firft reception and nourifhment, and 1s gradually pro- truded and elongated by the pith, which exifts in its center, as the bud proceeds, and thus conftitutes the afcending caudex or uterus of the new bud; which is refembled by the wires of {trawberries, and other creeping vegetables ; whereas the defcending caudexes of the new buds, which form the filaments of the bark of trees, are fecreted:’ from the various parts of the old bark in their vicinity; all which probably occur at the fame time by fympathy, as fhewn in Se&. VIT.. The pith thus appears to be the firft or moft effential rudiment of the new plant, like the brain. or fpinal marrow, medulla oblongata, which is the firft vifible part of the figure, I believe, of every animal fetus, from the tadpole to mankind. In thofe plants which have hollow ftems, this central cavity, though: not filled with the pith or medulla, appears to be lined with it; as in picris and tragopogon; in the former the ftem is not only lined with the pith, but wherever a new bud is generated on the fummit of the: afcending ftem, or in the bofom of a leaf, a membranous diaphragm: divides the cavity, and is covered with this medullary fubftance,, which divifion thus diftinguifhes one bud from another ;. and in flicing away the part of the ftem of tragopogon, where the new lateral bud: adheres, the medulla or pith in the center of the bud is feen to com« mence near that membrane which lines the ftem, and to pafsthrough: the circle of arterial, venal, and abforbent veffels, which conftitute Xx the: 154 SEEDS, BUDS, BULBS. Sect. 1K. 2. 5, the afcending caudex, or uterus, of the new bud, while the defcend- ing caudex of it is fecreted from the various parts of the older bark in its vicinity. Something fimilar to this mode of the produion of the buds of trees had not efcaped the ingenious Mr. Bradley, who aflerts, ** that buds have their firft rife in the pith; they are there framed, and furnifhed with every part of vegetation, and forced forwards to meet the air through the tender bark, and would drop on the ground, if they were not reftrained by veflels, which ferve as roots to nourith them ; and thus asa feed takes root-in the earth, a bud takes root in the tree; but with this difference, that the feed has lobes to fupply it with nourifhment, till it can fele& juices from the earth; but the bud has no occafion for lobes, becaufe it takes root immediately in the body of the tree, where the proper juices are already prepared for it.” Difcourfes on Growth of Plants, 1727, p. 56. 5. As the feed was nourithed in the pericarp by an adapted fecre- tion from the vegetable blood oxygenated in the braétes or floral- leaves; and as a refervoir of nutriment was alfo prepared for it after- wards in the feed-lobes and fruit : fo the bud is at firft nourifhed in the bofom of its parent-leaf by an adapted fecretion from the vege- table blood; and continues to be fo nourifhed in annual herbs and evergreen trees, till it protrudes and expands its own leaf; but if it be a bud of a deciduous plant, which muft lofe its parent-leaf in winter, a refervoir of nutriment is prepared for it in the roots of fome plants, as in carrots, tnrneps, liquorice, fern; and probably both in the roots and alburnum, or fap-wood, of trees. Thus in the {pring the umbilical veffels belonging to each indivi- dual biennial plant, or bud of a tree, abforb moifture from the earth, and propel it upwards through the roots and alburnum, where it is mixed with a nutritious material, and carried upwards in fome trees with a power equal to the preffure of the atmofphere, as in the vine, ‘ Vitis 5 Ren ly tL > the det thea le old net bat P| alerts, “d, ~ iramed, ani Wards to mee © Sround, i Ots to nourif d takes root is \ il eS A apt: to Lupply arth ; but the ediately in the epared for tt,” adapted fecre Stes or flor ed for it after & nourifhed 1 rom the vege ual herbs al leaf; butifi teleaf i 4 paren , the 1008 0 | ably and prove , Sect. EX. 2. 6 SEEDS, BUDS, BULBS. 155 vitis; the birch, betula ; and the maple, acer ; which at that feafon bleed at every wound, as treated of in Sect. II. 6. At this time the buds begin to (well, and to fhoot roots down- wards from their caudexes into the earth; the intertexture of thefe caudexes conftitutes a new bark over the old one, confifting of arte- ries, veins, and abforbents, as defcribed in Se&t. I. 3. Each bud then alfo puts forth a leaf, which is a refpiratory organ, and refembles in many refpects the lungs of animals, as defcribed in Se&. IV. but dif- fers from them in this circumftance, that the leaf requires light as well as air for the purpofe of perfect refpiration, as will be treated of in the Section on Light. ; Each embryon of a leaf-bud is thus furnifhed with its proper re{- piratory organ ; and as many new embryons were generated during the fummer in each leaf-bud, they now pullulate in fucceflion ; each of which has like the firft its appropriate leaf, which, as they fuc- ceflively advance, compofe the annual fhoots or {prigs of trees ; which in fome plants become of great length, as in vines, and willows, con- fitting of twenty or thirty new leaves. Hence if the firft fet of leaves be deftroyed by vernal frofts, as. frequently happens to afh- trees, fraxinus, and to the weeping willow, falix babylonica; or by the depredation of infects, which often injures our fruit-trees ; and perpetually occurs in this climate to the {pindle-tree, euonymus ;. and: in Italy tothe white mulberry-tree,. which has. its firft leaves plucked: off for the food of filk-worms, and to the tea-tree in. China; a fecond: fet of leaves fucceeds, which belong to the fecond embryons of the fame bud. But when the braétes. or floral-leaves are deftroyed by infects, as: fometimes happens to currant-trees, and apple-trees ;. the fruit in the: pericap: does not perifh, like the firft embryon of the leaf-bud above mentioned; becaufe it is ftill fupplied by the abforbent fy{tem of the: caudex and roots of the flower-bud, which compofe a part of the bark,. and pafs.into the ground;, but the fruit becomes four and _lefs. per- K 2: feck 156 SEEDS, BUDS, BULBS. Secr. IX. 2, 9, fe& from the want of a due oxygenation of the juices, from which it is fecreted; though its glands may probably alfo receive fome oxygenated blood by the inofculation of the veffels of different buds, whether flower-buds or leaf-buds, with each other in the bark, on fuppofition that they are not all of them totally deftroyed. 7+ In the axilla of each leaf is generally produced about midfum- mer either a new leaf-bud or a flower-bud; if it be a leaf-bud, it becomes a branch the next year, producing many other leaves, and many other buds; if it be a flower-bud, the growth ceafes, termi=- nating in the feed. During the greater vigour of the plant the leaf- buds are folely or principally produced, as in young healthy trees; but when the veffels of the bark become further elongated, as the plant grows taller, the nutritive juices are lefs copioufly fupplied, or the buds are become more mature, and the production of flower-buds fucceeds as in Mr.Walker’s experiments the fap of the birch-tree in the fpring was two or three weeks later in afcending to the top of a high tree, than to the lower branches. Edinb. Tranfact. Vol. I. Hence it happens, that the grafts from ftrong feedling apple-trees do not bear fruit, till they are twelve or twenty years old; while the grafts from old weak trees will bear copioufly in two or three years, and hence very vigorous trees, as pears, produce fruit only at their extremities ; but if you decorticate about an inch of a branch of a vi- gorous pear-tree, and thus weaken it; that branch will flower, and bear fruit at every bud like trees of lefs vigour. It fhould be here obferved, that the words ftrength and weaknefs, when applied to the growth of vegetables, are in reality metaphorical terms; or exprefs the effect or confequence of their producing leaf- buds or flower-buds, rather than the caufe of it, whereas it is the fa- cility with which the long caudexes of the new buds, which form the new filaments of bark, can be generated, which increafes the number of leaf-buds, and gives the tree a luxuriant or vigorous ap- pearance; and the difficulty of generating thefe new caudexes which increafes ° Ana, i! “ from Wh; 0 TeCeipe = we Ma different bn N the bark \ ved, » Oh i idl © a leafy ‘* ne It weve, and Ceales, terms plant the Jer. healthy trees, ngated, as the fly fupplied, o of flower-bud re birch-tree in to the top of %. Vol. I. ing apple-trets old ; while the or three years, it only at thet branch of a vie il] flower; and and weaknel aphot - ug Je * Srcr. IX. 2. 8. SEEDS, BUDS, BULBS. 167 sncreafes the flower-buds, and thus gives a lefs vigorous appearance to the tree. , The generation of buds feems to require a lefs perfect apparatus than the generation of feeds; as that of buds always precedes that of feeds, both in trees and herbs s and becaufe the caterpillar ts convert- . ed into a butterfly folely for the purpofe of feminal propagation ; whereas the polypus can only propagate Jaterally, or by buds. Hence the age of the plant is another neceflary circumftance to the produc- tion of flowers, fruit, and feeds, as appears in tulips, and hyacinths, as well as in apple-trees and pear-trees. 8 About midfummer the new buds are formed; but it is believed by fome of the Linnean fchool, that thefe buds may in their early ftate be either converted into flower-buds or leaf-buds, according to the vigour of the vegetating branch. Thus if the upper part of a branch be cut away, the buds near the extremity of the remaining ftem, having a greater proportional fupply of nutriment, and poffeff- ing a greater facility of producing their new caudexes along the bark, will become leaf-buds ; which might otherwife have been flower- buds; and on the contrary, if a vigorous branch of a wall-tree, which was expected to bear only leaf-buds, be bent down to the ho- rizon or lower, it will bear flower-buds with weaker leaf- buds, as is much exemplified by Mr. Hitt in his Treatife on Fruit Trees. The theory of this curious vegetable fact has been efteemed diffi- cult, but receives great light from the foregoing account of the indi- viduality of buds. Both the flower-buds and leaf-buds die in the au- tumn; but the leaf-buds, as they advance, produce during the fum- mer other leaf-buds or flower-buds in the axilla of every leaf; which new buds require new caudexes extending down the bark, and thus thicken as well as clongate the branch; whereas the flower-buds fhed their feed, when they perifh in the autumn, and thus require ug place on the bark for new caudexes. Hence when the fummit of q branch is lopped off, the buds near the extremity of the remaining I {tem 158 SEEDS, BUDS, BULBS... Sect. IX. 2. @- fiem produce new leaf-buds with greater facility, as there is more room for their new caudexes to be generated along the defcending bark. But if a vigorous branch be bent down to the horizon, or be-= low it, the bark is comprefled beneath the curve, and extended above it, and thus the produ€tion of new caudexes along the bark is im- peded, and in confequence lefs leaf-buds and more flower-buds will be generated, or the former converted into the latter; which require no new caudexes. And on this circumftance principally depends the management of wall-fruit trees, and of efpalliers, For the purpofe of thus converting leaf-buds into flower-buds Mr, Whitmill advifed to bind fome of the moft vigorous fhoots with ftrong Wire, and even fome of the large roots ; and Mr.Warner cuts, what he calls, a wild-worm about the body of the tree; or {cores the bark quite to the wood like a {crew with a fharp knife. Bradley on Gar- dening, Vol. II. p. 155. Mr. Fitzgerald produced flowers and fruit on ftandards and wall-trees by cutting off a cylinder of the bark, three or four inches long, and replacing it with proper bandage, (Philof Tranf. Ann. 1761) as defcribed in Se&. XV. 1. 3. of this work. M. Buffon produced the fame effect by a ftraight bandage put round a branch, A@ Paris, Ann. 1738; and concludes that an ingrafted branch bears better from its veflels being compreffed by the callus pro- duced, where the grafted fcion joins the ftock, It is cuftomary to debark oak-trees in the {pring, which are-in- tended to be felled in the enfuing autumn; becaufe the bark comes: off eafier at this feafon, and the fap-wood, or alburnuma, is believed’ to become more durable, if the trees remain till the end of fummer from their expending their faccharine fap-juice in the enfuing fo~ liage, and thus being lefs liable to ferment and putrify. -The trees: thus {tripped of their bark put forth: fhoots as ufual. with acorns ONy, the fixth, feventh, and eighth joint, like vines ; but in the branches I examined the joints of the debarked trees were much {horter than: thofe of other oak-trees ; the acorns. were more humerous ;. and no new hich Tequite depends the er-buds My. with ftrong r Cuts, what res the bark ley on Gar. ers and fruit > bark, three ze, (Philof f this work, re put round al) ingrafted e callus pro- hich are i bark comé i, 1S believed 1 of fumme enfuing The trees 5 ONy, Seer. 1X. 2. 9. SEEDS, BUDS, BULBS. 159 new buds were produced above the joints which bore acorns. From hence it appears that the branches of debarked oak-trees produce fewer leaf-buds, and more flower- buds; which muft be owing to the impoffibility of their producing new caudexes down the naked branches and ftem for the embryon progeny of leaf-buds. The pullulation of leaves on debarked oaks demonftrates, that the refervoirs of nutriment depofited in the preceding fummer for the ufe of the vernal buds muft be in this alburnum ; and that it is this fac- charine matter which induces the alburnum to ferment and rot fooner than the internal wood.. Thus Dr.Walker found on nice infpection the fap-juice to flow from the ligneous circles of the alburnum as well as between them, when a frefh piece was cut off from a cica- trized part, and alfo between the wood and the bark. Edinb. Tranfact. Vol. I. He alfo obferved that oak, ath, elm, afpen, hazel, and hawthorn, do not bleed; and that the birch, plane, and maple bleed the moft, and that the grey willow, falix caprea, does not bleed, but the fap-juice rifes vifibly between the wood and the bark, fo as to make the bark feparate eafily from the wood. From all thefe facts it may be inferred, that the faccharine matter, which is diffolved in the fap-juice, is depofited in the autumn in the roots of fome trees, and in the alburnum of others, or in both; as manna is found in the wood of the manna-afh ; and {ugar in the joints of many grafles and of the fugar-cane, and in the roots of liquorice, beets, and many other herbaceous vegetables. g. About Midfummer, after the new buds appear in the bofom of every leaf, many authors have remarked that there feems to be a kind of paufe in vegetation for about a fortnight, which they have afcrib- ed to different caufes. At this time I fufpe& the refervoir of nou- rifhment for thé new buds is forming about the roots or in the albur- num of the tree; and that the caudexes and umbilical veffels of the new buds are alfo at this time forming down the bark, and terminate in thofe nutritious refervoirs in the roots or new alburnum like the umbilical 160 | SEEDS, BUDS, BULBS. Sect. 1X. 2.9, umbilical veffels called feminal roots, which are vifible in many feeds. That this fyftem of umbilical veflels is poflefled of a great power of abforption in the roots of trees is certain from the force, with which the fap-juice was propelled upward from a vine-ftump in Dr. Hales’ experiment. That the fap-juice thus propelled upwards nourifhes or expands the leaf of each new bud appears from the experiments of Dr.Walker; as the leaves began to unfold at the fame height, as the wounded wooed began to bleed, and that thefe veffels pafs through or conftitute the fap-wood is evinced by the growth of the buds on oak- trees, after the bark is almoft totally taken off. The roots of trees are at this time protruded with greater vigour, as obferved by the ingenious Mr. Bradley, who on that account prefers the midfummer feafon for tranfplanting trees, if they are not to be removed to any great diftance; and adds, that the new fhoots in the following {pring will put forth with much greater force, and the tree will thence be almoft a year forwarder in its growth, than if it re- mains untranfplanted till the winter. Difcourfes on Earth and Wa- ter. ‘This feems to be owing to the deftru@tion of much of the nu- tritious matter depofited in the roots for the ufe of the new buds, which is torn off in tranfplanting, ei which can only be replaced | about Midfummer or foon after. Mr. Bradley further adds, that when trees are thus tranfplanted at Midfummer, no part of the top or branches, or foliage, fhould at that time be cut off; which well accords with the theory above de- livered ; as it is from the vegetable-blood, which is oxygenated by its expofure to the air through the thin moift pellicle on the upper fmooth furfaces of thefe leaves, that the nutriment for the expan- fion of the buds in the fucceeding fpring is fecreted or produced; and hence if thefe leaves are prematurely deftroyed, the vernal growth of the buds muft receive injury ; as the refervoir of future nutriment fer them will be lefs in quantity; but if fome of the branches are lopped i “4 itib}e in tha ‘aly a re EXPeriment f € height, as the pafs through Or he buds on Oak. reater vigour, account prefers V are not tobe w fhoots in the "ce, and the tret 1, than if ttre Earth and We auch of the nt: the new buts nly be replaced us tran fplante jiage, fhoul ‘ heory aber" : Sect. LX. 2. 10. SEEDS, BUDS, BULBS. 1¢ lopped during the winter, the remainder will protrude more vigorous fhoots, as their fhare of the referved nutriment will be greater. ro. The umbilical veflels of the new -buds of deciduous trees, which are analogous to thofe which permeate the lobes of the feed, are extended dewnward in the bark about midfummer, and terminate in certain refervoirs of nutriment, which are at this. time fecreted from the vegetable blood oxygenated in the leaves. This bark now con~ Gifts of an intertexture of the caudexes-of the prefent leaves, which were buds in the laft fummer, and are now adult vegetable beings; and of the embryon caudexes of the new buds; and of.the umbilical veflels of the new buds; it will become alburnum or {ap-wood dur- ing the autumn or enfuing fpring, and will be gradually-covered over with a’new bark confifting of the mature caudexes of the new buds, while that, which was the alburnum in the preceding {pring, will become a citcle of lifelefs timber, interior to the circle of alburnum. The -veftels of this new bark, though they confift of the caudexes of the individual adult leaves, and the umbilical veffels of the indi- ; vidual young buds, evidently inofculate ; becaufe, when fome buds are rubbed off or deftroyed, thofe in their vicinity grow with greater vigour; as the daily experience of pruning all kinds of trees. evinces. The facility with which the ruptured veffels of vegetables inofculate into.each other, or grow together, correfponds with that of animal vellels in theirinflamed ftate. Thus a bud taken from one tree, and inferted into any part of the'bark of another tree of the fame. genus, or ingrafted on it, prefently receives nutriment, and grows’ to it by the reciprocal inofculation of the wounded veflels, in: the fame man- ner asa tranfplanted tooth; or,as the fingers are liable to grow:to- gether after having been excoriated by a burn or:as the inflamed lungs and pleura are liable to adhere, and intermix their blood-veffels. See SeQuUllh: 2. 7. | : During the winter, when the leaves die andifall off, the arterial and wenous fyftems, which. belonged to them, .and which compofed the 3 2a” greateft — 162 SEEDS, BUDS, BULBS. Secr. 1X. 2. tm greateft part of the bark, feem to lofe their vegetable life at the fame time, and to coalefce, and form the alburnum, or fap-wood ; but the umbilical veffels belonging to the new buds, which are intermixed with this alburnum, remain alive; and at the returning fpring ac& with aftonifhing vigour; as defcribed in Sect. HI. 2. 2. As the fpring advances, the umbilical veffels, after having drank up the refervoirs of nutriment, which were depofited about the roots, and having thus nourifhed and expanded the new leaves, ceafe to act; aud the alburnum gradually changes into hard wood, called the heart of the tree; which no longer poffefies vegetative life; and is now only ufeful to elevate and fuftain aloft the {warm of biennial plants, which cover it; and was probably originally produced for this pur- pofe in the conteft of all vegetables. for light and air. This inert or lifelefs ftate of the central parts of trees, called the heart-wood, is evident from thofe old oaks and willows, which have loft their internal hard wood, and are become quite hollow, confift- ing only of their bark and alburnum, and yet are furnifhed with many healthy branches. But the umbilical vefiels of the alburnum poffefs the properties of capillary tubes, or of a fponge, after they are extinct, and ceafe to aGt as umbilical veflels ; and thus may oc- cafionally attract moifture, or fuffer it to pafs through them mecha- nically ; whilft the new bark, which confifts of an intertexture of the caudexes of each bud with their radicles, may occafionally abforb this moifture from the capillary veffels of the alburnum, which may be compared to the upper ftratum of the foil attracting by capillary power the moifture from the foil immediately beneath it, which may exhale into the atmofphere, or be imbibed by the roots of ve- getables by the fuperior living power of their abforbent mouths. That the veflels of the, alburnum in their living ftate poflefs the property of conveying the fap-juice, which is propelled upwards in the early {pring by the abforbent terminations of the roots, is wifible in decorticated oaks; the branches of which expand their buds, like 3 thofe 5 termizes ie {p- 5 Thr Pring 2g ing q rank m it tl 1€ 100ts, Ceafe to att. lled the hea and is noy =nniak plants for this pure es, Called the » which have low, conifilt- rnifhed with ‘he alburnum re, after they thus may 0c them mecit rexture of the ly abforb this hich my 1 mia @ ibe po) 4 hol Sect. 1X.2.10. SEEDS, BUDS, BULBS. 163 thofe of the birch and vine in the bleeding feafon. That the veffels of the alburnum in their living ftate occafionally aét as capillary fy- phons, through which the fap-juice is firft pufhed upwards by the abforbent extremities of the roots, and afterwards returns downwards partly by its gravitation in branches bent below the horizon, appears from an experiment of Dr.Walker, mentioned in Se&. II. 2. 4. Laftly, that the veffels of the alburnum after their vegetable life is extinét, poflefs a power of capillary attraction of the fap-juice, or of permitting it to pafs through them occafionally, appears from the following experiments. Firft, a branch. of a young apple-tree was fo cankered, that the bark for about an inch quite round it was to- tally deftroyed. To prevent the alburnum from becoming too dry by exhalation, this decayed part was covered with thick white paint ; in a few days the painting was repeated, and this three or four times, fo as to produce a thick coat of paint over the decayed part, or naked alburnum, extending to the afcending and defcending lips of the wound; this was in fpring, and the branch bloffomed and ripened feveral apples. In a garden in Lichfield about four years ago a complete cylinder of bark about an inch long was cut from a branch of a pear-tree nailed againft a wall; the circumcifed part is now not more than half the diameter of the fame branch above and below it ; yet this branch has been full of fruit every year fince, when the other branches of the tree have borne only {paringly. I lately obferved, that the leaves of this wounded branch were fmaller and paler, and the fruit lefs in fize, and ripened a fortnight fooner, than on the.other parts of the tree. Another branch of the fame tree has a part of the bark taken off about an inch long, but not quite all round it, with much the fame effect. The exiftence of capillary tubes in dead fap-wood is vifible in.a piece of dry cane, which permit water. or fmoke to pafs through them; and in the exhaufted receiver of an air-pump both water and oe quickfilver 264 SEEDS, BUDS, BULBS. _— Ske. IX. 2. quickfilver may be made readily to pafs through. pieces of the dry ak -burnum of wood by the preffure of the atmofphere. 11. The flower-buds of many trees arife immediately from the lat year’s terminal fhoots, or fpurs, either accompanied with leaf-buds, or feparately, as in apple and pear-trees. Other flower-buds arife from the fhoots of the prefent year alternately with leaf-buds, as thofe of vines, and form the third or fourth buds of the new fhoots. They differ from leaf-buds in this circumftance, that they perith when their feeds are ripe, without producing any addition or increafe to the tree; whereas when the leaf-buds perifh in the autumn, their caudexes, the intertexture of which conftitutes the bark of the tree, gradually be- ‘come converted into alburnum, or fap-wood; ever which the new leaf-buds fhoot forth their caudexes and radicles, or infert them. into it, and gradually fabricate the new bark and root-fibres.. It was before mentioned, that it is believed by fome difciples of the Linnean fchool, that about Midfummer leaf-buds may be changed into flower-buds, or flower-buds into teaf-buds ; and that even after the vegetable embryons are generated.. And that this. may be effeét- ed by weakening or ftrengthening the growth of the laft year’s buds, which fecrete thefe new ones from the vegetable blood, and: nourifh them in their infant ftate. Thus.if fome inches. of the extremity of a branch be lopped off at Midfummer, as is fometimes done by unfkil- ful gardeners, the remaining few buds will become more vigorous, and confequently produce leaf-buds inftead of flower-buds; or per- haps the embryons already formed: may be converted from one kind to the other. The contrary may occur, if a vigorous branch of a wall-tree be bent down beneath the horizen, or fo much as to im- pede the generation of new caudexes ;. or if the leaf of the parent-bud be taken off, foon after the plumula or apex of the new bud is ge- nerated ;. and thus the new caudex along the bark may be prevent- ed by deficiency of nutriment. The probability of this idea of tranfmuting flower-buds and leaf- buds. 2) .. Ix of + . _ dry ih from he lan ani the le to the tree Caudexes, th. gradually by ich the ney ert them inh . lifciples of the y be chanced hat even afte . may be effet ’ . ft year’s bud 4, and: nour e extremity 0! lone by wut nore vigorols pie buds 5 of P ne om ane 5 teal " nd ms. buds . py Secr. 1X. 2. 12+ SEEDS, BUDS, BULBS. 165 ch other is confirmed by the curious converfion of the buds into ea ers into green leaves 5 if parts of the Sowers of fome vegetable monft they be too well nourifhed, after they are fo far advanced as to be unchangeable into leaf-buds. Thus in the plantago rofea, rofe-plan- tain, the divifions of the {pike become wonderfully enlarged, and are converted into leaves ; the chaffy fcales of the calyx in xeranthe- mum, everlafting, and in a fpecies of dianthus, pink, and the glume of fome alpine grafles, and the fcales in the ament of the falix rofea, rofe-willow, grow into leaves, and produce other kinds of vegetable montters. Add to this, that the petals of the helleborus niger, or chriftmas- rofey are beautifully white till the feed is impregnated ; and then they change into green leaves, forming a calyx. And laftly, in other flowers a bud or bulb fucceeds the impregnation inftead of a feed, as in polygonum viviparum, viviparous biftort and in allium magi- cum, magical onion ; the fame occurs in many of the alpine grafles, and in the feftuca dumetorum, fefcue grafs; all which are in fome degree analogous to the fuppofed converfion of early flower-buds into Jeaf-buds ; for in thefe magical onions, and other bulbiferous flowers, the braces or floral-leaves, which at firft fecrete nourifhment for the pericarp and feeds of the plant, affume a new office, and fecrete a magazine of nourifhment for the new bulb, as appears in the concen~- tric flefhy membranes, which furround the new {fummit-bulbs of the allium magicum, and the cloves of garlic. 12. The central part of an adult bud therefore confifts firft of a conjunction of the blood-veffels from above and below, which exifts in the caudex of the bud between the beginning of the leaf- veffels and the beginning of the root-veffels; the circulation refem- bling that of many infeéts, of fifth, and in the livers of quadrupeds, as thewn in Sect. V. 2. Secondly, there is probably at the fame place a conjunction of the abforbent veffels correfpondent to the recepta- culum chyli of animals. Thirdly, there exifts in each bud an organ of 166 SEEDS, BUDS, BULBS. Sect. IX. 3. 2, of reproduction, which in a leaf-bud produces the lateral or paternal offspring, and in a flower-bud the feminal or amatorial one. Fourth- ly, a center of nervous influence, as a brain, or fpinal marrow, or common fenforium, exifts in each bud; and probably refides near this junction of the blood-veffels of the leaf and root, and of the abforbent fyftem, along with the organ of reproduction in the caudex gemme. lL. 1. Tue surzous roors of fome perennial herbaceous plants, and the root-fcions of other perennial herbaceous plants, are fimilar in this refpe&t, which diftinguifhes them from buds; that they are generated on the broad caudex of the plant within the ground, or in contact with it, and immediately fhoot down their new roots into the earth. Whereas buds are formed above the foil on the long caudexes, which conftitute the filaments of the bark of trees, and fhoot down. new roots into the earth from the lower end of thefe elongated caudexes. : Bulbs have not improperly been called fubterraneous buds ; and like them they may be divided into leaf-bulbs and flower-bulbs. Wheh a tulip-feed is fown, it produces a {mall plant the firtt fummer, which in the autumn dies, and leaves in its place one or more bulbs. Thefe are leaf-bulbs, which in the enfuing {pring rife into {tronger plants than thofe of the firft year, but no flowers are yet generated ; in the autumn thefe perifh like the former, and leave in their places other leaf-bulbs-ftronger, or more perfect, than their preceding pa- rents. This fucceflion of leaf-bulbs continues for four or five years, till at length the bulb acquires a greater perfection or maturity, necef- _ fary for feminal generation, and produces in its place a large flower= bulb in the centre with feveral {mall leaf-bulbs around it. This fucceflive formation of leaf-bulbs in bulbous rooted plants previous to the formation of a flower-bulb is curioufly analogous to the production of leaf-buds on many trees for feveral years before the production of flower-buds ; thus the apple-trees, pyrus malus, which are raifed from feeds, generate only leaf-buds for ten or twelve years, and CT, IX. ’ oT) il ne ast Ut » Qr this ide “gem, ACEOUs Dlant ES neat tl - i, > are fin a that ¢} eV ate STound, of jy -W roots inty on the long of trees, and end of thefe yuds $ and like yulbs. Whet firft fummer, rr more bulbs, . into ftronget et gencratel ‘n their places preceding ‘a - or five yeas sturity, ner ref" Jarge flow Sect. IX. 3. 1. SEEDS, BUDS, BULBS. 167 and afterwards annually generate both flower-buds and leaf-buds. From whence it would feem, that the adherent lateral or paternal progeny is the moft fimple, and eafieft, and confequently the firft mode of reproduction ; and that the amatorial or feminal progeny 1s on this account not generated till the maturer age or more perfect ftate of the parent-bud. A {till more curious analogy to this circumftance of a fucceffion of leaf-buds and leaf-bulbs preceding the formation of flower-buds and flower-bulbs exifts in the growth of wheat, triticum, and other graffes; but with this difference, that a fucceffion of leaf-buds, as of two, or three, or four, are produced in the fame year previous to the flower-bud. At the firft joint of the ftem of wheat, on or within the furface of the earth, a leaf is produced ; from which rifes the principal or central bud, and around it many new buds, which ftrike their roots into the foil. After this central bud, and thofe around it, have arifen fix or eight inches, a new leaf and a new leaf-bud rifes on each of them, producing a fecond joint of the ftem ; and laftly, a flower-bud is generated at the fummit, which are all evidently dif- tin@ vegetable beings, as there is a divifion acrofs the ftem at each joint, which fhews there is no connexion of the pith, or brain, or {pinal marrow, between the lower and upper joints, as mentioned in Se&. I. 8. That a new bud thus conftitutes each joint of the ftem of wheat, and other grafles, is further evinced ; firft, by the exiftence of a leaf at each joint without a lateral bud in its axilla, as oceurs in other ve- getables. Secondly, becaufe for the nourifhment of this new leaf- bud a refervoir of {weet-juice is prepared in the new joint; as in the bulbs of many plants. And thirdly, becaufe the lower leaf dies, and. the {weet juice is abforbed, as the upper leaf becomes vegete. Hence we acquire the knowledge of the ufe of this refervoir of fugar in the vegetable economy, which fupplies fo much agreeable and falu- tary 108 SEEDS, BUDS, BULBS. Seer ax. aoe tary nourifhment to mankind from the cultivation of the {ugar-cane. See No. 1. 6. and No. 3. 7. of this Seétion. : The analogy between the buds of plants and the adherent lateral progeny of fome infeéts, as of the polypus, and tenia, or tape-worm, and volvox, was mentioned in Set. VIL. 1.4. But the circumftance of the fuccefflive prodution of leaf-buds and leaf-bulbs previous to the production of flower-buds or flower-bulbs is wonderfully analogous to the generation of the aphis, which rifing from an eg g in the (ki ing after calling its {kin once or twice ‘ codlanes a living sprees without amatorial baubisoiss ; and this offspring produces others by this foli- tary propagation till the tenth generation; then a fexual progeny of males and females is produced, and eggs are laid in the autumn from their amatorial intercourfe. Bliowclused: Britan. Ameenitat. Academ. Vol. VII. by A. T. Bladh. See Seé&t. XIV. 3. 2. Thus this infec from the egg requires to be reproduced many times by folitary pro- pagation issiore it becomes fufficiently perfect to generate a fexual offspring like the buds and bulbs from feeds above mentioned. And it is probable, that the polypus of our ftagnant waters, which pro- duces a lateral offspring in the fummer, I fuppofe by folitary propa- gation, may produce males and females, and generate eggs in confe- quence in the autumn for their reproduétion in the cafuine {pring. To this may be added the great change, which many infeéts and even larger animals undergo either in {trength or form, before they acquire the power of feminal reproduétion. As the filk-worm changes into a butterfly apparently for the purpofe of generation only, as it then performs this office and dies. Other caterpillars change their form likewife into butterflies, and at the fame time change see kind» of food, which was the green foliage of vegetables eit this tran{f— formation; but now confifts folely of honey. And laftly, the gnat and mufqueto change at the fame time both their forms, their food, and their element ; and thus acquire higher animation apparently for the purpofe of fexual reprodu€tion. 2. The N the na ring “ny Withoyt by this fa. Progeny of utumn from at. Academ, $ this inked folitary Dr» ate a fexud oned, And which pro- litary propi- 79S Al conte uing fprings y infects and before they e filk-worm eration onlys Sect. IX. 3. 2. SEEDS, BUDS, BULBS. 169 2. The manner of the production of herbaceous plants from their various perennial roots wants further inveftigation, as their analogy is not yet clearly afcertained. I this autumn diffe&ted two large roots of the onion or leek kind, which were in full flower; the {tem of each of them was embraced by the cylindrical pedicles of fix or feven concentric leaves; but the fem itfelf arofe from the center between three large new bulbs in one of them, and between two in the other. All of which grew from the fame caudex, but the central flower- {tem was wrapped at its bottom in one membrane only, which fe- parated it from the new bulbs in its vicinity. A large root of a young onion, which grew from feed fown in the fpring, was at the fame time diflected by ftripping off the leaves, and their flefhy bafes, one after another, till two buds were vifible in the center of the flefhy bafes of the concentric leaves, which formed the bulb. Thefe two bulbs were evidently formed and nourifhed on the caudex by the ftem, and its fix or {even concentric cylindrical leaves; and will, I fuppofe, feparate in the fpring, as they rife up, and pro- duce each of them a flower with two or three new bulbs at the bafe of it, as defcribed in the above paragraph. Or from the different fize and apparent greater maturity of the central bulb, and the fecondary bulb being between the innermoft and the fecond circular flefhy membrane, I fuppofe in thefe roots of onion, like the tulip-roots before fpoken of, that the central bulb alone may produce a fower in the next fummer; and that the la- teral bulb or bulbs will produce only ftronger atid more mature leaf- bulbs, which will in the fucceeding f{ummer bear a flower or fexual ‘progeny. : The caudex, or central part of the bulb, from which the root- bres defcend, and the leaves afcend, lies above the knot in the orchis morio; and the parent-root fhrivels up and dies, as the young one in- creafes. The flower of this plant does not ripen its feeds in this climate; it might be otherwife worth cultivation for the ufe of th ZL how 170 SEEDS, BUDS, BULBS. Seer. IX. 3. 2, hew roots; which when {ealded and peeled, are faid to be the falep of the fhops. It is afferted by one of the Linnean f{chool in the Amoen. Academ, that if the new root be pinched off, the feeds on the old one will ripen, and become prolific, In the tulip the caudex lies below the bulb, from whence proceed the fibrous roots and the new bulbs; the root after it has flowered dies like the orchis root ; for the ftem of the lat year’s tulip lies on the outfide, and not in the center of the new bulb. In the tulip- root, diffected in the early fpring, juft before it begins to fhoot, a per- fect flower is feen in its center ; and between the firft and fecond coat the large next year’s bulb is, I believe, produced; between the fe- cond and third coat, and between this and the fourth coat, and per- haps further, other lefs and lefs bulbs are vifible, all adjoining to. the caudex at the bottom of the mother bulb; and which Iam told, re- quire as many years, before they will flower, as the number of the coats with which they are covered; and that the fame difterent tates of maturity probably obtain in the buds round the fhoots of many fruit-trees, the central one of which will produce flowers the next year as on the fpurs of apple-trees; while thofe beneath it require more or fewer years, before they become fufficiently mature to pro- duce organs of fexual generation 3 an important fecret in the manage~ ment of fruit-trees, The hyacinth-root differs from the tuhp-root ; for, as Iam inform- ed, the ftem of the laft year’s flower is always found in the center of the root, as in the onions above defcribed ; and that the new off- fets arife from the caudex below this bulb, and not between any of the concentric coats of it, except the two external ones. Qn this ac- count the central part is liable by its decay to deftroy the flower-bud, if not taken out of the earth, when the leaves die; and hence fome florifts believe, that thefe roots perifh naturally in five or feven years, . after they have flowered, but that the tulip-root never dies from ages Ty >. ICE process AS Hower “ULiD Jigs ‘ 1 the tulip, ets fecond cog en the fe t, and per. hoot, a p ning to the m told, re. iber of the erent {tates ts of many 's the next it require ure to: pro- ye manages am infortt- the cente ye new ° ‘ een any ok On this dower™bu ’ h Sect. IX. 3. 2. SEEDS, BUDS, BULBS. 141 In a few roots of hyacinths, which I this day examined, Septem- ber 1, the ftem of one, which had apparently flowered in the fum- mer, was perfectly decayed in the center of many new bulbs. In another bulb of lefs fize and compaét, which I fuppofed had not born a flower, I found a central fower-bud iticlofed in many concentric flefhy bafes of former leaves, like an onion in the autumn, which had been fown in the preceding fpring. And concluded from hence, that the hyacinth-root dies annually or biennially like the onion, leaving behind it a fucceffion of leaf-bulbs or of flower-bulbs. The caudex and claw-like roots of the ranunculus cultivated by florifts dies I believe annually, after having put forth a circle of new claws from the upper part of it round the bottom of the perifhing flowereftem. Hence the claws of the old root, which became fhrivel- led, as the flower advanced, in the autumn difappear; and the de- cayed part of the old caudex is feen beneath the new claw-like roots, which I fappofe has given occafion to fome inaccurate obfervers to believe, that the old ftem in this and fome other perennial herbaceous plants was drawn downwards by the new root fibres; while the bulbs of the iris have been fuppofed to have been puthed upwards, like the lamb-like barometz, by the refiftance of the foil to the elongation of the root-fibres; which laft feems to bea much more probable idea than the former. From thefe obfervations it appears, that the concentric leaves, which incircle the ftems of bulb-rooted plants, are the lungs to the caudex, as one or more leaves are to the bud of a tree; and that the caudex with thefe leaves, and the root-fibres, conftitute a vegetable being; which produces a viviparous progeny of new leaf-bulbs, or a feminiferous progeny in flower-bulbs, with a magazine of nutriment in the flethy bafe of each leaf; and that the tulip produces only leaf- bulbs for four or five years from the feed, and then but one flower- bulb with many leaf-bulbs annually. But that the onion-kind, al- lium, generates two or three flower-bulbs in the firft fummer from Z2 the 172 SEEDS, BUDS, BULBS. SECT. IX. 3. 9, the feed; which produce flowers and other leaf- bulbs in the fecond fummer from the feed. And laftly, that it is probable, that all bul- bous roots, like the buds of deciduous trees, and perhaps o ones alfo, are properly {peaking biennial plants, as t fummer and perifh in the next. f evergreen hey rife in one 3. In tulip-roots, which have been planted too deep in the earth, and in onion-roots, a vegetable cord, or procefs, is fometimes feen about an inch long to arife from the caudex beneath the bafes of the cylindrical leaves, and to form a new bulb. Similar to this appears the natural growth of the roots of potatoes ; a {permatic cord arifes from the old root, after the leaves are expand genate the vegetable blood, and a new tuber thus generated. ed in the air, to Oxy- ous or bulbous root is This mode of producing diftant roots is exactly refembled above ground by the wires of ftrawberries ; which may be called {permatic cords, which depofit a new vegetable being on the earth, and fupport it like a bud ona tree, till it can ftrike roots into the foil, and elevate leaves into the air. The final caufe of the length of thefe fubterra= neous and aerial fpermatic cords is evidently tl their roots at a convenient diftance from their parent plants; that they may not incommode each other, but may both of them more rea- dily acquire nutritious juices from the earth, and the ventilation and funfhine of the atmofphere. ‘Thefe embryon vegetables in the various bulbous and tu 1e defign of placing berous roots are in very different ftates of maturity, as in the buds of different trees; thus in the potatoe the corculum or plumula of the new plant only is vifible, furrounded with a farinaceous butriment, as in many feeds; whereas in the tulip and hyacinth the flower of the fucceed- ing year is difcernible, as in the bud of the horfe-chefnut, As the ripening of the feed of fome bulbous-rooted plants is for- warded by deftroying the new bulbs, as in orchis ; and the flowering bulbs of other plants are made ftronger by raifing them out of the earth, i the earth ee fe bales OF the this appears > Cord arifes ur, to Oxy. OUS Toot js abled above d {permatic and fupport _and elevate fe fubterra » of placing slants ; thet m more rea stilation and Dberous ro0's of difterest e pew platt as jn maby rhe faccet” ; s for iy lants ! Sect. IX. 3.4. SEEDS, BUDS, BULBS. 193 earth, and taking away the leaf-bulbs, which furround them on the fame caudex; as in the cuftomary management of tulip-roots, and hyacinth-roots by the florifts; I was led to fufpect, that pinching off the flowers of potatoes two or three times might increafe the fize or quantity of the roots; as the nourifhment derived from the vegetable blood to the flowers and feeds might thus be direéted to enlarge the roots, and thus lay up more nutriment for the future plants. This: sdea I mentioned to an ingenious Lady, who acquainted me a few months afterwards, that on a few roots fhe had. made this.ex periment with apparent advantage. 4. The bulbous and tuberous roots of plants are a lateral or pater~ nal progeny like the buds of trees, and therefere exadtly refemble the parent plant, as mentioned in Seét. III. 2. 1. and on this account may be liable to be affected by hereditary difeafes, and thus to become un- healthy ; whence the canker is f{uppofed to arife in thofe apple-trees, which have for a century or two been propagated by grafting ; and the curled leaf in potatoes, which have been too long propagated by their bulbs ; and the barrennefs of hautbois ftrawberries, which have too long been propagated by wires ; all which difeafes are believed not to happen in thefe plants, if they have recently been raifed from feed,, but want further obfervations to authenticate the facts. But there exifts a fet of bulbs, which feem to be formed. by amato— rial or feminal generation, and not by the lateral or paternal gene- ration, and would therefore feem to be a viviparous fexual progeny. Thefe are produced on the flower-ftem in the place of feeds. and in procefs of time fall off, and take root in. the earth, as is agreeably feen. in the polygonum viviparum, viviparous biftort, and the magical onion,, allium magicum, and the leek, allium fativum. A curious queftion here occurs, whether the plants from thefe bulbs. are liable exadtly to. refemble their parents? and whether they would be liable to heredi-. tary difeafes from a long cultivation of them. in fucceflion, as is fup- pofed to happen to.thofe mentioned. above ? Though 174 SEEDS, BUDS, BULBS. SEcT. IX. 3. # Though a perfe& flower precedes the produ& of fome fammit- bulbs, as I believe in the lower part of the {pike of the polygonum vi- viparum; yet I fufpea, that the fummit-bulbs of allium magicum, are exactly fimilar to the bulbs, which are produced at their roots; becaufe on cutting one of them horizontally into two hemifpheres this morning, September 10, I obferved three young bulbs inclofed in’ the concentric flefhy membranes of the fummit-bulb in the following manner; five thick flefhy concentric coats of the general fummit- bulb being taken away, there appeared one fingle naked fmall bulb; and on the fixth coat being removed, two other bulbs became vifible, which were included in it. Whence it feems, that thefe ftem-bulbs are as forward as thofe of the root, and probably are in every refpee fimilar.; and that the brates or floral-leaves, which in feed-bear- ing plants fecrete or prepare a nourifhment for the feed, and _peri- carp of the flower, acquire in thefe bulbiferous onions and leeks a new office, and prepare a magazine of nourifhment in the concentric membranes, which furround their {ummit-bulbs ; and thefe may be efteemed therefore a fexual viviparous progeny of vegetables, as buds are a lateral viviparous progeny. 5- The roots of trees fo refemble their branches, that fubterrane- ous buds are frequently produced upon them, which refemble the parent-tree. ‘Ihe bark of the root likewife fo refembles the bark of the branches, that it is not uncommon to ingraft with fuccefs on roots taken out of the earth and replanted ; as the robinia on the root of the acacia, and any other apples on the roots or the fuckers of bur- apples or of codlings; which may be done earlier in the vernal months, as being lefs liable to injury from frofty nights ; and it is probable, that budding or inoculating may be performed in the fame manner on the roots at midfummer, as on the branches. The roots of thofe plants, which are otherwife not eafily propa- gated, will fhoot up buds, if a part of them next to the plant be half cut through, or raifed out of the ground, and expofed to the air; as I res >, IX. M4, Ne ie Conan, 7 Sony 5 " yj, t - = ty ‘Hi Todt, lem if “DU Dheres 8 inclof.a: "CtOted ig le fol... Tal 1 a ‘ lummit. imal bulb ~ame Vilible > ftem-by}}; Very relpett 1 feed-begr. 1, and peri and leeks; e concentric nefe may be les, as buds fubterrane- efemble the the bark of : fuccels 0 on the 100! kers of bul the vert iS 5 and it® jn the fa® a? , rally prop Sect. 1X. 3. § SEEDS, BUDS, BULBS. 175 in pyramidal campanula, and geranium. lobatum ; and after a time the root may be feparated from the ftock, and many new plants may. be this way produced. Thefe root-buds, or fuckers, are generally produced near the trunk of the tree, before the root defcends much beneath the foil ; but in fome trees, as the elm, ulmus, and acer, maple, whofe roots {fpread far horizontally, and near the furface of the earth, they are generated at a great diftance from the parent tree; becaufe the new {cion can thus foon acquire the influence of the atmofphere on its expanding foliage. Thefe root-fcions from apple-trees are frequently ufed in ve- getable nurferies for the purpofe of ingrafting upon, and are termed paradice-ftocks by fome gardeners 5 but are not liable to the canker like the grafts from thofe old apple-trees, which have been in fafhion above a century; as thefe root-{cions refemble the trunk of the tree, which produces them, not the ingrafted head of it ; and thus may not have been many years from the ftate of a feedling vegetable. Similar to thefe root-fcions of trees it is probable, that the root- buds of perennial herbaceous plants. are produced ; which have diva- ricated, or fibrous-roots, and whofe fummits perifh in the winter. For many years the root thickens by an annual new bark being in- duced over the old one, exaétly as in the trunks and roots of trees. As thefe roots increafe in fize, the central part, I fuppofe, changes like the internal wood of a tree, and ceafes to poflefs vegetable life ; and in procefs of time is liable to decay. On this account thefe pe- rennial roots are not fo valuable for the purpofes of medicine or diet, or mechanic arts, either before or after they have paffed a determinate age; as the bark of the root changes annually into a kind of albur- num, and then into a kind of wood, and laftly, is liable to decay, as occurs in the roots of rheum palmatum, when they are feven or more years old. See Se&t. XVII. 2. 1. This decay of the central part of the root, which happens annually to fome plants, and is furrounded with new buds and their root-fibres, exhibits the appearance of the lower 176 SEEDS, BUDS, BULBS. Sect. IX. 3.6. lower end of the root having been chopped, or bitten off, to fome fan- cifed botanifts; as in plantago major, and valerian; and has hence given to fcabiofa fuccifa the name of devil’s-bit, morfus diaboli. 6. The bulbs already mentioned, as thofe of tulips, hyacinths, and onions, are properly the winter-cradles, or hybernacula, of the young plants, whether in their leaf-bulb or flower-bulb ftate; and are fur- nifhed with a magazine or refervoir of nourifhment for the growing embryons, as appears in the {quil, fcilla maritima, which vegetates from this fource of nutriment in the druggifts fhops. But there are other roots termed tuberous roots, as of turnep and carrot, which confift folely of a large refervoir of nutriment for the growth and nourifhment of the rifing {tem and future feeds ;- whether thefe are produced in the fame year, as occurs, when the feeds are fown early in the fpring; or when their vegetation is {topped by the cold of Winter, and proceeds again in the enfuing fpring; as generally occurs to our turneps, the roots of which I am well informed may be much enlarged by tran{plantation. See Sec. XII. 6, In thefe plants the leaves, by expofing the vegetable blood to the influence of the air, prepare it for the fecretion of nutriment in their knobby roots ; in the fame manner as nourifhment is produced and referved in the concentric flethy bafes of the leaves of onions > andin thefe plants, as in the onion kind, the leaves, which furround the bafe of the new ftems, wither and die; as the new buds, or bulbs, put forth leaves of their own for the purpofe of oxygenating their blood. Thus it appears, that the ftem and flower of the onion, or carrot, or turnep, is a new plant, not arifing immediately from the feed which was fown, but from the leaf-root or leaf-knob be fo called, which preceded the produ¢tion of the flow flower-ftem, exactly as the flower or ear of wheat, wh in Sect. 1X. 3. 1, to have three or four fucceffive le the flower-bud. From thefe obfervations may we conclude, that no flower-bud or . if it may er-bud, or ich was fhewn af-buds preceding flower- _— © ae Pe on nn a ee a a » Of the re 5 Q he q : wie > 2Nd ares Carrot, whic, © growth aj ether thefs an are fown exh by the cold ¢ ‘enerally occur 1 may be mact se blood to th: ‘riment in thet produced ani a onions ; audi +h furround te buds, of bulds, ygenating thet ft he onidl : jiately from li knob, if it YY Aowet-bid hich w4 buds prect » di At Aowel 146 : sick, VR 3. 6. SEEDS, BUDS, BULBS. 1977 flower-bulb is ever produced from a feed, without the previous tu- terpofition of one or more leaf-buds or leaf-bulbs? and that thofe flower-buds or flower-bulbs are either produced in one ceneration af - ter fowing the feed, as the flower-bulbs of onions, which are gene- rated and nourifhed at the bafes of the concentric cylindrical leaves of the preceding leaf-plant, which arofe from the feed; or as the {tems and flower-buds of the carrot and turnep, which are generated and nourifhed at the bafe of the concentric leaves of the preceding leaf- plant. Or fecondly, that they are produced in one fummer, though after feveral generations from the feed ; as the three or four joints of the {tem of wheat,’ and other grafles, which are generated and nou- rifhed in fucceffion in the bofoms of four or five cylindrical leaves, one at each joint; which alfo probably obtains in all other vegeta- ~ bles, which are fupported by hollow ftems divided by joints, and farnifhed with leaves at thefe ftem-joints with or without branches, as tragopogon or picris. In thefe plants, where there are no branches, there is fimply a new central bud; and two or more lateral new buds befide the central one, where there are branches. Or laftly, where the leaf-buds or leaf-bulbs, which are produced from feeds, fucceed each other for fome years, before they arrive at fufficient maturity to produce fexual organs, or generate a flower, as in the bulbs of tulips, and hyacinths, and the buds of trees. Whence we at length acquire a diftin&t idea, why feedling apple-trees are ten or twelve years before they bear fruit; though the buds or fhoots taken from a tree, which already has born fruit, and ingraft- ed even on a young feedling-tree, fhall produce flowers in the firft or fecond year; as thefe buds have already acquired that ftate of per- feétion or maturity, which is neceffary to the produétion of fexual or feminal generation: and as it therefore poffefles the age of puberty, or the maturity of the tree; we may fufpeét, that it will fooner acquire the’ hereditary difeafes confequent to too long unmixed fuc- Aa ceffive 178 SEEDS, BUDS, BULBS. Sect. IX. 3. 7, ceffive generations, a piece of very important knowledge to the planters of orchards; which they owe to the obfervation of Mr. Knight, as mentioned in Se&. VIL. 1. 3. Hence in many plants produced from feeds, perhaps in all, one or more leaf-buds precede the flower-bud; and I fuppofe generally, if not always, a magazine of aliment-is formed at the bafes of the leaves, or in the roots, for the nutriment of the fucceeding leaf-bud or flower-bud, of which it is the parent. Thus in the carrot and turnep the firft leaves conftitute the lungs of the new vegetable being, which generates the fucceeding flower- ftem, and fecretes or depofits for it a magazine of aliment, which forms the tuberous root : and then this firft plant from the feed and its leaves or lungs perifh; and the root gradually thrivels up, as it is abforbed by the new flower-ftem. In many plants thefe firft or root- leaves differ in form from thofe of the fucceeding ftem, as in palmated rhubarb, and in campanula rotundifolia, which is fo called from the round form of the leaves of this firft leaf-bud, or root-plant, which precedes the flower-ftem. 7- One great advantage of Mr, Tull’s horfe-hoeing hufbandry, in which the earth near the rows of wheat is alternately turned from and to them during the vernal months, has been fuppofed to arife from fome fibres of the roots being thus cut off, and new ftems fhoot- ing up at the ends of thofe which remain; but the real caufe of the produdtion of the new ftems is from the accumulation of earth above the firft joint of the young wheat-plant ; from which the new buds {pring out, generated and nourifhed by the caudex of the leaf, which furrounds that joint, and which afterwards withers: this important circumftance is fhewn by the annexed delineation of a tranfplanted wheat-plant. The plant of wheat was taken from a corn-field in the {pring, and then confifted firft of the root immediately proceeding from the feed :* ee o~ at . IX. R age to the On of M, Dall, one 7" Sherali f the leave leaf-byg te the Lungs ling flower. nent, which he feed and S UP, a itis firft or root. ; in palmated led from the plant, which ufbandry, in turned from ofed to atl {tems {hoot caufe of the f earth above he new buds e leaf, whic 315 jm port eran fplan , the ae | 6 ing from fee Suet. IX. 3.7. SEEDS, BUDS, BULBS. 179 feed a, which has been called the feminal root ; and fecondly, of the root, which was then near the furface of the ground 4, which has been called the coronal root, was furnifhed with a ftem and leaf, ¢, d, and with a fecondary ftem, or root-fcion, ¢, f. This wheat-plant confifting of only two ftems was replanted in my garden, and pur- pofely buried fo deep as to cover the two or three firft joints of both the ftems beneath the foil ; that is as high as the letter /, where the {econdary ftem was purpofely cut off. On taking up this plant with fome others on September 24, it had affumed the form here delineated. ‘The primary ftem, ¢, g, had fhot out no new roots from the joint g, which I fuppofe to have hap- pened from its being too far advanced when replanted; as many other ftems of other wheat-plants, which had not been obtruncated, had neverthelefs put forth one or more lateral {tems or root-{cions at the fecond or third joints, which on tranfplantation had been covered with the foil. But the obtruncated ftem, e, f, had generated a new root-fcion at 4, like the firft fhoot from the feed at 2; which had produced other new ftems, as it approached nearer the furface of the earth at js and as thefe advanced into the air, and formed their leaves, other new root-{cions were generated at & and /, Whence it appears, that by decapitation, and a deeper immerfion in the ground, a fecondary {tem in this plant became multiplied into five; all which produced perfeét ears of corn; and in other roots, which I had planted in a fimilar manner, the increafe was much greater : and efpecially where one or more of the primary or fecondary ftems had been decapi- tated. Ifa grain of wheat be dropped on the furface of the earth, and fuf- fered to fhoot down its roots, and to raife its ftem, which is the procefs of nature, I fuppofe but one ftem would be produced ; as the firft knot or joint of it would not be covered with earth, and could Aaz not 180 SEEDS, BUDS, BULBS. SEcT. IX. 3. 9. not therefore fhoot down new roots; which are neceflary in thefe plants to the prodution of new ftems, which are not branches but fuckers or root-f{cions. But if the grain be buried an inch deep in the earth, a fhoot rifes from the roots, which iffue from the feed, which is an elongation of the caudex, and puts forth a leaf in contaé with the furface of the earth; this leaf and ftem conftitute the primary plant, and generate new buds, which put forth new roots defcending into the earth ; and thus three or four or more fuckers, or new plants, arife round the original one, which was contained in the feed: hence the appearance of two roots, which fome authors have named the feminal and co- ronal roots. The ingenious Mr.Tull feems himfelf to have been aware of this circumftance, as he fays in his Hufbandry, ‘* Late planted wheat fends out no root above the grain before fpring, but is nourifhed all winter by a fingle thread proceeding from the grain up to the furface.”” 3 This explains the prodigious multiplication of the ftems of wheat, which may be produced by tranfplanting it three or four times in the fummer, autumn, and enfuing fpring ; for if it be fo managed, that a fecond joint of each young ftem be buried in the foil, or brought even into contact with it, fo that new roots may {trike down into the earth ; the caudex of the leaf, which furrounds this joint, will gene- rate many new buds, which will thus become fuckers, or root-{cions, and rival their parent ; and may be again tranfplanted or earthed up three or four times with wonderful increafe. Mr. Charles Miller of Cambridge fowed fome wheat on the fecond of June 1766, and on the eighth of Auguft one plant was taken up and feparated into eighteen parts and replanted; thefe plants were again taken up and divided between the middle of September and the middle of Odto- ber, and again planted feparately to ftand the winter, and this fecond divifion produced fixty-feven plants. They were again taken up, and divided between the middle of March and the middle of April, and ee produced rT, lx, +5 ary in the ‘ Tach be SY ae ODZAtion of THRACE of the An d See rate the earth, le round th. ~ appearance inal and ¢, © have been dry, “ Late pring, but is the grain up ns of whett, - times in the anaged, tha , or brought own into the t, will gene r root-fc10"% yf earthed ¥ Jes Miller! 766, and 0 - Manner ; Sect. IX. 3. 7. SEEDS, BUDS, BULBS. 181 produced five hundred plants. The number of ears thus produced from one grain of wheat was 21109, which meafured three pecks and three quarters of corn} weighed forty-feven pounds {even ounces, and were eftimated at 576840 grains! Philof. Tranf. Vol. LVIII. p. 203. See Sect. XI. 6. | Nor is this unfupported by the analogy of other vegetables, in which new roots are liable to fhoot in great abundance from their joints either alone or along with new buds, if a proper degree of moifture is prefented to them. Thus if the ftem of a potatoe be laid down upon the earth, and covered with foil over the firft joint, a new {eries of roots will be protruded from that joint ; and afterwards ano- ther feries of roots from the fecond joint, if managed in the fame and it is afferted that this will occur even if the potatoe ftems are taken out of the ground, when they are fix or eight inches high, and deprived of all their young roots, and tranfplanted, fo as to cover one or two joints, and that a great crop has been thus pro- duced. | The rapid growth of fome grafles, and of fome fpecies of the con- volvulus, and of colt’s-foot, is well known, and very troublefome in many fituations. Of thefe very minute parts of the jointed root, when cut from the parent, elongate themfelves, and fhoot up new plants. From the very numerous divifions of the wheat-root de- {cribed by Mr. Miller, it may be fufpected that fomething fimilar to this nfuft have happened, which further obfervations muft deter- mine. Vines alfo are thus liable to fhoot out roots at their joints, and fig-trees, when covered only with a fhred of cloth in nailing them to a wall, if it be accidentally kept moift. And there is an apple- tree, which is called a burr-apple, becaufe it puts out roundifh pro- tuberances or excrefcences of the bark like a burr, which if the branch be bent down, or even torn off, and fet in the moift earth, will 182 SEEDS, BUDS, BULBS. Sect. IX. 3.7, will immediately ftrike out roots, as lam told, and become a tree fimilar to the parent. In the fame manner I have been informed that if a circular ring of the bark be cut off from many trees and fhrubs, which are other- wife difficult to propagate, and earth be put round the branch thus decorticated a few inches above and below the wounded part, by means of a garden-pot previoufly broken longitudinally, and bound together round the branch, that roots will thoot from the upper lip of the wound ; and in a little time the branch may be fafely cut off below the garden-pot, and planted with fuccefs. When a few inches of the end of a branch are cut off in the {pring, as is common in pruning wall-trees, new buds are produced near the extremity, which remains; or thofe, which did exift, grow with greater vigour; as they obtain fome of that nourifhment, which fhould have fupported the buds, which were cut off. The fame oc- curs in refpect to the fuckers or root-fcions of thofe trees, which produce them, as of elm-trees, and of fome apple-trees ; if many of the branches be cut away, the fuckers or root-{cions become more numerous, or more vigorous. ; This explains the ufe of a practice amon g many farmers of eating down a forward crop of wheat in the {pring with fheep.. In this cafe the.central or upright ftem of the wheat is decapitated, and many lateral ones, or root-fcions, as above defcribed, become gene- rated, or grow with greater vigour; acquiring additional nourifh- ment from the joint, which was to have been expended in the growth of the central ftem ; and which appears fo diftin@lly in the preceding figure of a tranfplanted wheat-plant, which neverthelefs in crops, which are not too forward, may be very injurious, as fpoken of in Se&. XVI. 2. 3. Thus the figure above alluded to explains four important circum- ftances in the cultivation of grains, that of earthing up the rows in 7 | ? {pring Ul, -C Ome , te Citculae . ty C are Other > branch thy €d pat, ‘ ry and boung the Upper fp fafely cut Y in the {prin Iced near th: » STOW with ment, which Che fame or: trees, which 35 if many of become mort yers of eating sep. In this apitated, and xecome gene onal nourilh- n the g grow PLATE oF i 2 PLATE IV. ‘Reprefents a tran{planted root of wheat defcribed in Set. IX. 3.7. @ the feminal root, b the coronal root, a J the elongated caudex, ¢ g the firft ftem, ¢ d the firft leaf, e fa fecondary ftem. All thefe exifted before tranfplantation. The fecondary ftem was then cut.off at f, and the plant was buried in the foil as deep as the letter /, where st was cut off. Afterwards the ftem, which was lopped, had put forth a new caudex or root-fcion at 5; which had produced three new ftems at: ; and other new ones, as it approached nearer the furface, at & and 7. As thefe leaves advanced into the airy: the latter new ftems were produced by the caudexes of them. Sect. IX. 3: 7. Plate IV. Z x Ban ce Mah CONE REE ae y ke ee ieee or Secr. IX. 3. 7. SEEDS, BUDS, BULBS. 183 {pring by Mr. Tull’s horfe-hoe; that of eating down the firft ftems of forward crops by fheep; that of tranfplanting the roots deeper in the foil; and that of fowing the feed an inch or two beneath the furface. For an account of the drill hufbandry now practifed by Mr. Coke of Holkham in Norfolk, fee Sect. XVI. 2. 2. SECT. $4 ~“" MANURES, 3 Szcr. X, fb ies Weer: BEGEE MANURES, OR THE FOOD OF PLANTS. T. 1. The cuyur of all animals is fimilar. It confifis of water, Jugar, mucilage, oil, mith carbon, phofphorus, and calcareous earth. The SAP-JUICE of vege- tables confits of water, fugar, mucilage, with carbon, phofphorus, and calcare- ous earth. 2. Food of young animals, of adult animals. Power of digeftion. Produétion of fugar by digeftion. 3. Food of young. vegetables. Produttion of . Jugar by germination. 4. Food of adult plants from the fpontanesus decompt/fition of vegetable and animal bodies, or rom waier and air alone. J bey poffels low beat and cold blood like winter-fleeping animals. Dijiinéticn Letzveen anima's end Uege= tables. MI. 1. Atr. Oxygen in air, in water, united wit) bea', and light. 2. Forms all acids. 3. Metallic oxydes. 4. 7. TF 74 infra hl, a Lr e 1240 HOLE Tite {tG tn water. 5. Carbonic acid gas from ferm ous acid. 7. Oxygen in vegetable per/ps (eY~ £enated water. Oxygen gas applied near | 9 e or nitrogen is Sound in vegetables. Produces nitre and ammoniae Wf. y. Vi ATER. Ils large quantity in piants. 2. Ufe of their great perfpwation. 3. Water becomes decom pofed in plants, and is hyper- oxygenated. 4. Gives lubricity, fuidity, and Jolu- tion. §. Irrigation of the foil brings other manures. 6. Penetrability of the foil From irrigation. Sow and reap early in wet foils. 7. Hafty fhowers are injurt~ ous. Liills foould be ploughed horizontally. Uje of ridges and furrows. Surface of air greater. 8, Evaporation produces cold. Ujes of coping-/tones on Jruit-walls, 9. Produétion of foliage requires more moiffure than that of feeds. Froft in Scote land ripens the corn. 10. Lime and dung-bills attra&t water. Steam ufed in bot-boufes. Much water in the atmofphere. IV. 1. Carzon is an univerfal material in the atmofphere. 2. In limeftone. 2. In black earth, moraffes, loam. Carbon combines with putrid exbalations. 4. United with oxygen is foluble in water. Lime combines with water. Emits beat. Is broken into powder by fleam. | Should-be flaked before. it is ufed in agriculture. Better flaked with bot water. : _ ~ Attraéis Step) ar ; mica, - ICR of Vege. » OA calcars r of diveftinn Produfign f iS decompejitio poffels low beat nas ond Vefe = mS Gy Gia hebt jbl) (gel if rer. Lis sarge becomes decsi idly, anid fl sbility of il wers are inj rows. Sil ut 5 on fruits Frof ip Sa Steam yf js an pie Sect. X. 3 MANWURES. 133 Attratts the carbonic acid, and in confequence the water of the aimo/phere. §. Car- bonic acid fubfides on the earth in the air. - 6. United with calcareous earth 1s foluble in water, and abforbed by vegetables. ‘7. An experiment in which carbou and lime form an bepar, and thus become foluble in water. 8. Vegetable roots ab- forb carbonic acid from limeftone im its fiuid, not its gaffeous flate. 9. Carbon exifts in fugar and mucilage, which are abjor bed undecompounded. V. PaospHo- rus is afimple fubftance. Appears in rotten wood. In putrefcent fiefh. and fipp. 9. Exifts in all vegetable and animal matter, as feen in Homberg’s pyrophorus, and in Kunkel’s phofphorus. 3. And in all calcareous earth, as in oyfter-foells, lime- fone, gypfum, fluor. 4. Hence the ufe of calcareous earth in agriculture. §. Shells become limeftone by attratting carbonic acid from the air. Mountains of calcareous phofphorus. Limeftone fhould be burnt in clofe veffels. 6. The bardne/s of bones owing to phofphoric acid, and perbaps of ligneous fibres. VX. 1. Lime with carbon may make an hepar carbonis foluble in water, 2. Unites with carbonic acid, and renders it foluble in its fluid not its gaffeous fate. Water from /prings is preferable to that from rivers for flooding lands. 3. Lime unites with pho/- phorus, and renders it foluble in water. Unites alfo with phofphoric acid, Whence crab-fifb renew their hells, and fnails repair and enlarge theirs. 4. Lime unites with oil and mucilage, and may thence become nutritious. It decompofes foap, and conftitutes a part of animals and vegetables. 5. Lime deftroys the cobefion of dead vegetables. Of recent ones by combuftion. Altratis moifture from the air and earth. Makes clay le/s adbefive. Unites with acids of vitriol and of nitre. Kills infects. 6. One limeftone twenty miles long and ten broad. . Lime not of ufe on wet land, uor always on all calcareous foils. 7. Lime both forwards the ripening and meliorates and increafes wheat and grafs by Jupplying nutriment. 8. Gyp/um, fluor, bone afoes. Breedon lime is balf magnefia. VII. 1. Ciay is too adbe- five. Becomes more folid by froft. 2. Effervefces in the air. Acquires oxygen. So iron, manganefe, zinc. Raddle ufed as manure. 3. Granite acquires oxygen. Granites and dry clay have a fmell when breathed on. Marl crumbles in the air. Burnt clay acquires oxygen and burnt lead. 4. Burnt clay promotes the genera- tion of nitre. Uje of paring and burning. 5. Burnt clay decompofes marine falt. Use of ‘fea-falt in manure. 6. Would phofphat of lime combine with clay, or bone= afbes? 7. Cobefion of clay overcome by air. By roots of firong plants. By car- bonic acid from leaves in the foade. By dunghill water. By lime. 8. Aluminous clays how to correc. By wood-afhes, foap-/uds, lime, magnefia, VIII. 1. Sron- Bb TANEOUS 186 MANURES. SEctT. Xe Ie I. TANEOUS MANURES. Saccharine fermentation is a chemical proce/s. Exifts beneath the foil. 2. Vinous fermentation. Carbon and oxygen in a fluid ftate, Feat of bark-beds. Hay-ftacks take fire. 3. Putrefattion decompofes water. 4. Produces nitre, whofe loofe oxygen promotes vegetation. 5. Sow foon after the plough, LX, CHEMICAL MANURES. 1. Sugar and mucilage abforbed unde- compofed. 2. Heat deftroys life in feeds, fruits, roots. Potatoes dried on a malt- kiln. Cooked in fteam hotter than boiling water. Papin’s digefter. 4. Tritura= tion of wood, firaw, hay, for food in times of fcarcity ; of bones, chalk, bricks, ochres, calamy for manures. X.INsect-MANURE. Cultivated countries in- creafe in fertility. Some have decreafed. Calcareous ftrata from fhells. . Thofe: above them from vegetables and animals. The former can live on air and water, not the latter. 2. Crops ploughed in for manure. 3. Infeéts increase manure. Water from dunghills. 4. Fifo, X\. PREsERVATION OF MANURES. Rains wafl manure into the fea. Snow floods le/s injurious. Hills foould be ploughed horizontally. 2. Common foores. 3. Burial grounds. 4. Wood-fuel. %. Fer- mentation requires air, water, heat. Manure foould be turned over and mixed: with lime. 6. Pig-troughs, foap-fuds. 7. Weeds, leaves, water-plants. 8. Peat. XU. AppuicatTion or MANuRES. 1, Jn powder for top-drefing. In ftraw Jor clay-fields, 2. In fields when the corn is fowed. On grafs-lands in the fpring, not in the autumn. 3. Cover dung-heaps with foil. Gather cow-dung from the- grafs. 4. What manures are moft nutritive. Flefb, horn, woollen rags, mealy, fugar, oil, I. 1. The various fubftances, which conftitute animal bodies, or which are found in the cavities of them, are compofed from fimpler elements by the proceffes of digeftion, and fanguification, and fecre- tion; for it is well known, that even. milk, which fo much refembles the chyle of animals, is not abforbed by the laGteals without its being previoufly coagulated, and again. diffolved in the ftomach by the power of digeftion. | Hence it happens, that the chyle of all animals, and from every kind of food which they take into their ftomachs, is very fimilar ; and like milk confifts of water, fugar, mucilage, and oil; the laft of which Compas, ? “EYES Waty, > T, © 00K af... ab, = Mh 40/orbed Ung, “y Moe GQ? ted on a thal: - TN: e 4. Tritury, e - } - <. chalk, brich. un), 1E4 Countries i 7 Dell »p Shells. Thy : Gir and waty sCr ease manure, LNURES, Roi; ould be ploughed d-fuel. 5, Fer. over and mixed plants. 8, Pet freffing. Ta fro nds in the fpring ww -dung from the we en dal pollen 1425, ME, nal bodies, of 1 from fimp* and fecie > SectT. Xs 1. 2. MANURES. 137 which not being foluble in water, but only mifcible with it, gives it its opaque white colour. But though the chyle from different kinds of aliment is fo fimilar, and all the various conftituent parts of animal bodies are ulti- mately produced from the chyle by fanguification and fecretion, yet it happens, that fome kinds of aliment poflefs a greater quantity of thefe particles, which make chyle, than other kinds of aliment. Such materials for inftance as already contain much fugar, mucilage, and oil, as the flefh of dead animals, or the fruits and feeds of vege- tables. : Befides the water, fugar, mucilage, and oil, which exift in chyle, there may be other materials, which are invifible from their perfect folution in water, either alone or when converted into acids by the addition of oxygen; as carbon, phofphorus, calcareous earth, marine and ammoniacal falts; though it is more probable, that the two laft are formed and fecreted by animal procefies, as well as feleCted by their abforbent roots, as they are more compounded bodies than the former. 7 Similar to this chyle of animals the fap-juice, which is abforbed from the earth by the roots of plants, conftitutes their nourifhment, and confifts of water, fugar, and mucilage, with other tranfparent folutions, as of carbon, phofphorus, and calcareous earth. And though it has been proved by the experiments of fome philofophers, that ve- getables can extract or compofe all thefe fubftances from air and water alone ; yet fome materials contribute more to the production of this vegetable chyle or fap-juice than others, fuch as the recrements of dead vegetable and animal fubftances, 2. If any one fhould afk, what is the food of animals? I fhould anfwer, that in the moft early ftate of animal life the embryon lives on a mucilaginous fluid, with which it is furrounded, whether in the egg or womb: that in its infant ftate the young animal is fuftained by milk, which its ftomach converts into chyle. ba In 188 MANURES. SECT. hows In their adult ftate animals are fuftained by other vegetable or ani- mal fubftances taken into their ftomachs, which are there converted into chyle partly by a chemical, and partly by an animal procefs ; as by a mixture of ga({tric juice with water and heat, fome of thefe recre- ments of organic nature are decompofed, either into their fimpler component parts, or fometimes even into their elements; while other parts of them are only rendered foluble or mifcible with water; and are then drank up by the abforbents of the {tomach and inteftines. In this procefs of digeftion much fugar is produced, which is pro= bably immediately felected and drank up by the numerous mouths of the lacteals, or lymphatics; to which it is prefented by the vermi- cular or periftaltic motions of the ftomach and inteftines. And as this ready felection and abforption of the fugar, as foon as it is formed, prevents it from pafling into the vinous or acetous fermentation ; it is probable that from the want of fuch a means of {eparating fac- charine matter, as foon as it is formed, chemiftry has not yet been able to produce fugar from its elements without the affiftance of ani- mal digeftion, or vegetable germination; as further fpoken of in No. 8. 1. of this fection. ? In this procefs of digeftion, I believe, a great part of the water, fugar, mucilage, and oil, which exift in vegetable and animal re- crements, are not decompofed into their elements, but abforbed by being foluble or mifcible with water; the carbon, and the phof- phorus, and the hydrogen, are alfo I fuppofe diffolved in the other fluids by means of oxygen, and form a part of the chyle, without their being converted into gaffes; for when this happens to any ex- cefs in refpect to carbon, it efcapes from the ftomach in eruétations ; and the fame occurs to the inflammable air or hydrogen, if a part of the water becomes decompofed in the inteftines ; which, if it be not abforbed by its folution in other fluids, but acquires a gaffeous ftate, is liable to efcape below ; though both thefe gaffes feem occafionally to Vhich jg De 1S Mouths of Y the veri. « Andas this it is forme, rentation : it parating {a5 not yet been (tance of aui- poken of in f£ the water, d animal r- abforbed by d the phot in the other yle, without ps to any er Etatiolss 1, if a pan? ,, fit be y ra eous - ' y cafion# 1 0 ‘0 Sect. X. Ye 3) 4° MANURES. r89 to revert to a fluid ftate from their aerial one im the ftomach or in- teftines, and to be then abforbable by the laéteals or lymphatics. 3. What then is the food of vegetables? the embryon plant in the feed or fruit is furrounded with faccharine, mucilaginous, and oily materials, like the animal fetus in the egg oF uterus, which it ab- forbs, and converts into nutriment ; while the embryon buds of de- ciduous trees, which is another infantine ftate of vegetables, are fup- plied with a faccharine and mucilaginous juice prepared for them at the time of their production, and depofited in the roots or fap-wood of their parent-trees ; as in the vine, maple, and birch ; which fac- charine matter is foluble and mifcible with the water of the furround- ing earth in the fubfequent {pring, and is forcibly abforbed by their root-veflels, and expands their na{fcent foliage. In their infantine ftate therefore there is a wonderful analogy be- tween plants and animals; and it is particularly curious to obferve in the procefs of converting barley into malt by the germination of the feed, that the meal of the barley is in part converted into fugar by the digeftion of the young plant exactly as in the animal ftomach. The wonderful effect of vegetable digeftion in producing fugar may be deduced from the great produét of the fugar-cane, and of the maple-tree in America, mentioned in Seét. III. 2. 3. and the won- derful effect of animal digeftion in producing fugar appears in patients, who labour under diabetes. A man in the Infirmary of Stafford, who drank daily an immoderate quantity of beer, and who eat above twice the quantity of food that thofe in health confume, voided fixteen or eighteen pounds of water daily, from each pound of which above an ounce of coarfe fugar was extraéted by evaporation. Zoonomia, Vol. f.. Set. XKIX. 4. 9. 4. We now come to confider the food of adult plants ; and in this: confifts the great and effential difference between the nutritive pro- ceffes of animals and vegetables. “Fhe former. are poffeffed of a fto- ~ mach, by which they can in a few hours. decompofe the tender parts. of 190 MANURES, SecT. X. 1 4, of vegetable and animal fubftances by a chemical procefs within them- felves, conducted in the heat of ninety-eight degrees, with a due quantity of water, and a perpetual agitation of the ingredients ; which both mixes them, and applies them to the mouths of the abforbent veficls, which furround them. Whereas a vegetable being having ho ftomach is; neceflitated: to wait for the {fpontaneous decompofition of animal or vegetable recrements; which is indeed continually go- ing on in thofe foils, and climates, and in thofe feafons of the year, which are moft friendly to vegetation ; but is in other fituations, and in other feafons, a flow procefs in a degree of heat often as low as forty of Farenheit, (in which the reindeer mofs, mofchus rangiferinus, vegetates beneath the fnow in Siberia, ) and often without an adapted quantity of water to give a due fluidity, or any mechanical locomo- tion to prefent them to the abforbent mouths of their roots ; or in ftill worfe fituations adult vegetables are neceflitated ftill more flowly to acquire or produce their nutritive juices from: the fimpler elements of air and water, with perhaps the folutions of carboni¢ acid’ and cal- careous earth, and perhaps of fome other matters, with which one or more of them abound. But M. Haffenfratz found, that the vegetation ef thofe plants was imperfect, which had not been fuffered to grow in conta with the earth; as they never arrived at fuch maturity as to produce fruit ; and were found on analyfis to contain a le{s portion of carbon, than other plants of the fame kind. The experiments were tried on hya- cinths, kidney-beans, and creffés, Hence the other great difference, which exifts between thefe two extenfive kingdoms of nature, is, that the larger and warmer blooded animals certainly, and I fuppofe all the tribes of infe@s, and of colder blooded creatures alfo, can not exitt long on air and water alone, ex- cept in their ftate of hibernal torpor. The nearett approach to this is however feen in fome fevers, where water alone has been taken for a week or two, and yet the patient has recovered; and there is a well attefted ny " Ithin then with g ‘“ sai, Whig afore “ING having COmpofitn, tinually i of the vie Uations, wd 1 as low a angiferinys tan adapted ical locomp. $3 Orin fil re flowly to elements of id’ and cal- vy hich one or e plants was at with the duce fruit; arbon, tha ried ON hye Sect. X. 2. Ie MANURES. 19f attefted account of a numerous caravan, which having loft their rout, or their provifions, are affirmed to have lived fome weeks on gum arabic and water alone. Vegetables on the contrary, as above mentioned, can exift, though in a feebler ftate, on water and air alone, with the carbonic acid, and perhaps other invifible folvends, which thefe elements unavoid- ably contain. This I fuppofe to be owing to the low degree of heat, which they produce internally, and to the flow circulation of their blood; from both which circumftances lefs nutriment is expended, as by animals which fleep in winter. For the purpofe of fupplying adult vegetables with nourifhment, we fhould firft confider what kinds of matter are moft prevalent or moft neceflary in their compofition. Secondly, what of thefe fub- ftances they can abforb without previous decompofition. Laftly, how to expedite the decompofition of vegetable and animal fubftances on or in the foil, like the digeftive proceffes in the ftomachs of animals 5 we may thus become acquainted with the fources and the manage— ment of manures. II. AIR. 1. Oxygen combined with heat conftitutes that part of the atmo- fphere, which is perpetually neceffary to animal and vegetable refpi- ration ; and a greater part of that water, which forms a principal portion of their organization ; afew words may be therefore premif- ed on thefe moft important difcoveries of modern chemiftry. This vital air, called oxygen gas, conftitutes twenty-feven hun- dredth parts of the atmofphere; it is indifpenfably neceflary to the exiflence of life, and of combuftion, and forms the principal part of all acids; whence its name. The other feventy-three hundredth parts of the atmofphere confift of azote, which takes its name from its inutility to life in animal re{piration ; it is alfo called nitrogen, becaufe it conftitu tes the bafis of nitre. 192 | MANURES, Sect. X. 2, 2, 3, Oxygen gas confifts of oxygen and heat ; and when it unites with fuch bodies, as are capable of uniting with it, the heat is fet at liberty, as in refpiration and in combuftion; in both which proceffes an acid is produced by the combination of oxygen with fome inflammable bafe. Hence vital air confifts of oxygen diffolved in the fluid matter of heat; but there is alfo another fluid, which feems to be combined with this folution of oxygen in heat, and that is light. For when oxygen becomes combined with charcoal, or with fulphur, or with phofphorus, both heat or light are fet at liberty from thefe new com- binations of oxygen; which thus produce the carbonic, fulphuric, and phofphoric acids. When thefe new combinations of oxygen are performed very flowly, the light is fometimes not vifible, as in the heating of a dung- hill; in which procefs the oxygen in the cells or cavities of the hot- bed unites flowly with the carbon and phofphorus of the decompof- ing vegetable and animal matters ; but though much heat is given out, no light is feen. While on the contrary from rotten wood alone, or putrefcent fifh, when expofed to the atmofphere, much light is emitted, but not much fenfible heat, owing perhaps fimply to the combuiftion of the phofphorus, which they contain. 2. The products of thefe combinations of oxygen with other bodies may all of them be termed acids; though in fome the heat or light fet at liberty converts thefe acid produdtions into gaflés, as oxygen and charcoal form carbonic acid gas ; and in others it converts the new product into fteam, which is condenfible by cold, as the ful- phuric acid from the combination of oxygen and fulphur; and the phofphoric acid from oxygen and phofphorus. 3. Other combinations of oxygen with heavier fubftances are pro- duced in the atmofphere without the feparation of either fenfible heat, or vifible light ; as the union of oxygen with metallic bodies, as with that of mangarrefe, with zinc, lead, iron, as in common ore of manganefe, in lapis calaminaris, white calciform lead-ore, and the 8 red “le new con. Cy Lulpburic, rformed very 1g of a dung 2s of the hot. 1e decompol: heat is given a wood alone, nuch light 8 imply to the bh other bodies , heat or lig! ‘s, a5 oxy get converts tt d, as the 10" burs af ‘ SECT. X. 2. 4. MANURES. 193 red ochre of iron; which have not obtained the name of acids, but are termed oxydes of thofe minerals. 4. Now it happens, that none of thefe bafes, which can combine with oxygen alone, are foluble in water, and therefore can not be imbibed by the abforbent veflels of vegetable roots, until they become. acids; and are perhaps then all of them in greater or lefs quantities foluble in water ; and are thence capable of being drank up by the ab- forbent veffels of vegetable roots, and conftitute a part of the food of plants. 5. When vegetable fubftances are decompofed by Sceriev bate there is a quick union of oxygen and carbon ; and this carbonic acid gas, called formerly fixed air, rifes up in vapour, and flies away. But where this procefs goes on more flowly, as in a dung-hill lately . turned over, or in black garden mould lately turned over, and thus expofed to the air; much of which remains in the cells or cavities of the hotbed, or border ; this carbonic acid is flowly produced, and is abforbed by vegetable roots, I fuppofe in its fluid ftate, or diffolved in water, before it acquires fo much heat as to rife in the atmofphere in the form of gas. This carbonic gas in its fluid ftate, or diffolved in water, not in its aerial or gafleous ftate, is the principal food of plants; as appears, becaufe their folid fibres confift principally of carbon, and their fluids of water. 6. Next to carbonic acid the aqueous acid, if it may be fo called, or water, feems to afford the principal food of vegetables; as water con- fifts of oxygen and hydrogen, it is properly an acid, like all other com- binations of oxygen; and when abforbed by vegetable roots becomes in part decompofed in the circulation or fecretion of their juices ; the oxygen difappears, or contributes to form the vegetable acids ; and the hydrogen produces ammonia by its union with azote ; which may contribute to vegetable nutriment by its mixture with oils, and thus producing foaps, which become diffufible in water ; and alfo by ye -C Gcec ne 194 MANURES. SecT. A. .219, decompofing infoluble faline earths, as gypfum, or metallic falts, as vitriol of iron, and thus producing more foluble or innocuous falts, And which laftly forms a part of the various vegetable productions of fugar, honey, wax, refin, and other fecretions. 7. There is a curious evolution of oxygen attends the perfpiration of the leaves of plants, which is not known to attend that of animal lungs; and that is, that when vegetable leaves are expofed to the fun’s light, they feem to give up oxygen gas ; but in the dark they give up carbonic acid gas, like the breath of animals. It is probable that animal lungs might do the fame, if they were expofed to the light ; as perhaps might be fubjected to experiment in the gills of fifh, or by breathing through a tube into water in the funfhine. In refpiration as well as in combuftion fome light may poffibly be given out as well as fome heat from the combination of oxygen with fome phlogiftic bafe, as carbon or phofphorus ; whence the produc- tion of carbonic and phofphoric acids in both animal and vegetable refpiration. In moft animals this quantity of light is probably too {mall to be perceived, if their bodies were tranfparent ; but in the glow-worm of this country, and in the more luminous fire-flies of the tropical climates, I fufpe& the light to be emitted from their lungs in the aé of refpiration, which is a flow combutftion. 8, Befides the ufe of oxygen in the refpiration of vegetables, when applied to their leaves, as it is mixed in the atmofphere; it is believed by many to contribute much to their growth and nourifh- ment in its combined ftate, when abforbed by their roots ; and that by the decompofition of water in the vegetable fyftem, when the hy- drogen unites with carbon and produces oil, the oxygen becomes fu- perfluous, and is in part exhaled, as further fpoken of in Sec. XIII. y. 2. Hence alfo fome calciform ores, or metallic oxydes, as raddle, and calamine, and burnt clay, are fuppofed to be ufeful as manures, becaufe they contain much oxygen, as mentioned in No, 7. 1. of this SeCtion. 2 Mr. a Q alts duction, rf Pertpiratn At Of animal Led to the © dark they Probable that fo the lich: Ss of fith, OF y pofhibly be oxygen with > the produc and vegetable , probably too -+ but in the 1S fire-flies of 4 from thet tion. sf vegetables Seer. X. 2.9. MANURES. 195 Mr. Humboldt afférts, that on putting creffes, lepidium fativum, into oxygenated muriatic acid gas mixed with water, they produced germs in fix hours; while thofe in common water were thirty-fix hours before they produced germs. Jacquin at Vienna put many old feeds, which had been in vain tried if they would vegetate, into fuch a folution of oxygenated muriatic acid, and found great numbers of them quickly tovegetate. Journal de Phyfique, 1798. See Sect. XIV. aes. In the experiments of fir Francis Ford many plants, which were fprinkled with water previoufly impregnated with oxygen gas, are faid to have grown more vigoroufly, and to have difplayed more beautiful tints, than thofe nourifhed with common water. Other ex- periments are faid to have been made by inverting bottles filled with oxygen gas, and burying their open mouths beneath the foil near the roots of ‘vegetables, which are faid to have grown more healthy and beautiful, as the oxygen became abforbed, and was fucceeded by air like the common atmofphere. Philof. Magaz. 1798, p. 224. Fur- ther experiments are required on this fubject, fince the fluids of ve- getables would in ceneral appear to be hyperoxygenated from the oxygen emitted from the perfpiration of their leaves in the funfhine, and which is believed to arife from the decompofition of water in their arteries or glands. | g. We now come to the other ingredient, which conftitutes a much greater part of the at.nofphere than the oxygen, and this is the azote, or nitrogen ; which alfo feems much to contribute to the food or fuftenance of vegetables ; for though azote, or nitrogen, en- ters into animal bodies in much greater quantities perbaps than into vegetables, fo as to conftitute according to fome chemical philofo- phers the principal difference between thefe two great claffes of or- ganized nature ; yet it enters alfo into the vegetable fyftem, and is given out by their putrefaction ; and alfo when lime is applied to moift vegetables. it difengages from them both hydrogen and azote forming Voce | volatile 196. MANURES. SECT... 2am, volatile alkali, as afferted in the ingenious work of Lord Dundonald on the Connection of Agriculture with Chemiftry. The azote of the atmofphere, when air is confined in the inter- {tices of the foil newly turned over by the plough or fpade, contributes to the production of the nitrous acid by its union with the oxygen of the atmofphere, with which it was before only diffufed, or with the much greater fource of oxygen from thé decompofing water of the foil, At the fame time another part of the abundant azote combines with the hydrogen of the decompofing water of the foil, and produces ammonia or volatile alkali; which contributes to the growth of ve- getables many ways, as already def{cribed in No. 2. 6. of this Sec- tio. Ill. WATER. 1. The neceffity of much water in the progrefs of vegetation ap- pears from the great quantity, which exitts naturally in all parts of plants ; infomuch that many roots, as fquill and rhubarb, are known to lofe about fix parts out of feven of their original weight fimply by drying them before the fire; which quantity of moifture neverthelefs does not exhale in the common heat of the atmofphere during the life of the root ; as is feen in the growth of {quills in the {hops of the druggifts, and of onions on the floors of our {tore-rooms, 2. A fecond neceffity of much water in the economy of vegetation may be deduced from the great perfpiration of plants, which appears from the experiments of Hales and others ;_ who like Santorius have eftimated the quantity of their perfpiration from their daily lofs of weight; which however is not an accurate conclufion either in re- {peé& to plants or animals, as they both abforb moifture from the at- mofphere, as well as perfpire it. This great perfpiration of vegetables, like that from the {kin and lungs of animals, does not appear to confift of excrementitious mat- ter, becaufe it has in general no putrefcent fmell or tafte; but feems to T. X ‘$1, Dy 0 dong 1 the inter “ONtribute OXygen of oT with the ater Of the © Combines nd produces wth of Vee of this Secs getation ap- all parts of , are- known it fimply by neverthelels » during the {hops of the of vegetation hich appa" étorius have daily of of either from the J + and the {kin : ‘tjous titio™™ feet SECT. Ae 3+ 3- MANURES. 197 to be fecreted firft for the purpofe of keeping the external f{urface of the leaves from becoming dry, which would prevent the oxygen of the atmofphere from entering into the vegetable blood through them ; fince according to the experiments of Dr. Prieftley on animal mem- branes the oxygen will only pafs through them, when they are moift. A fecond ufe of this great perfpiration is to keep the bark fupple by its moifture, and thus to prevent its being cracked by the motion of the branches in the wind. And though a great part of this perfpi- rable matter is probably abforbed, as on the {kins of animals; yet as it exifts on fo large a furface of leaves and twigs, much of it mutt neceflarily evaporate on dry and windy days. 3. One of the great difcoveries of modern chemiftry is the decom- pofition of water, which is fhewn both by analyfis and fynthefis to confift of eighty-five hundredth parts of oxygen, and fifteen of hy- drogen. Hencea third great ufe of water in the vegetable economy is probably owing to its ready decompofition by their organs of di- geftion, fanguification, and fecretion. "This is evinced firft by the great quantity of hydrogen, which exifts in the compofition of many of their inflammable parts. And fecondly, from the curious circum- ftance, which was firft difcovered by the ingenious Dr. Prieftley, that the water, which they perfpire, is hyperoxygenated ; and in confe- quence always ready to part with its f{uperabundance of oxygen,when expofed to the fun’s light ; from whence it may be concluded, that part of the hydrogen, which was previoufly an ingredient of this wa- ter, had been feparated from it, and ufed in the vegetable economy, as is further treated of in Section XIII. 1. 2. ~ Add to this, that from the decompofition of water, when-confined in contact with air beneath the foil, the nitrous acid feems to-be pro= duced and ammonia, both which are believed ufeful to vegetation, as mentioned in No. 2. 6. of this Section. 4. Befides the peculiar ufes of a great quantity of water, as above defcribed, the more common ufes of it both to vegetable and animal life, 198 MANURES. SECT. X, 3. 5. life, along with the matter of heat, are to produce or preferve a due {upplenefs or lubricity of the folids, and a due degree of fluidity of the liquids, which they contain or circulate. And laftly, for the pur- pofe of diffolving or diffufing in it other folid or fluid fubftances, and thus rendering them capable of abforption, circulation, and fecre- tion. 5. The due irrigation of the foil is much attended to in drier and warmer countries, as in Italy, Egypt, and fome parts of China; ‘where numerous canals, and aqueduéts, have been dug through hills, and carried over vallies, for the purpofe of watering the foil; and even in this colder and moifter climate the practice of flooding land is coming daily into greater repute. For this occafional fuffufion of ‘water over land not only fupplies fimple moifture for the purpofes above mentioned in the drier parts of the feafons, but brings along with it calcareous earth and azotic air from the neighbouring {prings, or other.:manures from the rivers. Calcareous earth may be deteéted in the water of all thofe {prings which pafs under or over ftrata of marie or limeftone, by dropping into them a folution of falt of tartar; --or of fugar-of lead in water, or of foap in fpirits of wine; and a por ‘tion of azotic gas was difcovered in Bath-water by Dr, Prieftley, and in Buxton-water by Dr. Pierfon. See Se€tion XI. 3. 1. Dr. Home thinks he difcovered nitrat of lime in hard water, and found by his experiments that it promoted the growth of plants in a much greater degree than foft water. 6. Another demand for water in agriculture is to give a due penc- trability to the foil, which otherwife in moft fituations becomes fo hard as to ftop the elongation of the tender roots of plants; but the cohefion of the foil may neverthelefs be too much diminifhed by great and perpetual moifture, fo as not to give fufficient firmnefs to the roots of trees. And befides this too much as well as too little water may be fupplied to the generality of vegetables, which grow upon the land ; though there are aquatic and amphibious plants as well as 3 aquatic 85 and » and feere in drier and i of China; Nrough hill, he foils ang floodin g land il fuffution of the purpofes - brings along Iring {prings, y be detettel pver ftrata of falt of tartar; 2; and 4 pole Prieftley, au Dr. Home | found by his much great rea due pent Sect. X. 3. 7. MANURES. 199 aquatic and amphibious animals, and which differ from each other as fith and feals from quadrupeds. Where land abounds too much with moifture, the art of making {ubterraneous or fuperficial drains defcribed in Seét. XI. 1. muft be had recourfe to. But where thefe are not executed, in lands not very moift it is thought advantageous to fow the crops early before the wet feafon, fince corn will bear much more moifture after it has fhot from the feed, than the feed will bear; as the {eed is lefs tenacious of life, and in confequence more liable to putrify. The crops fhould like- wife be fown or planted thinner, and be reaped early in the feafon, as the exclufion of the air by thick foliage, and the greater dampnefs of the autumn, are liable to generate mildew in moift fituations. Per- haps it fhould be added, that fowing early, and the confequent reap- ing early, has fo many advantages in all feafons on all lands, that it may in general be univerfally recommended ; and that in wet lands it might be very advantageous to cultivate crops by tranfplantation ‘a the vernal months, having previoufly fowed the feed in drier or warmer fituations. See Sect. XVI. 8.1. : 7. Another injury in this climate occafioned by too great a quan- tity of water arifes from hafty fhowers; which wath off much of the decompofing animal and vegetable recrements, which are foluble or diffafible in water, and carry them down the rivers into the fea. From the fides of hills this damage is accomplifhed by {mall fhowers, on which account all floping grounds when applied to agriculture fhould be ploughed horizontally, as by the ridges and furrows thus produced the {maller fhowers of rain will not pafs fo haftily off, as when they are ploughed vertically. 3 A queftion here occurs, whether it be advantageous to plough level plains into ridges and furrows > the Chinefe are faid never to divide their fields into ridges and furrows, but to plant their grain on an even furface. Embafly to China by fir G, Staunton, Vol. IIL. p. 197, 8vo. edits Some think it an error to fuppofe, that any increafe of crop 200 MANURES. SECT. X. 3: 8, crop can be thus obtained, as no more plants can rife perpendicularly from the ground; but in the ripening of grain the furface of air to which the ears are expofed is alfo to be confidered ; which corref= ponds with the furface of the ground, and is increafed by its being Jaid in hill and dale. But there is a ferious objection to this mode of ploughing in moift fituations without, fufficient declivity, as the corn in the furrows appears weak and backward owing to the rain lying on it too long; and alfo to the beft part of fhallow foils being fre- quently taken from them to conftrué the ridges. See Se&. XVI. 2. 2. 8. Add to this, that the evaporation of moifture from the furface of the earth produces fo much cold as to injure thofe terreftrial plants, which are too long covered with it. On this account thofe parts of wall-trees, which are fheltered from the defcending dews bya coping {tone on the wall, are not fo liable to be injured by frofty nights on two accounts; both as they are not made colder by the evaporation of the dew, and alfo have lefs water to be congealed in their veffels, and by its expanfion to burft them. 9. Laftly, the foliage on buds of plants, which conftitute one part of their progeny, requires more moifture for its vigorous growth, than their flowers or organs of fexual generation. Hence in warm coun- tries the rice-grounds ,are flooded only till the feafon of flowering commences, and are laid dry again for the purpofe of maturating the feed; and in our climate continued rains are liable not only to wath off the farina from the burfting anthers, and thus prevent the im- pregnation of the piftillum, but alfo to delay the ripening of the fruit or feeds from the want of a due evaporation of their perfpirable mat- ter, as well as from the lefs folar light in cloudy feafons; whence in the north of Scotland the oats are {aid feldom to ripen till the froft commences with the dry feafon, which accompanies it. 10. ‘There are methods of procuring or prefervirig the falutary moifture of the foil befides thofe of canals and aqueduéts, which fhould ECy, x ¥ ‘ TPendic Cy| ‘ oth y, ag the = Seg, XVI 1M the furfie 1 - reltrial plants thofe parts of WS by a coping r ; 9 ofty nights o 1e evaporation n their velles titute one pat 5 growth, thi fn warm coll , of flowerilg he naturating' it. o the fo] ducts fh Sect. X. 4. I. MANURES. 201 fhould be here mentioned. Thefe are by ufing as manures fuch fub- {tances as perpetually attract moifture from the lower part of the foil, or from the atmofphere; as quick-lime, and vegetable and animal recrements in the act of putrefaction. : In hot-houfes fome have already employed fteam as a means both of giving warmth and moitture to the included plants, or to the foil in which they grow ; anda great variety of forcing pumps have been conftruéted for the purpote of moiftening the foliage of wall-trees ; but there is a hope from the prefent great progrefs of chemical re- {earch, that a means may fometime be ditovered of precipitating the water of the atmofphere, which the ingenious bifhop Wation thinks always exifts in it in fuch quantity as, if it was fudden!y precipitated, might again deluge the world. Iv. CARBON. 1. When animal and vegetable bodies are burnt without the accefs of air, that is, when their volatile parts are fublimed ; there remains a great quantity of charcoal, a much greater in vegetable bodies than in animal ones ; this is termed carbon by the French {chool, when it is quite pure; and is now known to be one of the moft univertal materials of nature. And as vegetable bodies contain fo much of it in their compofition, they may be f{uppofed to abforb it intire, where they grow vigoroully ; efpecially as it isa fimple material ; but they may poffibly form it alfo occafionally from water and air within their own veflels, when they are fecluded from accefs to it exter- nally. The whole atmofphere contains always a quantity of it in the form of carbonic acid, or fixed air; as is known by the {cum, which pre- {ently becomes vifible on lime-water, when expofed to the air; and which confifts of a reunion of the lime with carbonic acid; which may therefore be faid to encompafs the earth, , Dd The 202 MANURES. Sect. X. 4. 2, The fimplicity of carbon, as an elementary fubftance, was difputed by Dr. Auftin, who believed he had decompounded it. But Mr, Henry, by accurately repeating his experiments, has fhewn the fal- lacy or inconclufivenefs of them. Philof. Tranfac. 1797. 2. Another great refervoir of carbon exifts in limeftone in the form of carbonic acid; which when a {tronger acid is poured on the cal- careous earth becomes a gas, acquiring its neceflary addition of heat from that, which is given out in the combination of the ftronger acid with the lime. It alfo acquires its neceflary heat, when limeftone is burnt, from the confuming fuel, rifes in the form of gas, and is dif- fipated in the air; and probably foon fettles on the earth, as it cools, as it is ten times heavier than the common atmofphere. 3. But the great fource of carbon exifts in the black earth, which has lately been left by the decompofition of vegetable and animal bo- dics; and is then in a ftate fit to combine with azote or nitrogen, and with oxygen, when expofed to thofe two gaffes, as they exift in the atmofphere ; and is thus adapted either to promote the gene- ration of nitrous acid, or to form carbonic acid, and thus to affitt vegetation. 7 Morafles confift principally of the carbonic recrements of vegeta- ble matters, which are gradually decom pofed in great length of time into clay, with argillaceous fand, fuch as is found over coal-beds, and fome calcareous earth, as in marl; and laftly, with fome iron, and foffile coal. Thefe by elutriation are feparated from each other, and form the ftrata of coal countries. In other places they remain in- termixed, as they were probably produced from the decompofition of vegetables and terreftrial animals ; and form what in books of prac- tical agriculture is called a foamy {oil, confifting of carbonic matter, fand, and clay, with a portion of iron, It has always been obierved, that this black garden mould, or earth produced from the recrements of vegetables, is capable of abforbing a much greater quantity of putrid effluvia than either air or water, and 6 probably Cr, X, 4. Yas dif ~ W Bu M, ~ n th i € fal. an the for ap the cal TON of hey ronger ac Meftone i s And is dif 1y aS it Cools, earth, which d animal bo- OF nitrogen, as they exif te the gene hus to afiif ts of vegete ngth of time oal-beds, and ne 1r0t, and *h other, and remald ine ‘ mpolitio? o ooks of pra sonic matte tay ) SECT Aa deals MANURES. 203 probably of combining with ‘ts ammonia, and producing a kind of he- par carbonis, and thus facilitating vegetation. The practice of bu- rying dead bodies fo few feet below the furface is a proof of this; as the putrid exhalations from the carcafs are retained, and do not pene- trate to the furface. On the fame account the air over new plough- ed fields has long been efteemed falutary to invalids, or convalef- cents, as it probably purifies the fupernatent atmofphere. But it was not till lately known that carbon, or charcoal, abforbs with fuch great avidity all putrid exhalations; if it has been recently burnt, and has not been already faturated with them, infomuch that putrid fleth'is faid to be much fweetened by being covered a few inches with the powder of charcoal; or even by being buried for a time in black garden mould; as putrid exhalations confift chiefly of ammonia, hy- drogen, and carbonic acid, and are the immediate products of the diffolution of animal or vegetable bodies, they are believed much to contribute to vegetation ; as whatever materials have conftituted an organic body, may again after a certain degree of diffolution form a part of another organic body. The hydrogen and azote produce am- monia, which combining with carbon may form an hepar carbonis, | and by thus rendering carbon foluble in water may much contri- bute to the growth of vegetables. It has been faid, that fome moraffes have prevented the animal. bo- dies, which have been buried in them, from putrefaétion ; which may in part have been owing to the great attraétion of the carbon of the morafs to putrid effluvia, and in part perhaps to the vitriolic acid, which fome moraffes are faid to contain. 4. Here occurs an important queftion, by what other means is this folid carbon rendered ‘fluid, fo as to be capable of entering the fine mouths of vegetable abforbents? The carbon, which exifts in the atmofphere, and in limeftone, is united with oxygen, and thence becomes foluble or diffufible in water; and-may thus be abforbed by the living aétion of vegetable veffels; or may be again combined by d 2 chemical 204 MANURES. SECT. X. 4.4. chemical attraction with the lime, which has been deprived of it by calcination.» When mild calcareous earth, as limeftone, chalk, marble, has been deprived of its water and of its carbonic acid by calcination, it be- comes lime. Afterwards when it is cold, if water be iprinkled on it, a confiderable heat is inftantly perceived; which 1s prefled out by the combination of a part of the water with the lime; as all bo- dies, when they change from a fluid ftate to a folid one, give out the heat, which before kept them fluid. At the fame time another part of the water, which was added, is raifed into fteam by the great heat given out as above mentioned; and the expanfion of this fteam breaks the lime into fine powder, which otherwife retains the form of the lumps of limeftone before calcination. But if too great a quan- tity of cold water be fuddenly added, no. fteam is raifed; and the lump of lime retains its form; whence it happens, that fome kinds of lime fall into finer powder, and are faid to make better mortar, if flaked with boiling water than with cold. On this account the lime, which is defigned to be fpread on Iand, fhould previoufly be laid on a heap, and either fuffered to become moift by the water of the atmofphere, or flaked by a proper quantity of water; otherwife if it be fpread on wet ground, or when fo fpread is expofed to much rain, the heat genérated will be diffipated with- out breaking the lumps of lime into powder; which will then gra- dually harden again into limeftone, difappoint the expectation of the agricultor, and afflict him with the lofs of much labour and ex- pence. When the powder of flaked lime mixed with fand and water is fpread on a wall, that part of the water which is not neceflary for its imperfect cryftallization, evaporates into the air; and the lime then gradually attra€&ts the carbonic acid, which is diffufed in the atmo- {phere ; but as I fuppofe this carbonic acid is diffolved in the water, which is alfo diffufed in the atmofphere; the lime is perpetually moiftened Prefleg te “4 88 all by “s Sive Out IME another by the teat of this fear ins the form reat a quan. ed and the t fome kinds er_mortar, if ead on [and, yecome moit ¢ quantity of en fo fpread fl pated with |] then g@ tation of the gur and and water § its Sect. X. 4. 5+ MANURES. 205 moiftened by this new acquifitien of water from the air; as that, which before adhered to it, and had parted with its carbonic acid, eva- porates. On which account new built walls are months, and even years, in drying, as they continue to attra water along with the carbonic acid from the air, which ftands upon them in drops, till the lime regains its original quantity of carbonic acid, and again hardens ‘nto ftone, or forms a {par by its more perfect or lefs difturbed cryf{- tallization. 5. The earth I fuppofe acquires carbon, both in a manner fimilar to the above by its attracting either the carbonic acid, or the water sn which it is diffufed, from the atmofphere ; and alfo by the {pecific gravity of carbonic acid gas being ten times greater than that of common air; whence there muft be conftantly a great fediment of it on the furface of the earth ; which in its ftate of folution in oxygen and water may be readily drank up by the roots of vegetables. _ 6. Another means by which vegetables acquire carbon in great quantity may be from limeftone diffolved in water ; which though a flow procefs occurs in innumerable fprings of water, which pafs through the calcareous or marly ftrata of the earth 3 as thofe of Mat- lock and Briftol in pafling through limeftone ; and thofe about Derby in paffing through marl ; and is brought to the roots of vegetables by the fhowers, which fall on foils, where marl, chalk, limeftone, mar- ble, alabatter, fluor, exift ; which sncludes almoft the whole of this jfland. By this folution of mild calcareous earth in water not only the carbon in the form of carbonic acid not yet made into gas, but the lime alfo, with which it is united, becomes abforbed into the ve- getable fyftem, and thus contributes to the nutriment of plants both as fo much calcareous earth, and as fo much carbon. 7. Another mode by which vegetables acquire carbon, may be by the union of this fimple fubftance, with which all garden-mould abounds, with pure calcareous earth into a kind of hepar, analogous to the hepar of fulphur made with lime, which abounds in fome mi- neral 206 MANURES. SECT. X. 4, 8, neral waters. And this I fuppofe to be the great ufe of lime in agri- culture. For the purpofe of afcertaining the probability of this mode of fo- lution of carbon I made the following experiment. About two ounces of lime in powder were mixed with about as much charcoal in powder, put into a crucible, and covered with an inch or two of filiceous fand. ‘The crucible was kept red hot for an hour or longer, and then fuffered to cool. On the next day water was poured on the lime and charcoal, which then ftood a day or two in an open cup, and acquired a calcareous fcum on its furface. And though it had not much tafte, except of the caufticity of the lime, yet on dropping one drop of marine acid into a tea-{poonful of the clear folution a ftrong {mell like that of hepar fulphuris was perceived, or like that of Harrogate water; which evinced, that the carbon was thus ren- dered foluble in water. Perhaps the fulphureous {mell of Harrogate and Kedlefton waters, and other fimilar fprings, may be owing to the union of the alkali of decompofing marine falt with the carbon of the earth, they run through ? and this kind of water might thus poflibly be ufed asa profitable‘manure ? 8. Another mode by which vegetable roots acquire carbon, I fuf- ‘pect to be by their difuniting carbonic acid from limeftone in its fluid not its gafleous ftate; which the limeftone again attracts from the atmofphere and confolidates, or from other matters included in the foil. Firft, becaufe lime is believed by fome agricultors, who much employ it, to do more fervice in the fecond year than in the firft, that is in its mild ftate, when it abounds with carbonic.acid, than in its cauftic ftate, when it is deprived of it. Secondly, that the ufe of burning lime feems hence to be fimply to reduce it to an impalpable powder, almoft approaching to fluidity; which mutt facilitate the application. of the innumerable extremities of vegetable fibres to this uncalculable increafe of its furface; which may Ur or Longe, Oured on the AN Open Cup, hough it hag r On droppin eat folutiog ; , OF Like thy was thus rev: lefton waters, of the alkel rth, they ru be ufed at carbon, | fu! ne in its ful aéts from the -Juded in the _ who mut is the fit Sect. X. 5.1. MANURES. 207 may thence acquire by their abforbent power the carbonic acid from thefe minute particles of lime, as faft as they cam recover it by che- mical attra€tion from the air, or water, OF from other inanimate {ubftances in their vicinity. } Thirdly, the hyper oxygenation of the perfpirable matter of plants, which thence’ gives up oxygen gas in the funthine, would induce us to believe, that a great part of the carbon, which furnifhes fo prin- cipal a part of vegetable nutriment, was received by their roots in the form of carbonic acid; and that it becomes in part decompoied in. their circulation, giving up its oxygen; which thus abounds in.the fecreted fluids of vegetables from this fource, as well as from decom- pofed water. g. Another way by which carbon is received into the vegetable: fyftem is by its exiftence in. fugar and in mucilage 5 both which are taken up undecompounded, as appears by their prefence in the vernal: {ap-juice, which is obtained from the maple and the birch ; which. like the chyle of animals, 1s abforbed in its undecompounded. ftate.. Vv. PHOSPHORUS. :, Another materiali which exifts,. I believe, univerfally in: vegeta- bles, and has not yet been {ufficiently attended. to, is phofphorus.. This like the carbon, nitrogen, hydrogen, and fulphur, is probably a fimple fubftance; as our prefent chemiftry has not yet certainly analyfed any of them ;. and therefore I f{uppofe it is taken up intire by the abforbent veflels: of vegetables, when it can be met with in a: ftate of folution ; though it may alfo.be occafionally formed and fe- ereted by them; and may hence be regiftered among the articles of their food or fuftenance. When wood is decompofed by putrefaction in a. certain degree of warmth and: moifture, it is often feen to emit much light in dark eveningsy, when recently broken and expofed to the oxygen of the: atmofphere,. > 208 MANURES. SECT Aegon atmofphere, fo as to alarm benighted paflengers; which is undoubt- edly owing to the phofphorus, which it contains, and which is at this time converted into phofphoric acid. Such a light frequently is feen on putrefcent veal, when kept in a certain degree of warmth and moifture ; and on the fea- weed placed on the oyfters packed in bar- rels, and fent into the country; and in the ftreets of Edinburgh, where the heads of the fith called whitings or haddies are frequently thrown out by the people, I have on a dark night eafily feen the hour by holding one of them to my watch. 2. The exiftence of phofphorus in vegetables was detected by . Margraaf; who found, that many vegetable matters, particularly fa- rinaceous grains, contain enough of the phofphoric acid to produce phofphorus, when they are expofed to great heat in clofe veffels. Macquer’s Chemical Dictionary tranflated by Mr. Keir, Vol, I. p- 535, Art. Phofphorus. Phofphorus has been detected in gum arabic, fugar, honey, flour, and in every kind of vegetable or ani- mal fubftance by the procefs of making the phofphorus of Homberg. And the exiftence of phofphorus in greater quantity in all the parts and recrements of animals, as in their flefh, dung, urine, and bone- afhes, and moft copioufly in the two latter, is evinced in the fabrica~ tion of Kunkel’s phofphorus. Whence its univerfal exiftence 1s dif- covered in thefe two great kingdoms of nature. See the above Dict. Art. Pyrophorus. The moft eafy procefs for producing Homberg’s phofphorus con- fifts in mixing three parts of alum with one of fugar, wh.ch are to be expofed to a great heat in a covered crucible, till a bluith flame has appeared for fome time. It muft then be fuffered to cool a little, and be put into a dry hot bottle, and clofely ftopped from the air. A drachm of this powder will afterwards, when poured from the bottle into the open air on paper, quickly kindle, become red like burning coals, and burn the paper, which it lies upon. Hence we may conclude, that vegetable bodies, as well as animal ones, ! ire frequent, E feen the how > detected f ar ticularly fy, “id to produc 1 clofe vefle, .eir, Vol, Il ected in gum zetable or ati _ of Hombers, n all the part ine, and bout in the fabrice ciftence I dit he above Dit ofphorus om | a si ot we Sect. X. 5. 3 MANURES. 209 ones, contain acid of phofphorus ; and that in this experiment the acid of the alum takes the fixed alkaline falt from the vegetable afhes, and the calcareous earth, if fuch there be, and that the car=- bon unites with the oxygen of the phofphoric acid; and. the vege- table phofphorus is left mingled with the earth of alum; exactly im the fame manner as the animal phofphorus is-obtained from the afhes of bones, or the falt of urine, by calcining them in clofe veffels with: charcoal. 3. An important queftion now occurs ; if this fimple material of phofphorus be not generally made in the veflels of vegetables, whence- do they acquire it? ‘They may probably obtain it in confiderable quantity from the recrements of decaying vegetable and animal bo- dies ; as it appears in rotten wood, and in putrefying fith, and exifts. in fuch large quantities in bone-afhes, and in the falt of urine. But: I fuppofe there is another great fource of phofphorus, I mean in cal- careous earth, which alfo has been of animal origin in the early ages. of the world. If an oyfter-fhell be calcined for about half an hour in a:common: fire, and is then kept from the air in a cold place ; when it is after- wards expofed for a while to the funfhine, and brought into a dark room, it willappear luminous like the calcined Bolognian ftone ; which is owing to the phofphoric acid thus deprived of its oxygen by the carbon of the fire-coals, and intermingled with the pure calcareous. earth or lime of the fhell; and which again combining with the oxy- gen of the air, both light and heat are emitted in the reproduction of phofphoric acid. See Wilfon on Phofphori, Dodfley, London, 1795. The Bolognian ftone is a felenite or gypfum, which confifts of” vitriolic: acid and calcareous earth, and.I fuppofe of acid of phofpho- rus; fince on mixing the powder of this ftone with gum arabic, and calcining it fome time, a kind of phofphorus is produced fimilar to the above, owing I fuppofe to the carbon of the fire coals, or of the gum. arabic, carrying off the oxygen from the phofphoric acid . which pre- C vioufly: 210 MANURES. Sect, A. sxe vioufly exifted both in the calcareous earth of the felenite, and in the afhes of the gum arabic. | Mr. Canton, in the Philof. Tranfa@. Vol. LVIII. p. 337, pub- lifhed his making a pyrophorus by calcinimg oyfter-fhells, and then mixing them reduced to powder with fulphur, and recalcining them in clofe veffels. This powder after being expofed to light, or heated by other means, became luminous in the dark for many minutes. By this procefs the acid of phofphorus exifting in the animal thell had ‘been decompofed by the red hot fulphur having robbed it of its oxy- gen; and thus the phofphorus remained united with the calcareous earth. -M. Du Fay, in a memoir publifhed in the year 1730, aflerts from experiments, that all calcareous ftones, whether they contain vitri- olic acid or not, are capable of becoming luminous by calcination ; with this difference only, that the pure calcareous {tones require a f{tronger or repeated calcination ; whereas thofe, which contain an acid, as felenites, or gypfum, become phofphoric by flighter calcination, - M. Margraaf alfo afferts, that all kinds of calcareous ftones may by calcination be rendered phofphoric; but thinks, that the pure ones fhould be previoufly faturated with an acid. Kear’s Did. Art. Phof- i] phorus, And laftly, fome kinds of fluor, which is known to confitt of calcareous earth and the fluor-acid, emit phoiphoric light on being heated flowly, but loofe it, when much ignited. (Kirwan’s Minera- logy.) This material might probably as well as gypfum become ufe- ful in agriculture. 4. Thefe experiments, which fhew that all common calcareous ftones, which contain only carbonic acid, were rendered phofphoric by calcination ; but that thofe which did contain a fixed acid, as gyp- fum, and fluor, were rendered phofphoric with lefs difficulty, acquaint us firft with perhaps one very important ufe of lime in agriculture. Secondly, with that alfo of eypfum, or alabafter, which has lately been ufed in America and in Germany without previous calcination ; but CT, xX % c, and ; \d Ih the Sy a Icinins ing then ‘, or heatai Minutes, By al thell hai It of its OXy. he Calcareoy, » afferts from Contain vitr. 7 Calcination: nes require : ntain an acid, +r calcination, ones may by he pure ones +, Art. Phof- wn to confit ight on being yan’s Miner ; » become Ui pn calcaredt® Sect. X. 5. 5. MANURES. 216 but which might probably be more fuccefsful after calcination. And thirdly, with the probable ufe of fluor fpar in its recent or calcined: ftate. As there is reafon to believe, that the vegetable fyftem may abforb phofphorus from any of thefe materials ; which phofphorus may originally have been of animal origin, as well as that which ex- As in feces and urine. And laftly, the ufe of recent fhells or bones ground into powder, or of bone-athes, fpread on land may be deduc- ed; as they confift almoft entirely of phofphorus and calcareows: earth. 5. In the converfion of fhells into limeftone there feems to have been either fimply an additional quantity of carbonic acid attracted: from the air or from water during the proceffion of ages, and added to the calcareous earth, or alfo- a diminution of the phofphoric acide. But an union of phofphoric acid only with lime has lately been found tocompofe whole mountains in Spain, which is mentioned by Fourcroy,. and is now termed phofphate of lime, refembling bone-afhes. And M. Brumaire lately received from Spain a yellowifh tranflucent ftone, called chryfolite by the jewellers, which he found to contain nearly equal parts of phofphoric acid and calcareous earth, and to bea {par or cryftallization of the phofphate of lime. And as the limeftone at Breedon has lately been difcovered to contain equal parts of mag=- nefia and lime, we may hope by greater attention to difcover a moun tain of phofphate of ime in our own country. See Nicholfon’s Jour- nal 17938, p- 414. From hence it would appear, that the immenfe quantities of lime-- ftone in the world, which was originally formed from the fhells of fabmarine animals, has during the long lapfe of time. loft more or lefs of its original phofphoric acid, and-acquired more or lefs. carbonic acid. "The carbon. diffolved in the atmofphere oF in the ocean having thus flowly decompofed the phofpheric acid-in the elaboratory of na- ture without great heat, as it does in our crucibles in a. fhort time: by the affiftance of great heat. Ee2 It 212 MANURES. Sect X, gg: It is probable that much phofphorus may be confumed in our inar- tificial mode of burning lime, which might be preferved by calcining limeftone in clofe set. ae thus detaching the carbonic acid eel out admitting the aerial oxygen to the baat sacs but the advan- tage to agriculture of fuch a procefs can only be determined by expe- riment. There are many inftances given by Mr. Anderfon, and by Lord Kaims, of foils which are faid to have been for ages uncommonly fertile without addition of manures or culture, Thefe are plains near the fhore in the county of Caithnefs, and in the Hebrides, and are faid to confift almoft entirely of fhells broken into very {mall parti- cles, without almoft any mixture of other foil. See Encyclop. Britan. Art. Agricult. Now the foil of an extenfive country called Lincoln Heath I obferved fome years ago to confift in a great degree of pow- dered limeftone, which like the Ketton limeftone appeared in {mall rounded particles, which I fuppofe had in remote times been diffoly- ed in water, and again precipitated ; which thews a probable differ- ence between this lime and recent fhells in refpeé to their antiquity, and confequently that the former muft contain much of the original phofphoric acid, and the latter only carbonic acid. And as Rice Heath was then efteemed a very unproduétive foil, there is reafon to infer that the phofphoric acid in recent fhells is of greatly more fer- vice to agriculture than the carbonic acid of alluvial limeftone, or than calcined lime alone. Hence it is probable, that a greater quantity of phofphoric acid may exift in fome marles than in others, as well asin fome limeftones ; thus the appearance of recent fhells exifts in the lime near Loughbo- rough in Leicefterfhire, in the road to Nottingham, and in fome marles called fhell-marle; which muft therefore probably contain much more phofphoric acid, fo as almoft to refemble the bones of animals ; and may thus be more friendly to vegetation. A piece of Jand is mentioned by Mr. Anderfon, that, after a thick coat of marle laid Mati. IN g ; ; " Ia, te “ale - : lo Ph th With, F ‘ advan, Ae ' by Xd, ind by Lori NComMmoy| © plains ney des, and ar {mall patti. ‘Clop. Britay, Hed Linco) Arce of POWs ared in {mall been diffoly. bable differ: ir antiquity, ‘the original J as Lincola , is reafon t0 ly more fer= meftone, {ph oric acid Jimeftones Sect. X. 6. 1 MANURES. 213 laid on it, bore crops for thirty years without additional improve-~ ment, and I think it was called fhell-marle. See Encyclop. Britan. Agricult. . 6. A medical philofopher, M. Bonhomme, has endeavoured to fhew, that the hardnefs of animal bones depends on the quantity of phofphoric acid united to calcareous earth, which they contain ; and that the rickets, a difeafe in which the bones become too foft, is folely » owing to the want of it, or to the exiftence of the vegetable acid — inftead of it. Annales de Chemie, Vol. XVII. May we not con- clude, that the prefence of phofphoric acid in the vegetable fyftem - muft be of importance ; becaufe it fo univerfally exifts in them, and may probably give firmnefs to liqueous as well as to offeous fibres? To which may be added, that M. Fourcroy believes, that the afhes of burnt vegetables, which have been fuppofed to confift of earth or clay, when the fixed alkali is wafhed from them, are principally cal- careous phofphorus, like thofe of animal bones. The fame is afferted by Lord Dundonald in his Conne¢tion of Agriculture and Chemiftry, p. 25, who calls the infoluble part of vegetable afhes a phofphat of lime. This fubjec& is worthy further inveftigation. VI. LIME. Many of the principal ufes of calcareous earth in promoting the growth of vegetables have been already mentioned in this fection, which we fhall recapitulate with additions. 1. One great ufe of calcareous earth I fufpeét to confift in its unit- ing with the carbon of the foil in its pure or cauftic ftate, or with that of vegetable or animal recrements during fome part of the procefs of putrefaction ; and thus rendering it foluble in water by forming an hepar carbonis, fomewhat like an hepar fulphuris produced by lime and fulphur, as mentioned in No. 4. 7. of this Sect. ; by which pro- cefs 204 MANURES, SECT. X. 6, z, cefs I fuppofe the carbon is rendered capable of being abforbed by the lacteal veffels of vegetable roots. The black liquor, which flows from dunghills, is probably a fluid of this kind ; but I mean to fpeak hypothetically, as I have not veri- fied it by experiment; and the carbon may be fimply fupported in the water by mucilage, like the coffee drank at our tea-tables; or may be converted into an hepar carbonis by its union with the fixed alkali of decaying vegetable matter, or by the volatile alkali, which accompanies fome {tages of putrefa&tion. See No. 10. 3. of this Sec- tion. 2. A fecond mode of its ferving the purpofes of vegetation I believe to be by its union with carbonic acid, and rendering it thus foluble in water in its fluid {tate inftead of its being expanded into a gas; and that thus a great quantity of carbon may be drank up by vegeta- ble abforbent veflels. In the praétice newly introduced of watering lands by deriving ftreams over them for many weeks together, I am informed that wa- ter from {prings is generally more effectual in promoting vegetation than that from rivers; which though it may in part be owing to the azotic gas, or nitrogen, contained in fome fprings, as thofe of Buxton and of Bath, according to the. analyfis of Dr. Prieftley, and of Dr. Pearfon; yet I fuppofe it to be principally owing to the cal- eareous earth, which abounds. in all f{prings, which pafs over marly foils, or through calcareous ftrata ; and which does not exift in rivers, as the falts wafhed into rivers from the foil all feem to decompofe each other, except the marine falt, and fome magnefian falt, which are carried down into the ocean. The calcareous earth likewife, which is wafhed intorivers, enters into new combinations, as. into gypfum, or perhaps into filiceous fand; and fubfides. Thefe folutions of calcareous earth in thofe waters, which are termed hard waters, and which incruft the fides of our tea-kettles, may poffibly alfo con- tribute robably bh bei +t With the fy alkali, Whit tation T belin it thus fol) ed into a Da ; Up by veret rds by derivns yrmed that we ting vegetatio t be owing tt ss. as thole a >) 9 -Prieftley, 2! 3 the ct ping t0 yafs over at 0 fibly d esi Sect. X.:6. 3) MANURES. 215 tribute to the nutriment of animals, as mentioned in Zoonomia, Part III. Article I. 2. 4. 2. 3. A third mode, by which lime promotes vegetation, I fuppofe may be afcribed to its containing phofphorus ; which by its union with it may be converted into an hepar, and thus rendered foluble in water, without its becoming an acid by the addition of oxygen. Phofphorus is probably as neceflary an ingredient in vegetable as in animal bodies; which appears by the phofphoric light vifible on rot- ten wood during fome ftages of putrefaction 5 in which I fuppofe the phofphorus is fet at liberty from the calcareous earth, or from the fixed alkali, or from the carbon of the decompofing wood, and ac- gen from the atmofphere ; and both warmth and light are emitted during their union. But phofphorus may perhaps more fre- quires Oxy quently exift in the form of phofphoric acid in vegetables, and may thus be readily united with their calcareous earth, as mentioned in No. 5. 6. of this Section, and may be feparated from its acid by the carbon of the vegetable during calcination, and alfo during putrefac- tion, which may be confidered as a flow combuftion. The exiftence of a folution of phofphoric acid and calcareous earth in the veffels of animals is proved by the annual renovation of the fhells of crab-fith, and by the fabrication of the egg-fhells in female birds ; and is occafionally fecreted, where it cements the wounds made on fnail-fhells ; or where it joins the prefent year’s growth of a {nail- fhell to the part, where a membranous cover had been attached for the protection of the animal during its ftate of hibernation. And laftly, it is evident from the growth of the bones of quadrupeds, and from the depofition of callus to join them where they have been broken. 4. Lime in its pure ftate is foluble in about 6co times its weight of water ; and by a greater quantity of carbonic acid than is neceflary for its cryftallization, it is foluble in water in much greater quan- tities, as appears by the calcareous depofition of the water at Mat- lock ; 216 MANURES. Secr. X. 6. 5. lock ; and may I fuppofe fupply a nutritious fubftance by uniting with mucilage or oil, either in the earth at the roots of vegetables, or on the furface of the foil, which may be gradually wafhed down to them. If a folution of foap be poured into lime-water, the oil of the foap combines with the calcareous earth, and the cauftic alkali is fet at li- berty, according to the experiments of Mr. Bertholet ; (fee Nichol- fon’s Journal, Vol. I. p. 170,) who concludes, that oil has a ftronger affinity to calcareous earth than it has to fixed alkali. At the fame time it appeared, that a folution of the mild or effervefcent fixed al- kali poured on this calcareous foap would decompofe it by twofold elective attraction ; as the carbonic acid of the mild fixed alkali unites. with the calcareous earth of the calcareous foap, and the oil unites with the pure or cauftic alkali. Many arguments may be adduced to fhew, that calcareous earth either alone, or in fome of the ftates of combination above mention- ed, may contribute to the nourifhment both of animals and vegeta- bles. Firft, becaufe calcareous earth conftitutes a confiderable part of them, and muft therefore either be received from without, or formed by them, or both. Secondly, becaufe from the analogy of all organic life, whatever has compofed a part of a vegetable or animal, may again after its chemical folution become a part of another vege- table or animal; fuch is the general tranfmigration of matter ! 5. There are other ufes of lime in agriculture, which may not be afcribed to it asa nutritive food for vegetables, but from its produc- ing fome chemical or mechanical effe&ts upon the foil, or upon other manures, with which it is mixed; as firft, from its deftroying in a fhort time the cohefion of dead vegetable fibres, and thus reducing them to earth; which otherwife is effected by a flow procefs, either by the confumption of infects, or by a gradual putrefaGtion. This is faid to be performed both by mild and by cauftic calcareous earth, as in the experiments both of Pringle and Macbride, It is faid that unburnt I (fee Nichg, has a rong. At the fans icent fixed g. it by twof d alkali units the oil units Icareous earth bove mention als and vegeti in fiderable pat n without, > analogy od ible or ania another veg matter ! Sécr. X.. 6.3. MANURES. 217 unburnt calcareous earth forwards the putrefaction of a mixture of animal and vegetable matter. But that pure lime, though it feemed to prevent putrefaction, deftroyed or diffolved the texture of the flefh. Thus I am informed, that a mixture of lime with oak-bark, after the tanner has extracted from it whatever 1s foluble in water, will in two or three months reduce it to a fine black earth ; which if only laid in heaps, would require as many years to effect by its own {pon- tancous fermentation or putrefaction. This effect of lime mutt be particularly advantageous to newly enclofzd commons when firft broken up. Mr. Davis, in the papers of the Society of Arts, Vol. XVI. p. 122 afferts, that on a common, which had been previoufly covered with heath, but was otherwife very barren, the effect of lime was very advantageous for about ten years, during which time the vegetable roots might be fuppofed to have been diffolved and expended ; but that a fecond liming he obferved produced no good effect. It is pro- bable the good effect might not: be fo great, but I fhould doubt the circumftance of its producing no good effe&t at all. | Mr. Browne of Derby has alfo an ingenious paper in thé tranfac- tions of the Society of Arts, in which he afferts, that recent vegeta- bles, as clover, laid on heaps and {ratified with frefh lime, are quickly decompofed, even in a few days. The heat occafioned by the moif+ ture of the vegetables uniting with the lime I fuppofe quickens the fermentation of the vegetable juices, and produces charcoal in con- fequence of combuftion, fimilar to that frequently produced in new hay (tacks, which if air be admitted burft into flame. Secondly, lime for many months continues to attra& moifture from the air or earth; which it deprives I fuppofe of carbonic acid, and then fuffers it to exhale again, as is feen on the plaftered walls of new houfes.. On.this account it muft be advantageous when mixed with dry or fandy foils, as it attracts moifture from the air above, o1 } the ‘ 218 MANURES. Sec. X. 6am the earth beneath; and this moifture is then abforbed by the lym. phatics of the roots of vegetables. Thirdly, by mixing lime with clays it is believed to make them lef{s cohefive; and thus to admit of their being more eafily penetrated by vegetable fibres, Fourthly, a mixture of lime with clay deftroys its fuperabundancy of acid, if fuch exifts ; and by uniting with it converts it into gypfum, or alabafter. Fifthly, when lime is mixed with a compoft of foil and manure, which is in the flate of generating nitrous acid, it arrefts the acid as it forms, and produces a calcareous nitre, and thus prevents both its exhalation and its eafy elutriation. And laftly, freth lime deftroys worms, fnails, and other infects, with which it happens to come in contaét, and with which almoft évery foil abounds. 6. The various properties of lime above defcribed account for the great ules of it on almoft all lands; except perhaps fome of thofe which already abound with calcareous earth. On riding from Beckingham to Sleaford, and from thence to Lin-- coln, I was, informed by three or four farmers, that lime had been: tried, but was. believed to be of no fervice in that country. Nor: was I furprifed at this obfervation, as I had feen fragments of allu- vial limeftone thrown out of every ditch on the road, which was of a: loofe texture, confifting of calcareous fand, like the Ketton limeftone,. rounded by friction, before it was confolidated into a mafs, the up- per furface of which was broken into fragments, when it was raifed from the fea by fubterraneous fires, or by its cooling from a hot ftate or its drying from a moift one. Thus, as I had ridden over one fingle alluvial limeftone above ten miles broad and above twenty long, the broken. furface of which appeared.in the bottom of almoft every ditch, I concluded, that the foil muft be calcareous earth mixed only with fome animal and ve- getable TabUndang ito 8¥ plum, 3 the acid 43 events both ther infeds, hich almof ount for the me of thole ence to Litr ne had beet antry. Not ents of allu- rich was oft on limeftonts nafs, the ¥P" it was ail m 4 hot fratt Secor. X. 6. 6. MANURES. 219 getable recrements, and that an addition of pure lime could probably not be of much advantage to the vegetables it fupported. And the fame 1 fuppofe muft occur ‘n thofe fituations, where the furface of the foil confifts almoft totally of chalk, which is another kind of alluvial limeftone; that is, which has been diffolved in water in the .early ages of the world, and again depofited. Yet even in fome foils, which abound in calcareous earth, lime is efteemed to be of fervice 5 which may be owing both to its cauftic quality, and to its being fo finely pulverized. For a part of the wa- ter, which combines with it after calcination, gives out fo much ‘heat as to convert another part of it into fteam ; which breaks the cal- cined lime-lumps into a moft {ubtile and impalpable powder, ap- proaching even to fluidity, as mentioned in No. 4. 4. of this Section. In the parifh of Hartington in Derbythire there is a ftratum of hard limeftone, or marble, as am informed, immediately beneath a {hallow foil, and which in many places peeps through it; yet on fome of this land an ingenious active agricultor has laid lime on the grafs in great quantity with prodigious advantage ; and that he con- tinues annually to improve by this means a confiderable extent of land. The difference between the hard limeftone of this part of Derby- fhire, and the foft fand-formed limeftone about Lincoln Heath and Sleaford, may render the incumbent -foil'to be more or lefs mixed with calcareous earth ; or they may abound more or lefs with phof- phoric acid, as mentioned in No. 5. 5. of this Seétion. But it may have happened, that fome prejudices of the farmers, who gave'me the information, might have led them to condemn the ufe of lime about Sleaford and ‘Lincoln ; and I fhould again recommend it to their fe- rious attention. Another improper fituation for the ufe-of lime is faid to be on thofe lands, which are too wet, and which therefore fhould be previoufly drained ; otherwife the lime is faid to coalefce into a kind of mortar, oe ae! and 220 MANURES. Stet Rae re and become fo hard, that the tender plumula. of growing feeds, ar the fine extremities of their roots, can: not eafily penetrate it. ‘This may occur more certainly in that kind of lime, which contains man- ganele, and is therefore capable of fetting under water, as, I {uppofe,. the barrow lime of Leiceflerfhire, and agnes lime near Afhbourn in Derby fhire. | 7- The great and general advantage of lime in all foils and’ alf fituations, except fome of thofe which are already replete with cal- careous earth, or are too moift, can. only be underftood. from the idea already mentioned of its {upplying actual nutrition to vegetables; and this feems. more probable, as.it contributes fo much to the meliora- tion of the crops, as. well. as to their increafe in quantity.. Wheat from land well. limed is believed by farmers, millers, and bakers,. to be,. as. they fuppofe, thinner fkinned;. that is, it turns out. more and: better flour ;: which I fuppofe is owing to. its containing more ftarch. and lefs. mucilage.. Hence we perceive another very important ufe-of lime in cultivae. tion of land may be owing to its forwarding the converfion of mu-. cilage into ftarch, that is. to.its forwarding the ripening of the feed; which is a matter of great confequence in this climate of fhort and cold fummers. See Sed. VI. 3..and XVI. 3. In refpe&t to grafs-ground I am informed, that if a {padeful of lime: be thrown on.a tuflock, which horfes or cattle have refufed to eat for years, they will for many fucceeding feafons eat. it quite clofe to the: ground; which is owing, I fufpe&t, to the gra{s containing more: fugar in its joints; or to the lefs acidity of all its juices, 8. There are not only fome other bodies, which poffefs. a calca- reous bafe, befides the common limeftone, as.gypfum, fluor, bone- afhes, and perhaps vegetable afhes ; but there are others which are occafionally united with carbonic acid,. and may be detached from it by calcination, as the aerated barytes and magnefia. The latt in its calcined ftate may poffibly be as ufeful in agriculture as the lime of calcareous 4 5 LUDDofs TO iy foils ek TE With ca. OM the; the idea ctables 5 and he Melior. ty. Whee id bakers, ty ut. more and more ftarch ie in cultiva rfion of mu- of the feed; of fhort and deful of lime fed to eat fot ~ clofe to th ‘tng mote taining © Seerck: 7. 7. MANURES. 221 calcareous earth, with which I believe it is frequently mixed. For Mr. Fennant affured me a few days ago, that he had analyfed the limeftone of Breedon in Leicefterfhire, and found it to contain nearly as much magnefia as calcareous earth, befides fome manganefe; which -s neverthele(s a lime much efteemed in this country both for archi- tecture and agriculture. As magnefia exifts in fea- water, and in falt fprings, it may render thefe waters ufeful as a manure as well as the marine falt, which they contain. As fteatites or foap-ftone confifts principally of magnefia, perhaps this limeftone of Breedon may be: worth the attention of the porcelain manufactorye. This magnefian lime of Breedon is further worthy attention in the cultivation of land, and particularly where a foil abounds with vitriol of iron, or where it abounds with gypfum, as about Chelafton on the banks of the Derwent, and from Nottingham to Newark on the: banks of the Trent, as the magnefian earth would unite with the vi- triolic acid, and leave an ochre of iron in one cafe, and lime in the other; at the fame time a foluble falt, called Epfom falt, would be formed, which, according to the experiments of Dr. Home, promotes rapid vegetation. To fow afew pecks of eypf{um reduced to powder on grafs land, as is done in, America; and then. to fow upon this twice or thrice as much Breedon lime,. might be an experiment which might be advantageous in the part of Derbyfhire next to Leicefter- fhire,, where both of them are ta be obtained at no great.expence.. VIIe CLAY, METALLIC OXYDES, NITRE, SEA*SALT. t. The too great adhefion of the particles of argillaceous earth or clay renders it in its pure ftate unfit for vegetation.; as the tender fibrils of roots can with difficulty penetrate it, whence it becomes much improved for the purpofes of agriculture, when it is mixed with calcareous earth and with filiceous fand, as in marle. It is commonly believed that lumps of clay become meliorated by bein g a MANURES. SECT. Xu 9, Bs being expofed to froft in its moift ftate, which by expanding the wa- ter, which it contains, by converting it into ice is fuppofed to leave the particles of the clay further from each other. ‘This however feems in general to be a miftaken idea, fince if the a& of freezing ' be not very fuddenly performed, a contrary effect feems to occur, as noticed by Mr. Kirwan ; who obferves, ‘* that clay in its ufual ftate of drynefs can abforb two and a half times its weight of water with- out fuffering any to drop out, and retains it in the open air more per- tinacioufly than other earths ; but that in a freezing cold clay con- tracts more than other earths fqueezing out its water, and thus part- ing with more of it than other earths.” Mineralogy, Vol. I. p. 9. This curious circumftance, that water, as it cryftallizes, detrudes the clay, which is diffufed in it, correfponds with other facts of con- gelation. Thus when wine, or vinegar, or common falt and water, or a folution of blue vitriol in water, are expofed to frofty air; the al- cohol, the acetous acid, the marine falt, and the calx of copper, are all of them detruded from the aqueous cryftals, and retreat ‘to the central part of the fluid, or to that laft frozen, or into ‘numerous cells furrounded with partitions.of ice, as I have frequently obferved:; whence it appears, that ‘wet clay is in general rendered more folid and tenacious by being frozen, as well as when it is dried, and its moifture exhaled by too warm ‘a fun; and by both thofe circum- cumftances becomes lefs adapted to the purpofes of agriculture. 2. In moft clays a kind of effervefcence occurs, after they are turned over, and thrown on heaps, and thus acquire air into their in- teftines, which renders them much fitter for the purpofes of vitrifica- tion; and thus:forwards the procefies of the brick-kiln and pottery. This greater facility ‘to vitrify is probably effedted by the union of oxygen with the iron, which moft clays contain ; as oxydes of lead and manganefe are ufed in the more perfect vitrifications. The calciform:ores, or oxydes, of iron, manganefe, and zinc, are frequently found near the furface of the earth, where they have been I united me ufval fats Water with, alr more vt old Clay co, nd thus pat. ol, Lp, ). ZS, detruds facts: of cons and water, o y air; thea: of copper, at etreat ‘to the ito “‘Numeross atly obferved: i. more {oli dried, and ts Hhofe circu culture after they . - into theit ‘es of gitrilice Secv ke. 9e3: MANURES. 223 united with oxygen by the pafling currents of the atmofphere; and have been fuppofed to have originated from the decompofition of ve- eetables and animal bodies, as mentioned in Botanic Garden, Vol. I. additional note 18. Iron has been deteéted in all vegetable and animal: matters, manganefe in fome of them; and, if we poflefled a teft for difcovering fuch minute particles of zinc, as the magnet difcovers of iron, it is probable, that zine alfo would be deteéted in the vegetables, which grow over its beds... As fome philofophers have lately contended for the great utility of exygen in vegetation, as Humboldt and Von Uflar ; who affirm from: their experiments, that hyper-oxygenated muriatic acid ufed in {mall quantities promotes both the growth and irritability of plants ; there: is reafon to fufpe@, that the calciform ores of iron, manganefe, and zinc, as well as minium, and other calces or oxydes of metals made by fire, and even burnt clays, when ftrewed on the ground, may eontribute to vegetation by their parting with their abundant oxygen in a fluid, not in a gaffeous form ;. which uniting with carbon, or phofphorus, or nitrogen, without. emitting perceptible heat or light,. might fupply nutritious fluids to the roots of vegetables ; further ex- periments-are wanted on this fubje@.. But Iam well informed, that a: red ocher of iron, called raddle, has-been ufed on fome lands. with ad-- vantage in the north: of Staffordfhire; and fhould recommend atrial of manganefe in thofe countries, where it abounds, as near Kingfbury, and near Atherftone in Warwick fhire ; and:a trial of lapis calaminaris,, where it abounds, as near Matlock in Derbyfhire; and even of’ the: ealciform ore of lead, which. is found. in Anglefey, and on the top of: fome other lead mines. M. Humbold afferts, that he mixed'many feeds into a kind of pafte: with the black oxyde of manganefe, and poured over it the muriatic: acid diluted with water, in. the proportion of about fix of water. to one of acid; and that much.oxygen was thus difengaged, and occafion-: ed. 224 MANURES. Sect. X, 7 ed quick vegetation. Journal de Phyfique, 1798. See No. 2. 8, of this Seéction. 3. When clays are turned up with the fpade, as is ufual in prepar- ing them for the brick kiln, a kind of effervefcence occurs, as men- tioned above ; which is probably owing to the efcape of the azote of , the air imprifoned in the interftices, as the oxygen unites with fome metallic particles in the clay; or to fteam raifed from the water in the clay by the heat fet at liberty from the combination of the oxy- gen and the iron. This union of oxygen with iron 1s curioufly al. moft vifible in many granates or porphyries; which I have feen thinly fcattered in large nodules near Cannock in Staffordfhire, in the road from Lichfield to Shrewfbury ; and on breaking them have ob- {erved no appearance of iron on the newly divided furfaces ; but which in a few days acquired an ochery appearance on them, which pene- trated nearly half an inch. This can not but be afcribed to the oxygen of the atmofphere having united with the iron in thefe ftones, which by their fmell, when breathed upon, contain indurated clay, and hav- ing converted into an oxyde either the clay itfelf, or fome metallic particles included in it. There is neverthelefs an exhalation from clay, and perhaps from moft foils, when they have been previoufly dried, and then fprinkled with water, as after a fhower in f{ummer, which has been fuppofed to be falubrious to invalids and convalefcents, This remarkably oc- curs, when dry clay is breathed upon even in its moft indurated ftate, as in granites and porphyries, by which criterion thefe {tones are im- mediately diftinguifhed from the filiceous and calcareous ones. This I imagine is produced by the heat fet at liberty by the combination of dry clay and water, like that produced in fo much greater degree by the combination of lime and water ; and that this heat raifes a part of the acquired moifture into fteam, in which are diflolved the odor- ous particles; both which probably caufe the quick vegetation on clayey. foils after the fhowers in fummer. When 1€ Water iy OD Of the ov. i CUrioufly i QO I have feey ordhhire, 10 the Ces ; but which 1, W hich penes VilV d to the oxyset e ftones, which d clay, and ha- - fome metal 1 perhaps from | then fpriokled s been fuppotl rema rkably © ‘ndurated fate 2 ftones a . Thi ous ones * wv, SECT. X. 7. 4. MANURES. 225 When marl, which confifts of clay, calcareous earth, and fand, which are frequently coloured red by iron, or blue probably by man- ganefe, is expofed in {mall lumps to the atmofpheres it is lable to crumble into powder, which 1 fuppofe to arife from a fimilar circum= {tance ; that the oxygen of the atmofphere uniting with the-clay, or the metallic particles it poffeffes, lets at liberty the fame gas, or fteam, which is feen to rife from clay, when thrown on heaps for the brick kiln or pottery ; which breaks the lumps into powder, as the lumps of lime are ‘broken into powder by the fteam, which is generated when water is thrown on them, by the heat fet at liberty by the combination of the lime and water. This union of oxygen with the clay, or with the metallic particles mingled with it, I f{uppofe to be much facilitated by expofing it toa sed heat, as in burning bricks; while a greater heat may unite fo much oxygen with it as to turn it into glafs. Exactly fuch a pro- cefs-occurs in the produétion of minium ; a-certain quantity of heat with the contact of air combines fo much oxygen with the melted lead, as to form an oxyde ; a greater quantity of heat converts it inte glafs. 4. When clay is united with fo much oxygen by fire as to form a foft or imperfe& brick, it poffeffes the power of promoting the ge- neration of the nitrous acid in certain fituations; which is frequently feen like an efflorefcence on mouldering walls, having become by the addition of lime a calcareous nitre. The ufe of thefe foft bricks in the production of nitre is well known in Paris, where the rubbifh of -old houfes is regularly purchafed for that purpofe; which before the evolution was a royal manufacture. As thefe foft efflorefcent bricks from old houfes are known power- fully to promote vegetation, when pulverized and mixed with the foil ; at the fame time that they-are capable of producing the nitrous acid; I imagine, that the-ufe of paring and burning the turf of fome newly enclofed commons depends on this circumftance. ‘That 1s, Gg that 226 MANURES. Seer. eng, that the heat emitted from the burning vegetable fibres unites oxygen with the clay; which latter forms more than half of the flices of turf, as they are dug from the ground. In other refpects the paring and burning of grafs grounds would certainly be a wafteful proce- dure ; as much carbon is converted into carbonic acid, and difperfed along with the uninflamed {moke or foot, and nothing left but the vegetable afhes. From thefe confiderations it would ‘probably be worthy experiment in farms, where coal and clay abound, to burn the latter to a certain degree; which might fupply an exhauftlefs fource of profitable manure. 5. Ihave fufpected alfo, that this calcined a as it exifts in foft bricks, has a power of decompofing marine falt, as I once obferved in a cellar, where beef had been long falted on one fide of a nine-inch wall, the wooden {falting-tub for which was attached to it; that a great efflorefcence appeared on the other fide of the wall, which I believed to be foffile alkali or natron. If this idea be juft, the foft bricks from old buildings, or clays fo far purpofely burnt, may in this manner be ferviceable to vegetation, by feparating the foflile al- kali from the fea-falt, which is wafhed from decompofing animal and vegetable fubftances ; which by converting carbon into an hepar car- bonis, as lime is fuppofed to do in No. 6. 1. of this Seétion, might render it foluble in water, and capable of being abforbed by the lymphatic veffels of the roots of plants. If clay calcined to a certain degree, and thus united with OxY8 en, pofieffes the power of decompoling marine falt, there is reafon to believe, when it is more flowly united with oxygen by its expofure to the atmofphere by the {pade or plough, that it may poffefs the fame property; and that this may have given rife to the very con- tradictory reports concerning the ufe of fea-falt in agriculture ;_as it may probably be of great advantage to clayey foils, but perhaps not fo to other foils. See Set. XIV. 2. 8. 6. Another faline body, which readily unites with argillaceous earth tex ? xhauftle exifts in {oF nce obferyel if a nine-inch to it; thats vall, which | jut, the fof urnt, may i the foflile al. 1g animal and aun hepar cat- Etion, migit orbed by the with oxyges e 1S realon t9 y its expolut ay poflel ‘i he very E ~ylrures . but pe 5 th sf}ace? argil ) se] eal Sect. X. 4 7 MANURES. 227 earth in the fire, is falt of urine, commonly called microco{mic falt, which aéts as a flux diffolving clay with confiderable effervefcence. Kirwan’s Mineralogy, Vol. I. p. 9- This microcofmic falt confifts of phofphoric acid united with an ammonical, or with a calcareous bafe ; and muft in the latter cafe refemble the phofphat of lime, of which there are whole mountains difcovered in Spain, as mentioned in No. s. 5. of this Section ; and of which many may probably be difcovered in our own country. Now as the fame combinations of matter, which are quickly formed by the heat of the chemift’s furnaces, are often performed, though more flowly, in the elaboratory of nature 3 it is probable, that if this calcareous phofphorus could be procured in this country, reduced to powder, and fpread on our clay lands, that it might more than any other calcareous matter render them friendly to vegetation, like the afhes of burnt bones ; which experiment alone can determine. 7. As clay is lefs adapted to the growth of the roots of plants by the too great cohefion of its particles, this may be in fome degree corrected by frequently expofing it to air imprifoned in its inter- ftices, as by turning it over by the plough or fpade. Another me- thod is by planting on it fuch vegetables firft as are known to grow well in clay, as beans, and as their roots are afterwards left in the clay, they not only thus form tubes in it, fo as to render the mafs lefs cohefive ; but add to it fo much carbon, and thus rather enrich than impoverifh it. Add to this that the lower leaves of the denfe fo- liage of thefe vigorous vegetables are believed to give out much car- bonic acid by their refpiration in the fhade fimilar to the refpiration of animals ; which perpetually finking down upon the furface of the foil is believed to fupply it with carbon; and thus alfo to render it more nutritive to other vegetables, which may afterwards grow upon it. Lord Kaimes, who allows that clay, if it be moiftened after it has been pulverized, becomes on drying as indurated and cohefive as Gg2 before, 228 MANURES. Szct. Rog. before; afferts, that this does not happen, if it be moiftened with the fluid, which efcapes from dunghills; which may be owing both to the carbon, and to the fixed vegetable alkali, which that fluid con- tains. And alfo adds, that lime will prevent the cohefien or indura- tion of clay, and therefore greatly improves argillaceous foils for alk the purpofes of agriculture. 8. Wher clay abounds with vitriolic acid fo as to be converted: into alum, it becomes very unfriendly to vegetation. In this ftate it is believed much to counteract the procefs of putrefaction in animal bodies, as is faid to have happened in fome burying grounds. This it may effect by uniting with the ammonia generated by putrefaCtion the moment it is formed, or by preventing its produétion ; as when the falt of Neville Holt water in Leicefterthire, which I {uppofe is. alum, is mixed with very putrid blood, as I once witnefled, the pus trid {cent was inftantly deftroyed, as I fuppofe the argillaceous earth was precipitated. . Where this acid or aluminous clay abounds, it is believed to: check. the vegetation of trees as well as of herbaceous plants by ereding the © fine extremities of their roots, as mentioned in Set. EE. g. which is. perhaps beft to be remedied in gardens by wood-athes or foap-fuds,, and m larger fields by mixing lime, or chalk in powder, or the {weepings from roads, which are repaired by limeftone, with thefe aluminous clays. Or laftly, where it can be procured, by mixing with them fuch limeas thet of Breedon in Leicefterthire, which con- fifts of equal parts of magnefia and calcareous earth, which would thus fabricate what has been termed Epfom falt, which is faid to be : friendly to vegetation. VIII. MANURES BY SPONTANEOUS DECOMPOSITION. We fhall now confider more generally the decompofition of Organ ized matter, which vegetable and animal bodies {pontaneoufly un- dergo, l . . 1Oils fo, al C Converted this fate i 10 animal inds, This PUtrefaction Ny; as When I fuppofe i led, the pls ACEOUS earth ped to:check eroding the g. which i yr foap-fuds, rder, or the with thele ; by mixing which cole rhich would is faid to TION: on of og” N° neoully ; derg” sect. X.81. MANURES. 229 dergo, when they ceafe to live. The proceffes of this decompofition have commonly been divided into the vinous, acetous, and putrefac- tive fermentations; which have been fuppofed uniformly to fucceed each other. But it is more probable, that different kinds or parts of dead organized matter may be fubje& to many diferent kinds of chemical changes, and that thefe may vary with the degrees of heat, and the quantity of water, and of air, with which they are fur- rounded. t. In the flomachs of animals a faccharine procefs precedes the vinous fermentation ; which laft only occurs, when the animal power of digeftion or abforption is for a time fufpended. A fimilar procefs occurs in the germination of vegetable roots, whereby meal is con- verted into fugar, as in the malt-houfe; and in the gradual ripening of apples and pears, after. they are plucked from the tree; but all thefe may be faid to be (ill alive ; and this change of meal or of mucilage into fugar may thus be efteemed a vegetable rather than a chemical proce(s. ; The art of cookery, by expofing vegetable and animal fubftances to heat, has contributed to increafe the quantity of the food of man- kind by converting the acerb juices of fome fruits into fugar, as in the baking of unripe pears, and the bruifing of unripe apples ; in both which fituations the life of the vegetable is deftroyed, and the con- verfion of the harfh juice into a {weet one muft be performed by a chemical procefs ; and not by a vegetable one only, as the. germina tion of barley in making malt has generally been fuppofed. Some large round auftere pears were yefterday, November 20, fhewn me after having been nine hours in the oven behind a kitchen fire covered fome inches with water in a fteam-pot. On tafting them they were {weet, and {oft, and appeared to have had at leaft the heat of boiling water. They were replaced in the oven, and kept in it twelve hours longer ; and then became nearly as fweet as: fyrup or treacle; which might in part have been occafioned. by the i : evaporation 230 MANURES. DEGH fk js ts evaporation of half the water. From this curious circumftance there feems reafon to conclude, that in a degree of heat about that of boil- ing water the faccharine procefs may fucceed ; and at the fame time that the procefs of fermentation may be prevented from exifting ; which I hope may induce fome chemical philofopher to inveftigate by experiments this curious and important fubjec. Some circumftances, which feem to injure the life of feveral fruits, feem to forward the faccharine procefs of their juices. Thus if fome kinds of pears are gathered a week before they would ripen on the tree, and are laid on a heap and covered, their juice becomes {weet many days fooner. ‘The taking off a circular piece of the bark from a branch of a pear-tree caufes the fruit of that branch to ripen fooner by a fortnight, as I have more than once obferved. The wounds made in apples by infects occafion thofe apples to ripen fooner; ca- prification, or the piercing of figs, in the ifland of Malta, is faid to ripen them fooner; and I am well informed, that when bunches of grapes in this country have acquired their expected fize, that if the {talk of each bunch be cut half through, they will fooner ripen. The germinating barley in the malt-houfe I believe acquires not half its fweetnefs, till the life of the feed is deftroyed ; and the fac- charine procefs then continued or advanced by the heat in drying it ; though I have lately been informed that fome grains of malt will ve- getate after having been dried in the ufual manner, which however may have been owing to their not having been previoufly fuffered perfectly to germinate. Thus in animal digeftion the fugar produc- ed in the ftomach is abforbed by the lacteals, as faft as it is made ; otherwife it ferments and produces flatulency ; fo in the germination of barley in the malt-houfe fo long as the new plant lives, the fugar I fuppofe is abforbed, as faft as it is made; but that which we ufe in making beer is the fugar produced by a chemical procefs after the death of the young plant, or which is made more expeditioufly than the plant can abforb it. . It eer: . h Aftang, the t that oF bi fever] fruit lus if fons TAPED On the Comes five the bark fon D ripen fone The wound 1 fooner; « ita, is faid to en bunches of ze, that if the ner ripen. acquires not > and the fit in drying tt * malt will ve hich howevé Sect. X. 8.2. MANURES. 231 It is probably this faccharine procefs, which obtains in new hay- {tacks too haftily ; and which by immediately running into fermen- tation produces fo much heat as to fet them on fire. The greateft part of the grain, or feeds, or roots, ufed in the diftilleries, as wheat, canary feed, potatoes, are not I believe previoufly fubjected to ger- mination ; but are in part by a chemical procefs converted into fugar, and immediately fubje€ted to vinous fermentation. And it is proba- ble, a procefs may fometime be difcovered of producing fugar from ftarch or meal; and of feparating it from them for domeftic pur- pofes by alcohol; which diffolves fugar but not mucilage; or by other means. This then may be termed the faccharine fermentation, and may exift I fuppofe beneath or upon the earth in the beginning of fome {pontaneous vegetable decompofitions, previous to the vinous fer- mentation; and may fupply thus a very nutritive material to vege- tation; fimilar to that which the embryon plants in the feeds of many fruit-trees acquire from their fruits; and to that, which the em- bryons in many farinaceous feeds acquire from the fpontaneous change of the meal in their cotyledons ; though perhaps in lefs quan- tity and purity. 2. A fecondary procefs to this I fuppofe to be the vinous fermen- tation, in which much carbon becomes united to oxygen ; and pro- bably at the very inftant of their combination, while they are yet in the form of a liquid, and not of a gas, they become abforbed by the roots of plants. The heat, which is perceived in the hotbeds, which are ufed for the growth of cucumbers and melons, is produced by this union of oxygen and carbon, or by the generation of fome other acids, as of phofphorus, or nitre. | That this heat is owing to the atmofpheric air combining with: fome inflammable bafe, and producing acidity of fome kind, appears. from the following experiment. A few years ago.a gardener told me that a hot-bed, which he had made of tanner’s bark with fome horfe 232 MANURES. Sect. X, 8. 3, horfe dung and ftraw, was become too cold for the growth of his pots of cucumbers. He was defired fimply ‘to turn over the bed, and fhake every part of it in the air, with his fork, as he lightly re- placed it. This was complied with, and in a few days I obferved by touching a ftick, which had for fome hours been inferted into it, that it -had acquired the ufual heat of a hot-bed. : This addition of heat was doubtlefs acquired from the air, which was recently included in the interftices of the bed by its being turned over, broken into {mall pieces, and expofed to the atmofphere; whence new acids feem to have been generated, and carbon, and per- haps phofphorus and nitrogen, rendered foluble in water. Great heat is produced from the union of oxygen with thofe bafes of acidity, which in large ftacks of new hay is often ‘known to excite real combuftion ; the violent fermentation of which may be partly owing tothe fugar, which is depofited in the joints of grafs before the feeds are ripe for their nourifhment, and partly to:a chemical production of fugar, as above defcribed. 3. Inthe putrefactive procefs carbon is not only converted into carbonic acid, as above related; but there appears to be a decom- pofition of water, as is known by the fmell of hydrogen ; and it is probable, this inflammable body may unite with carbon, as in hy- drocatbonate gas, and thus render them both foluble in water, and abforbable by the veffels of vegetable roots, without their paffing into an acid or gafleous form, and may much contribute to the nutriment of vegetables, 4. There alfo appears at the end of the putrefadtive procefs to be a jun@ion of azote with oxygen producing the acid of nitre, which probably may contribute much to promote vegetation. This appears from the mode of procuring that acid in France and Pruffia, and which might be fuccefsfully practifed under every fhed in our own ' farm-yards ; as it confifts in a due mixture of vegetable and animal recrements with foil, frequently turned over to expofe it to the air, while ur, Whig Deng tums atmofphere. OD and pr t Great hea Sof acidity © excite rey partly owing fore the feed ‘al production onverted into be a decom: en; anditi yn, as in hy a water, aid ir paffing int he nutrimet! rocels to be nitres whit Sect, X. 9. 1 MANURES. 233 while it is defended by a fhed from the funfhine and rain; which is thus at the fame time adapted to produce the quickeft vegetation, and to generate the nitrous acid. N23 The oxygen, which compofes nitrous acid, is believed to adhere more weakly to its bafe the azote, than in the compofition of other acids. On this account it fo readily explodes by its junction with carbon in a given degree of heat. This loofe adherence of the oxygen in nitrous acid, like that of hyper-oxygenated marine acid, and of the oxygen in the ore of manganefe, and of fome other metallic oxydes, may adapt them to promote vegetation by their more readily parting with this material fo effential in the compofition of plants. 5. From the above obfervations it appears, that when the foil is turned over by the {pade or plough, and thus acquires atmofpheric air in its interftices, and in confequence becomes warm by the pro- duétion of new acids, that the feeds or plants fhould be inferted as foon as convenient, for the purpofe of their receiving the moft fa- lutary effect of thofe operations. Nor fhould this be obferved only in black garden mould, or well manured glebes, where carbon or phofphorus may be fuppofed to abound, and a proper difpofition for the produétion of the nitrous acid, but in thofe clays alfo which are pure enough for the brick-kiln or the pottery. IX. MANURES BY CHEMICAL DECOMPOSITION. The ufe of fire and water contributes to increafe the nourifhment of mankind by rendering many vegetable materials innocuous, and others digeftable in the animal ftomach ; and feems particularly effi- cacious in promoting the faccharine procefs, and in producing muci- lage from griftles, horn, hair, and perhaps even from bones by means of Papin’s digefter. Whether this art could be advantageoufly ufed for the purpofe of rendering manures capable of being abforbed by H vegetable 234 | MANURES. Seer. X.9. 2: _ vegetable roots in a ftate of lefs decompofition, than by the flow pro- cefs of putrefaction, is a queftion of curiofity and utility. Sugar and mucilage are certainly abforbed by vegetables without their being refolved into.the elements, from which they were com- pofed ; as appears in the fap-juice which flows from the wounds of birch and maple trees in the vernal months; which I am informed will pafs into fermentation and produce wine; a procefs which fome modern chemift affirms cannot be effefted by fugar alone without the addition of mucilage. The abforption of mucilage feems to oc- cur in the germination of many feeds, as of barley ; a part of the meal of the cotyledon is evidently converted into fugar, but another part of it is probably abforbed in the form of mucilage; fome of which oozes on breaking the plumula; and in the growth of thofe feeds, which contain oil, asin almond, hemp, rape, and line-feed, it igs probable, a part of the undecompofed oil may be abforbed by the um- bilical veffels of the.embryons in thofe feeds. It hence feems credible, that by the ufe of heat and water the art of cookery might furnifh mucilage, fugar, and oil, from vegetable or animal materials; which might be converted into {ap-juice or chyle, without. their being previoufly reduced into their elements; and might thus facilitate the more luxuriant growth of plants, as they contribute more to fatten animals, than materials of lefs combina- tion. 2. Tothis might be added, that the putrefactive procefs may be forwarded by heat in fome materials by deftroying the life of the ma- terial; as in roafting apples and pears, and in killing the roots of po- tatoes, or the feeds of corn. Thus Mr. D , a friend of mine, had twenty ftrikes of potatoes, which he wifhed. to dry on a malt- kiln, hoping to render them more like the meal of wheat, and better to preferve them during the fummer-months. Whether they were fufficiently dried he did not attend to; but they were carried into a granary, and laid on heaps; and in a week or two became fo putrid, that ST, +¢ Ms 1e flow Dto, les = | — COM. , Wounds of im Infor Which fome one Withous ‘EMS to OC. t of the med another pat ne of which thofe feeds, -feed, it js 1 by the um- ter the art of vegetable or ice or chyle, sments; ald nts, as they {5 combine cefs may ¥ Sect. X. 9. 2 MANURES. 235 that the fmell was infufferable, his {wine refufed to eat them, and he was obliged to add them to the manure of the dunghill. That potatoes, which have undergone a certain degree of heat, contribute more to fatten all kinds of animals, arifes from the acri= mony of their rinds being deftroyed, and from their auftere juices be- ing converted into mucilage, and perhaps a part of their mucilage ‘nto ftarch, and are hence ready for the faccharine and oily procefies of animal digeftion. A very convenient method of expofing them to fteam is defcribed in a late ingenious publication of the Acricul- tural Society. A {mall boiler is fet in brick work under a fhed, fo that the flame of wood or coal may pafs fpirally round it. It fhould be covered with a double lid of tin or wood to prevent much heat from efcaping ; and may have a fand-joint to keep the fteam in, or a little moift clay, or even a wet flannel put circularly round the cover may anfwer this purpofe. Near this furnace is to be fixed a large barrel on one of its ends, with a cover on the other end; which may be occafionally opened to admit potatoes, and clofed again fo as to confine the fteam, which ss to be derived into it from the boiler by a double pipe one within the other, of tin or wood, about two inches in diameter. By thefe meatis a large quantity of potatoes may be rendered much more nu- tritive to animals, and I fuppofe to vegetables (if they were ufed as manure), as they may thus probably be abforbed by their lacteals or lymphatics without being fo much decompofed as by the putrefactive procefs ; and thus produce nutriment in lefs time, and by lefs labour of digeftion. | If the fteam could be made hotter than boiling water, which it pof- fibly may in the veffel above defcribed, if the water in it rifes but a few inches, and the fteam after it is produced, is heated above 212 degrees by the fides of the boiler above the water, round which the flame plays fpirally, the fteam thus made hotter might probably render the potatoes more mucilaginous or more ftarchy. Hh2 ; 3.A 236 MANURES. Sect. X. 9. 4. 3- A ftill more effeétual method of diffolving hard vegetable and animal fubftances, and rendering them nutritive, might be by digeft~ ing them for fome time in water raifed to a much greater heat than that of boiling. This is to be done in a clofe veifel, called Papin’s digefter ; in which it is faid, that the confined water may be made red hot; and will then diffolve hair, horns, hoofs, bones, tortoife- fhell, and all animal, and perhaps many vegetable matters; which might thus facilitate their decompofition for the purpofes of manures, or for the nutriment of many animals; and might even contribute to the food of mankind in times of fcarcity. This veffel fhould be made of iron, and fhould have an oval opening at top, with an oval lid of iron larger than the aperture. This lid fhould be flipped in endways, when the veffel is filled, and then turned, and raifed by a {crew above it into contact with the under edges of the aperture. There thould alfo be a fmall tube or hole covered with a weighted valve to pre- vent the danger of burfting the digefter. 4. Other materials might be rendered more eafily digeftible, and thence more nutritive to animals, and perhaps to plants, by mechanic trituration as well as by cookery; if the labour and expence were not too great ; as the grinding of graffes, {traws, and farinaceous feeds into powder between mill-ftones ; which have been called the arti- ficial teeth of fociety. It is probable, that fome foft kinds of wood ground into powder, and efpecially when they have undergone a kind of fermentation, and become of loofer texture, or boiled to deftroy their acrimony, might be rendered ufeful food for {wine or horfes, and even for mankind in times of famine. Nor is it improbable, that hay, which has been kept in ftacks, fo as to undergo the faccharine procefs, may be fo managed by grinding and by fermentation with yeaft like bread, as to ferve in part for the fuftenance of mankind in times of great fcarcity. Dr. Prieftley gave to.a cow for fome time a ftrong infufion of hay in large quantity for her drink, and found, that the produced during this treatment above : ’ 11d be made } Oval lid of a end ways, Crew above here thould alve to pre. eftible, and y mechanic pence were \ceous feeds 4 the art ds of wood gone a kind to deftroy > oF horles Suey. Kgue i MAMNMURES. 237 above double the quantity of milk. Hence if bread cannot be made from ground hay, there is great reafon to fufpeét, that a nutritive be- verage may be thus prepared either in its faccharine ftate, or fer- mented into a kind of beer. Tt may be here obferved, that it is believed by fome, that feeding horfes with ground corn, as with the flour of beans or oats, does not ftrengthen them nearly fo much as by giving them the fame quantity of oats or beans whole. Parkinfon, Exper. Farmer, Vol. I. p. 227. It is afferted alfo that foup, with the flefh-meat boiled down intoa fluid mafs, will give much lefs ftrength to a man, than he would acquire by eating the folid meat, of which the foup was made. The reafon of both thefe feems to arife from the faliva being well mixed with the matticated food, and in greater quantity ; which therefore becomes more animalized aliment, than that diffolved in water alone, and is . more eafily converted into nutriment. In times of great fearcity there are other vegetables, which though not in common ufe, would moft probably afford wholefome nourifh- ment, either by boiling them, or drying and grinding them, or by both thofe proceffes in fucceflion. Of thefe are perhaps the tops and the bark of all thofe vegetables which are armed with thorns or prickles, as goofeberry-trees, holly, gorfe, and perhaps hawthorn, The inner bark of the elm-tree makes a kind of gruel. And the roots of fern, and probably very many other roots, as of grafs and of clover, taken up in winter, might yield nourifhment either by boiling or baking, and feparating the fibres from the pulp by beating them ; or by getting only the ftarch from thofe which poffefs an acrid muci- lage, as the white briony. The grinding of bones to powder has already been applied to agri- culture, and the chopping of woollen rags; and I fuppofe the tritu- ration of alabafter, and of chalk, and of foft bricks, and probably of iron ochres, manganefe, and calamy, might well repay the labour ; after 238 | MANURES. Sect. X. ro. f, after a few experiments had been inftituted to determine the quans tity, which fhould be ftrewed on different foils. X MANURES BY INSECT PROPAGATION, 1. That the continual growth and decay of animal and vegetable nature increafes the quantity of {uch matter, as is fit for the repro- duction of organized bodies, is evinced by the increafing fertility of cultivated countries ; fince even in thefe a great quantity of the an- nual recrements of decompofed animals and vegetables are wafhed by rains from the foil, and carried down the rivers into the ocean ; and in many fituations of foil in Africa and America, which have been but lately cultivated, there exifts a wonderful fertility from the agere- gate remains of vegetable and animal bodies; which have for une counted ages arifen and perifhed there ; and which have either left morafles, where they could not part with their fuperabundant wa- ter; or a fertile earth, fuch as in our gardens and church-yards, where the declination of the ground was more favourable. Some countries on the-contrary once highly cultivated and very populous are in procefs of time become deferts of fand; as many parts of Syria, and the diftri€ts about Palmira, and Balbec. ‘This has probably been owing to the want of the neceflary moifture in thofe warm and fandy regions ; which was formerly fupplied by artificial derivations of water; but which ceafed, after their inhabitants were deftroyed by war and tyranny ; and fecondly to the rapid ftreams oc- cafionally poured over them by the monfoon floods ; fimilar to thofe which impoverifh Abyffinia and Nubia, while they fertilize the flat and fhowerlefs provinces of Egypt. We might add, that all calcareous ftrata are now believed to have been produced by fhells depofited by aquatic animals in the early ages of the world; and that the materials, which conftitute the ftrata above 4 them, 2 "yy Ne t} ‘ Qe Quan, ANd Veg, d tah for t| Pai leptg ING fertility of Ity of the a, are Wathed }y 1€ OCean ; al uch have bee ‘om the ager, have for u, ave either le rabundant wis church-yatt able. rated and Vell fand ; as mal) yec, This bs sifture in thot ed by att habitants "e" sid ftreatns miler to he er tilize | ¢ Iie SECT. X. 10. 2. MANURES. 239) them, have afterwards been formed by the recrements of terreftriak animal and vegetable bodies, Whence it may be concluded, that ve- getables and animals during their growth increafe the quantity of matter fit for the more nutritive food of organized bodies, or of that which is lefs decompounded ; while they muft at the fame time occa- fionally form or elaborate a part of the materials, of which they confift,. from the fimple elements of hydrogen, nitrogen, carbon, phofphorus, fulphur, and oxygen; into which modern chemiftry has refolved: them by analyfis. And laftly, that vegetables can acquire nutrition from water and air alone with the -carbonic acid, which floats in them, appears by’ the experiments of thofe philofophers, who have nicely enclofed the roots of fome plants in pots, and moiftened them with diftilled wa- ter; and from hence we learn an effential diftinGtion between vege- table and animal nature ; the former can elaborate the two univerfal: elements of water and air into nutritive juices, whereas the latter is neceflitated to feck more compound nutriment, and to live upon the vegetables, which have produced it. 2. One method therefore of increafing manures may be by repeat- edly propagating and deftroying vegetable crops ; as by raifing thofe: of quick growth, and ploughing them again into the foil during their faccharine and mucilaginous ftate, before they ripen their feeds ; as of vetches, and buck-wheat ; vicia and polygonum ; and thus produc= ing a fucceffion of crops by the partial decompofition of the preced+ ing ones, And it is probable that this procefs might be much im- proved by ftrewing lime over the recent vegetables, at the time of ploughing them in, as is fhewn in No. 6. 5. of this Se€tion.. 3. Another mode by which vegetable matter may be decompofed in the fummer months, and at the fame time the quantity of manure increafed, is by the depredation of infects, as is feen in wood, which: is fo far decompofing as to become tender, and is then confumed by various kinds of infeéts, whether it be buried beneath.the foil, or ex- pofed: 240 MANURES. \ SECT: Ri 1004) pofed to the air. And I fufpeét, that the excrement and the bodies of fuch infe&ts would fupply more nutriment to vegetable roots, than if the vegetable recrements were left to their {pontaneous or chemi- cal diffolution ; as I fuppofe the bitter excrementitious powder in a filbert, and the well fed maggot, before it erodes its way out, would fertilize more barren foil than an emulfion of the kernel. An ingenious obferver of nature conveyed water on a dunghill in the fummer months in fuch quantity, as to make a kind of femi- fluid chaos, for the purpofe of animating the whole mafs, It be. came full of infe&ts, and was ufed in the autumn as manure, and he believed with much greater powers, than it would have otherwife poffeffed. _ Hence in the f{ummer months a manure-heap may be advantage- oufly fupplied with water for the purpofe of encouraging the propa- gation and nourifhment of myriads of infeéts; but in the winter fea- fon it fhould not be expofed to much moifture;_ or that which drains from it fhould be derived fpontaneoufly on lower grounds, or con- veyed to higher ones by pumps or water carts; as it probably con- fifts of a folution of carbon by means of vegetable alkali; or of a mix- ture of it in water by mucilage; and is thought to fertilize the ground more than the other parts of the manure heap. In the tran- {actions of fome provincial Society there is an account of much fixed vegetable alkali having been obtained from the evaporation of the wa- ter, which oozed from dunghills ; and M. Rouelle has obferved, that fixed alkali diffolves a confiderable quantity of charcoal by fufion. Fourcroy’s Elem. of Chemift. Vol. IV. p. 1 aes 4. Another great fource of infe@t-manure may be obtained from the myriads of {mall fith, by thofe who live near the ocean ; which by mixing them with foil fo as to make what is termed a compoft, will much add to the fertility of the land, on which it is afterwards {pread, more {fo perhaps than any other material except the fleth of land-ani- mals. In China it is faid that the fpawn of fith in the proper feafon 18 : dunghit tn Ind of fe. hajfs, | i ‘ure, and be VE otherwif be advantare ng the pros re Winter {eq - which drains unds, or con probably con : or of ami » fertilize the In the trav- of much fixe ‘on of the We obferved, ti! cal by fusion obtained fon SECT. X. 11. I. MANURES. 241 brought to market, and purchafed for the purpofe of peopling the floods on their rice grounds with fifh, part of which becomes large enough to be fried and eaten by the land cultivator; and the reft ferves the purpofe of fertilizing the foil, when the floods are drawn off, by their death and confequent decompofition. XI. PRESERVATION OF MANURES. 1.. The fertility of all countries depends on the faving and ufing thofe kinds of matter, which are fit for the reproduCtion of organiz- ed bodies, ‘There isa proverb in China, that for this purpofe a wife man faves even the parings of his nails, and the clippings of his hair. One great wafte of manure in this country, and in moft others, is from the frequent rains wafhing down the diffufible and foluble parts of thé foil into the muddy rivers; fo that every flood from fudden fhowers carries into the fea many thoufand pounds worth of the matter of fertility ; and thus diminifhes fo much the food of ter- reftrial animals, however it may add to the fultenance of marine ones. The Delta of Egypt, and a diftri&t in South America near the foot of the Andes mentioned by Ulloa, are faid by the fituation of the furrounding country to be free from rain, though they have frequent dews; and to this circumftance they may in part owe their increafing fertility. In this country the fnow-floods, which occur after a continued froft, are lefs injurious than thofe from rains; as the ftreams of wa- ter from the upper furface of the diflolving ice flows over the under furface of it not yet diffolved ; and the foil is not agitated as in rain by the percuffion of the defcending drops; infomuch that in fnow- floods the rivers are fcarcely muddy ; whence thefe floods may be readily diftinguifhed from land-floods by the eye, and are much lefs injurious. Great attention fhould therefore be fhewn to the preventing {mall Ii fhowers 242 MANURES. Seca. XM. 21k fhowers from wafhing away the foluble parts of good foil. For this purpofe all hills fhould be ploughed horizontally, and not in afcend- ing and defcending furrows. Defcending plains of grafs-ground might alfo be laid with horizontal ridges and deprefhions ; by which ma- nagement fhowers will lie a few hours in the horizontal furrows or depreffions, and either exhale or foak into the ground ; and in very wet feafons thefe may eafily by the fpade be opened into each other, if the water is found to lie too long upon them, fo as to produce too much cold by its evaporation, or too great foftnefs by its abforption into the foil. 2. Secondly, the manures of towns and cities, which are all now left buried in deep wells, or carried away by foughs into the rivers, fhould be removed by a police, which is faid to exift in China; and carried out of towns at {tated intervals of time for the purpofes of agriculture; which might be performed in the night, as is done in Edinburgh ; or by means of large bafons or refervoirs at the extre- mities of the common fhores, or foughs for the reception of the ma- nure, before it is wafhed into rivers. See Embaffy to China by fir G. Staunton, Vol. III. p. 308, 8vo, edit. It has been believed by fome writers in the American Medical Re- pofitory, that the peftilential fever, which has of late infefted that country, was in part produced or propagated by the filth of the ftreets of New York. Dr. S. L. Mitchill adds to his chemical remarks on manures, ‘‘ it muft be welcome intelligence, that the collected mafs of nuifance, which we are now with fuch happy fuccefs en- gaged in removing from the city of New York, is convertible by the powers of vegetation from poifon to wholefome articles of food ; and thus the purity and healthinefs of the towns may contribute to the thriftinefs and wealth of the furrounding country.’ Medical Journal, No. I. 3. Thirdly, there fhould be no burial places in churches or in church-yards, where the monuments of departed finners fhoulder God’s lin y V CTY Wet ot Qer, if the LOrption inty 1 are all now to the rivers, Chinas and e purpofes of as 1s done in at the extre: yn of the me China by ft Medical Re infefted thet “of the ftseet al remarks 0! the collete! wy fucce!s & rertible by i of food: a Secr. X. 11. 4 MANURES. 243 God’s altar, pollute his holy places with dead men’s bones, and pro- duce by putrid exhalations contagious difeafes among thofe who fre- quent his worfhip. But proper burial grounds fhould be confecrated out of towns, and divided into two compartments, the earth from one of which, faturated with animal decompofition, fhould be taken away once in ten or twenty years, for the purpofes of agriculture; and {and or clay, or lefs fertile foil, brought into its place. A great rife of the foil, from the remains of the bodies entombed in it, is feen round the churches of almoft all populous towns; fo as to have rendered it neceffary to defcend by feveral fteps into thofe churches, which were originally built fo as to require {teps to afcend into them; as may frequently be feen by the bafe of the architec- ture. Nor would the removal of this earth, if the few bones, which might be found, were again buried for a further decompofition, be likely to fhock the relations of the deceafed ; as the fuperftition con- cerning the earth, from which we rofe, and into which we return, has gradually vanifhed before the light of reafon; as occurred about thirty years ago in removing much rich earth from the clofe of the cathedral at Lichfield, and more lately in changing a burying ground at Shrewfbury; both which were executed without fuperftitious terror, or popular commotion. : 4. Fourthly, a great wafte of the materials of fertility occurs in all countries, and cannot eafily be avoided, in the confumption by fire of fo much wood inftead of coal. Whence the mucilage, and other nutritious juices, which exift in the fire-wood, are decompofed into their elements; and the carbon united with oxygen is diffufed in the atmofphere, and in part carried by the winds into the furrounding ocean; inftead of the manures occafioned by the flow decompofition of it upon or beneath the foil, or by the depredation of infeéts ; which might fupply lefs decompofed nutriment to the abforbent roots of plants. This may be more eafy to conceive, if we compare the little vege- li2 table 244 MANURES., SECT: X. rage table nutriment, which could be derived from. the {mall quantity of afhes left from a cart-load of burnt-ftraw, with that which would arife from the fame quantity of f{traw mixed with fome animal re- crements, and made into a manure heap. A fill greater diminution of ufeful manure would be made by burning fhavings or rafpings of horn, or woollen rags, or hair, or flefh; as a nutritive mucilage would be thus decompofed into its elements, which might otherwife have been gradually diffolved beneath the foil, and abforbed by the roots of vegetabies nearly in an unaltered ftate ; as jellies and mu- cilage are known to be drank up by the lacteals of animals; and, when drank in too great abundance, to appear almoft unchanged in their urine. | It muft hence appear, that the numerous fires of a great city, if fupplied with wood inftead of coals, as in Paris, muft very much im- poverifh a great part of the country which fupplies it; not only in the neceflity of ufing large traéts of land for the growth of fire- wood, but alfo becaufe fo {mall a part of it returns as manure. “There is a provident adage of general benevolence, ‘* Burn nothing which any animal will eat ;”’ that is, ** Burn nothing which may nourifh ani- mals by its digeftion in their ftomachs.” May not the fame bene- volent idea be extended to the vegetable world, and fay, ** Burn no- thing which may nourith vegetables by its flow decompofition be- neath the foil, which conftitutes their ftomachs.” 5. It may be a matter of ufe as well as of curiofity to afcertain the fituations and circumftances moft favourable for promoting the fpon- taneous decompofition of vegetable fubftances; which may confift perhaps in the due quantity of air, water, and heat, with a fufficient proportion of animal fubftances, and finally an admixture of lime to- ward the end of the procefs. I. In a cellar covered with an arch of bricks, and clofed with a very {trong door, I once obferved, that a deal fhelf two inches in thicknefs was decayed, fo as to fall down with fome wine bottles on uy ' ane )s Wantity r ich Wou| animal m TUN Utig EM DINgs og -s NDUCilage t otherwie bed by the “Sand my, Mals ; and, hanced iN Teat city, if ¥ much im- not only in f fire-wood, There isa r which any nourtth ani- fame bene ¢¢ Burn no- pofition be sfcertain the 1g the {pot may conil a fy ficient » of lime ™ Secor. .X. Big MANURES. 245 it, in about four years. This fudden decay I believed to have been owing to the unchanging moifture of the board, and at the fame time to its expofure to unchanged air without the power of much ex~- halation; by which a flow fermentation was induced, and a confe- quent flow putrefaction, unchecked by the extremes either of heat or cold. For the fame reafon I fuppofe the wooden fupporters of bridges decay firft juft above the furface of the water; and pieces of timber buried but a few inches under ground, which are there expofed to the influence both of water and air, go quicker into fermentation, and confequent putrefaction, than thofe pieces of timber, which are many feet buried beneath the foil, or immerfed deep in water; which in that fituation continue unchanged for ages. The fame feems to occur in the vinous fermentation, which is inftantly checked, if not totally ftopped, by bunging the barrel, or corking the bottle, which contains it, and thus precluding the accefs of atmofpheric air, 2. From hence it may be concluded, firft, that the vegetable and animal fubftances, which we with foon to become decompofed by the fermentative and putrefadtive procefies, fhould be expofed to an uniform moifture, though not covered deep with water ; as is gene- rally praétifed in the firft part of the prepdration of hemp or flax, which is defigned to diffolve the mucilage, and the cellular mem-~ brane of thofe vegetables, without injuring the ligneous fibres. And that they fhould be fo far accumulated as not too much to exhale; yet not to lie in fuch large heaps, as entirely to preclude the accefs of air from the interior parts of them. The manures of great farms fhould therefore be occafionally re+ moved from the fold-yards, or large refervoirs of it, and laid in {mall heaps not only to increafe its furface expofed to the external atmo~ fphere, for the purpofe of exciting greater fermentation, which is a flow combuftion ; but alfo that air may be imprifoned in the interftices of thefe manure-heaps, as mentioned in No. 8. 2. of this Section. It 246 | MANURES. SecT. X. 18, ¢, It fhould then be ufed on or in the foil, as it afterward lofes much of its nutritive qualities by evaporation, or finking into the ground, or draining away. 3. A due degree of heat is neceflary for the commencement of fermentation and putrefaction, as both vegetable and animal materials, as fruit or flefh, may be preferved for years if kept in an ice-houfe below the freezing point of 32. And alfo, I am told, if they could be kept in an uniform degree of heat above the boiling point of 212, After the commencement of either of thefe procefles a quantity of heat is evolved from the combination of the oxygen and carbon, which contributes to forward the proceffes by promoting the union of the next particles of oxygen and carbon; which may thence be compared to a flow combuftion, or to a gradual explofion of gun- powder. This heat therefore fhould be managed with fome addrefs, as a great quantity of it would calcine or evaporate too much of the ma- terials, and leave the remainder a lefs profitable mafs; as happens, I am informed, to fome parts of thofe heaps of manure, which are ufed in the manufactory of white lead ; while on the contrary, when the heat is too {mall, as in fevere froft, thefe proceffes of decompo- fition will not commence, or may be ftopped in their progrefs. In the former cafe, where the heat is too great, it may be checked by covering the whole manure-heap with foil and turf, and thus pre- venting the accefs of air. And when the heat is too {mall, as in old hot beds, it may be renewed or promoted by turning the heap over with the fpade, and thus confining a new quantity of air in its interftices. On thefe accounts it appears, that in the vernal and au- tumnal months thefe proceffes muft fucceed better than in the win- ter or the {ummer ones. 4. ‘Toward the end of the putrefaétive procefs the materials (hould be repeatedly turned over with the {pade, not only for the purpofe of fimply expofing their interior parts to the atmofphere, but alfo of in- P: ' cluding "CNC EME ~~ Materig Man iceshog if they con POint of 21 a Wantity of ANd cathe, ane the iis lay thence 4, ofion of oun. addrefs, ais ch of the m. > happens, | re, which ae ontrary, whe of decompt- progrefs, In ye checked by and thus pt 0 (niall, 232 ning the hep ty of ait 10 vernal and a" ap ip che wil Sect, X. 11. 6. MANURES. 247 cluding air in the interftices; as the union of carbon with oxygen, and probably of azote with hydrogen, feems thus to be occafioned ; by which the three lait of thefe elements may change from a gafle- ous ftate into. a fluid one, and thus become abforbed by vegetable roots. Laftly, I conclude that in general the manure heap before ftables, or in the fold-yard, fhould be placed on a gently rifing eminence, with a bafon beneath it, that the fuperfluous water, which would other- wife prevent the fermentation of the ftraw, may drain off and be there received ; and that into this bafon, as often as a fluid appears in ‘it, fome earth, or weeds, or leaves, or faw-duft, or other vegeta- ble or animal recrements fhould be thrown ; the fermentation and putrefaction of which will be thus forwarded, and the carbonic drain- ing from the manure-heap will not be loft. 5. The admixture of lime with this carbonic foil is found by daily experience to produce the moft fertile compofitions for the growth of vegetables, and for the produdtion of nitre. The great ufe of ni- trous acid in vegetation has long been acknowledged, and that of hyper-oxygenated marine acid appears probable from recent experi- ments; and would feem to be occafioned by the more loofe adhefion of the oxygen in thofe acids to their refpective bafes ; which may therefore in its fluid ftate be more readily abforbed by vegetable roots, One ufe therefore of the admixture of lime in fuch a compoft of foil and manure is to arreft the nitrous. acid, as it is formed, and by mak- ing a calcareous nitre, prevent its exhalation, or its eafy elutriation from the other materials. 6. A principal circumftance for the quicker and more perfect de- compofition of vegetable recrements is a due quantity of animal mat- ter, and their being properly mixed together 5 as appears from. the early experiments of fir John Pringle and Macbride, and by daily ex- perience. There is neverthelefs great neglect in this refpeé in all thofe farm-yards, where the fwine have their food in fixed ftone- troughs, 248 MANURES. sect. X. 11.4, troughs, from which the refufe is occafionally wafhed or {wept. Whereas if wooden moveable {wine-troughs were always placed on the fummit of the heaps of dry ftraw, the quantity of their fwill, confifting of broth, whey, and other vegetable and animal matter, which thefe animals wafte in their contention for it, would generate early putrefactive procefles; befides their mixing the fubftances well together with their feet, and adding to it their urine and ordure, Befides this inattention to the manure-heap in many houfes the wafhings of boilers, and milk-pans, and difhes, as well as the foap- fuds, which are all of them manures of the moft produdtive kind, are thrown into the common fewer, inftead of being derived or car- ried to the garden or the ftraw-yard. 7. Another inattention to the production of manures concerns the heaps of common weeds, and of dock-roots, and of cabbage-ftalks, and the roots of twitch-grafs; which improvident farmers and gar= deners frequently throw into the high roads, or confume with fire; and which if laid on heaps, and occafionally turned over, and co- vered with foil, will quickly die, and pafs into {peedy fermentation from the {ugar and mucilage, which they contain ; and if to thefe a portion of lime be added, I am informed by one who made the expe- riment, that the whole was decompofed in a fhort time, and manure of the beft kind was the produét. The fame fhould be practifed with the leaves which fall in autumn on grafs land, efpecially from thofe orchards, or hedges, or from goofeberry-trees, which have been infefted with caterpillars ; fince I am told the eggs of a future race of thefe infects are frequently des pofited on the leaves, and hatched on or beneath the foil in the en= fuing {fpring. Thefe therefore fhould be removed from the roots of {uch trees, and converted into manure by the procefs above men- tioned. Along with the weeds and leaves above mentioned I fhould ftrongly recommend to the induftrious agricultor to collect the water-plants which Cy , ' Xx, Uv» js od ; P aCe 0 ; their : \ LW} lima matt oul uid Sher, ba ™ } tf, Tas the foap. dudtive kin Crived or cy. concerns the abbace-ftalk mers and oar OC S *y ne with fire; ver, and co- fermentation 1 if to theles ade the expt: , and manure all in autum . of from ges, fro - lars 5 nace requently it i} in the 1 the above mel roots 0 Sect, X. 12 MANURES. 249 which grow in great abundance in lakes and rivers, for the purpofe of manure; which at prefent are employed to no advantage. Thefe might be moved twice a year, as it is probable that thefe vegetables in their younger ftate, as the typha, or cat’s-tail; the butomus, or flowering-rufh ; nymphea and alifma, as well as many other aquatic plants, would give better manure, or fooner become fufficiently de- compofed, during their more {accharine and mucilaginous flate, than when they have acquired more fibrous leaves, and more woody ftems. ) By thus expofing the roots and tops of weeds to fermentation, their feeds would alfo be deflroyed as well as the vegetative power of their roots; and on this account the hay-feeds collected from ftacks, which have fermented too violently, fo as to become black by this flow combuttion, are frequently fo much injured as not to vege- tate, to the great difappointment of the fower, a circumftance which alfo fometimes occurs in ftacks of wheat, as mentioned in Sett. XVI. 7.1. 8. Laftly, peat, fo well underftood and fo ftrongly recommended by Lord Dundonald, is too much negleéted in agriculture. The peat or turf, which conftitutes the folid parts of morafles, as it confifts of vegetable fibres in different ftates of decompofition, may be laid on clayey or fandy foils with the greateft advantage ; and ought to be confidered as an ineftimable treafure to the farms in its vicinity. Or it may previoufly be laid on heaps, and thus mixed with air and drained from water for further decompofition, with or without the addition of lime. XII. APPLICATION OF MANURES. Two queftions of importance here prefent themfelves. As the {pontaneous or chemical changes of manure-heaps in farm-yards gra- dually progrede from the faccharine and mucilaginous commence- < ment 250 MANURES. SECT. X. 12.14. ment through a great variety of other fermentations; which can only be named from the principal material, which each of them pro- duces, as carbonic acid, alcohol, vinegar, volatile alkali, hydrogen, nitrous acid, and finally carbonic earth. At what era or ftage of this decompofition of vegetable and animal fubftances can they be moft advantageoufly applied to the purpofes of agriculture? and fe- condly, at what time of the year? 1. In refpect to the era of the progrefs of the decompofition in manure-heaps, in which they may be moft advantageoufly applied in agriculture, the particular purpofe of that application muft be attend- ed to. Where they are defigned to be fpread on the furface of grafs lands, as a top-drefling, the accumulations of vegetable and animal re- crements fhould be permitted to go through the various {pontaneous procefles of decompofition, which begin with the faccharine and mu- cilaginous ftate, and end with the produétion of carbonic earth, with many kinds of intermediate fermentations, if they may be fo called, which accompany or fucceed each other, and which I believe to be more in number than have had names applied to them. But that lefs of the fertilizing materials, whether of foluble fo- lids, or of fluids, or of gaffes, may be loft in thefe feries of fermenta- tions; it is a very advantageous management to cover them with foil, when the firft fermentation is advanced, as is known by the pro- duction of confiderable heat ; or when the putrefadtive one has com- menced, which is known by the fmell of volatile alkali, or of hydro- gen. By this method the too great rapidity of thefe fermentations is checked, and the fluid part of the manure is retained by the addi- tion of the foil below, and the gaffeous part by that above; and if to this be afterwards added a proportion of lime, which by uniting with the nitrous acid may retain it from exhalation or from alluviation, every thing is preferved that art can accomplith. Where manure-heaps are to be ploughed into clayey foils, which are liable to become too folid and impenetrable to the root-fibres of feeds, MPofition in Ly applied iy it be attend. face of orals id animal te. {pontaneoys rine and mu: - earth, with be fo called, believe to be f foluble f0- of ferment r them with » by the pro yne has coll or of hydro or mentation by the als and if ig wit je; ypitil ; 5 alloviel™ SECT. X. 12 20 MANURES. 251 feeds, as of wheat; or where knobby or bulbous roots are to be in- ferted to produce other knobs or bulbs beneath the foil, as potatoes 5 it is probably more advantageous to bury the manure in a lefs de- compofed ftate, while fome of the ftraw retains its form; as fuch parts by their flower decompofition will longer prevent the fuper-in- cumbent foil from becoming too folid; and though they will in this fituation require fome time before they will be perfectly decom pof- ed, and reduced to the black carbonic earth; yet they will in the end totally decay, and give the fame quantity of nutriment to the roots, though it may be more gradually applied. 2. In refpect to the time of year thofe manures, which are to be ploughed or dug into the ground, fhould be ufed immediately before {owing the feeds or fetting the roots, which they are defigned to nur- ture; becaufe the atmofpheric air, which is buried along with the manure in the interftices of the earth, and which for many weeks, or even months, renders the foil loofe, and eafily imprefled by the foot on walking on it, gradually evolves by its union with carbon a genial heat very friendly to vegetation in this climate, as well as the immediate production of much fluid carbonic acid, and probably of a fluid mixture of nitrogen with hydrogen, which are believed to fup- ply much nutriment to plants. But thofe manures, which are defigned to be fpread on the furface of grafs-land, which is called the top-dreffing, are beft applied, I fufpeat, in the early {pring ; and fhould be difperfed over the foil al- moft in a ftate of powder, or in lumps of very loofe cohefion ; as at this time the vernal fhowers wath them into the foil; and they are applied to the roots of the grafs, before their effential parts are dimi- nifhed by winter rains or by fummer exhalation. There are fome in Derbythire, who fpread manure even on the meadows, which are an- nually overflowed by the Trent or Derwent, at the end of fummer, or as foon as the egrafs 1s mowed and removed; which appears to be an improvident management, fince the aftermath, or autumnal grafs, Kk2 is 252 MANURES. Secr, Xs 32, 3 is thus rendered unpalatable to the cattle ; and the winter rains, or the vernal floods, which generally occur with the return of the fouth-weft winds, after the feafon of froft ceafes, muft wath away a great part of it. In refpe& to the moft economical manner of ufing manures in agriculture Mr. Parkinfon afferts, that one great advantage of the drill-hufbandry confifts in putting the manure into drills, which he direéts to be made at two feet diftance from each other. He fows wheat, beans, peas, cabbages, on this manure, and affirms, that four loads of manure on an acre in this kind of hufbandry is equal to fixteen loads in the ufual way of {preading it over the whole of the field. Experienced Farmer, Vol. I. p. 32. 3. A third queftion here prefents itfelf, if the recrements of ve- getable and animal bodies buried a few inches beneath the foil un- dergo the fame decompofition, as when laid on heaps in farm-yards, And though this is accomplifhed more flowly, yet it is attended with lefs lofs of carbonic acid, and of volatile alkali, and of hyrogen, and of the fluid matter of heat; all which are emitted in great quantity during the rapid fermentations of large heaps of manure, and are wafted in the atmofphere, or on unprolific ground; would it not in general be more economical to bury fuch vegetable and animal matters beneath the foil without a previous fermentation and putre- faction ? In anfwer to this it muft be obferved, that in fome cafes the ufe of recent vegetables ploughed into the earth is found of advantage, as in fandy foils buck-wheat, or vetches, are fown, and the crop ploughed in, before it ripens its feeds. In this circumftance the re- cent crop is buried in its faccharine and mucilaginous ftate, which muft undergo indeed a flower fermentation, without being mixed with animal fubftances, but no part of the organic matter, nor of the fluid heat, is loft to the purpofes of new organization. So in the cultivation of clayey lands, whofe tenacity is too great ; Or | aN ee Of the Sy Which i He foy mh that fou YS equal t) Whole of the ments of ye. the foil up. 1 farmyard ittended with yyrogen, and reat quantity ure, and are vould it not » and animal a n and putre cafes the ul f advantagt ind the oi? rance the i {tates whict being mis Ty nor of orca! ; ig t00 BT 4 MANURES. | 253 or where knobby roots, as potatoes, are fo be inferted for the produc- tion of other knobby roots beneath the foil ; long muck, as it is call- ed, or fuch which is-only fo far decompofed as to diffolve the mu- cilage or more tender veffels or membranes, but in which the form of the fibrous or ligneous parts of the ftraw remains, 1s recommend- ed above; and may in thefe fituations perhaps be ploughed into the ground even in their moft early flate, when rejected from the {table or cowhoufe, before the commencement of their fpontancous diffo- Sect. X. 12. 3- lution. So alfo in gardens, which are already fertile, and do not want the - nmediate affiftance of mature manure, it may be more economical to bury the weeds, as the ground is dug, than to convey them to 4 manure-heap, and replace them after a twelvemonth’s decompo- fition. But where a luxuriant crop is immediately wanted, a manure-heap towards the end of the putrefactive procefs by being recently in- terred in the foil, which is immediately to be fown or planted, has he carbonic acid is prefently formed by this great advantage ; that t h the carbon of the manure; the mixture of atmofpheric air wit which exifts therefore in its fluid, not its gaffeous ftate, and is thence more readily abforbed. Secondly, ammoniac is produced, and nitre, and hydrogen probably is mixed with nitrogen ; and thefe alfo, I fup- pofe, exift at frit in their fluid, not in their gaffeous ftate. And thirdly, from thefe combinations a genial degree of heat is evolved, which fo much affifts the vernal growth of vegetation. And where manure is to be ufed as a top-drefling, it 1s neceflary, that it fhould be in a ftate of powder, or in {mall lumps of loofe cohefion, as mentioned above ; that it may be eafily wafhed by rains to the roots of the grafs, or that the young ftems of grafs may rea- dily fhoot themfelves through it; whence mature heaps of manure are for this purpofe neceffary ; and on this account any adhefive ma~ nure, 254 MANURES. SECT. X. 12, 4, hure, as cow-dung itfelf, fhould be weekly gathered from graf. ground, where cattle are nourifhed, and laid on heaps with foil, or ftraw, or weeds, to ferment or putrefy ; till it becomes lefs tenacious, and can be profitably replaced in the enfuing fpring. Finally, I fufpe& the moft economical method of difpofing of the ftraw and dung from the farm-yard would be, as foon as a dark co- loured water drains from the heap, by which much lofs is fuftained, to carry the refufe of the ftable and cow-houfe, as frequently as con- venient, to the ground, where it is defigned to be employed; and there to mix it-with earth in heaps of proper fize, and to cover them likewife with foil; and by thefe means I fuppofe the whole procefs of decompofition may be carried on with very little lofs; and by the addition of a greater or lefs quantity of foil that the era of complete or moft profitable decompofition of the compoft may be managed, fo as to coincide nearly with the time it may be wanted. 4. Fourthly, it may be afked, what kinds of manure contribute moft to the luxuriant growth of vegetables? In-anfwer to this it may be faid, that as plants are inferior animals, and are furnithed with abforbent veffels in their roots correfpondent to the ladteals in the ftomach ; that the fame organic matters, which by their quick folution in the ftomach fupply the nutritive chyle to animals, will by their flow folution in or near the furface of the earth fupply the nutritive fap-juice to vegetables.. Hence all kinds of animal and vegetable fubftances, which will undergo a digeftive procefs, or fpon- taneous folution, as the fleth, fat, {kin, and bones, of animals; with their fecretions of bile, faliva, mucus; and their excretions of urine, and ordure ; and alfo the fruit, meal, oil, leaves, wood, of vegetables, when properly decompofed on or beneath the foil, fupply the moft nutritive food to plants. Secondly, the chyle of all animals is fimilar to the {ap-juice of all vegetables in this circumftance, that they both contain mucilage and 7 fugar, Pofing of th = 4 dark op 3 Is luttaing ently ag ae ployed ; and 0 Cover then Vhole Procef > and by the 1 of Complete Managed, ( re contribute wer to this it are furnithed re Jacteals in y their quick animals, wil h fupply the ¢ animal and cefs, or {pot simals 5 W! ons of uf of yegetsbis they SecT. X. 12. 4. MANURES. 255 fugar, and feem only to differ in this refpeét, that the chyle of ani- mals alfo contains oil, which being mixed with the mucilage gives + its whitenefs like milk. Hence thofe matters muft fupply nutri- ment moft expeditioufly to vegetables, which contain mucilage and fugar, or produce them with the leaft decompofition, as the jellies from the fhavings of horns, from hair, woollen rags, and the fac- charine matter of {weet fruits, roots, kernels, feeds; and in the fame manner thefe things with the addition of oil are moft expedi- tioufly nutritive to animals. Thirdly, fuch materials as contain in folution thofe fimple fub- {tances, which conftitute a great part of vegetable bodies, as carbon, which is found in moft earths; and oxygen, hydrogen, and nitro- gen, which are found in water and in air; and from hence we may conclude, that whatever material has conftituted a part of living or- ganic bodies, may again conftitute a part of them; and that with more expedition, if they can be ufed without being decompofed into their primary elements. Mr. Bewley, the Norfolk philofopher, faid to a friend, who was riding by his fide, that when he wanted a whip, he habitually looked for a dead ftick in the hedge, unwilling to pluck off a leafy branch, and deftroy fo many living buds. He might have added, that to burn a hair or a ftraw unneceflarily diminifhes the {um of matter fit for quick nutrition by decompofing it nearly into its elements, and fhould therefore give fome compunétions to a mind of univerfal fym- pathy. It would feem therefore, that long roots fixed into the earth, and leaves innumerable waving in the air, were neceflary for the decom- pofition and new combinations of water and air, and the converfion of them into faccharine and mucilaginous matter; which would have been not only cumbrous but totally incompatible with the lo- comotions of animal bodies; for how could a man or quadruped have 256 MANURES. SecT. X. 12. 4. have carried on his head or back a foreft of leaves, or have trailed after him long branching la¢teals terminating on the furface of the earth? Animals therefore fubfift on vegetables; that is, they take the matter fo far prepared, and poffefs organs to prepare it further for the purpofes of greater fenfibility, and of higher animation. ~ SECT. Ta, ie Szct. XI. 11, DRAINING AND WATERING. 257 c tr led Mui IS, they th pm Site Furth Dimation . aon SECT. XL OF DRAINING AND WATERING LANDS. I. 1. Moraffes are in high or low fituations. 2. Springs rife from the fummits of mountains, pajs between the frrata. 3. Strata of the earth about Derby, and at Lichfield, and the fprings. 4. Plains formed in vallies. 5. Wall-fprings in- tercepted by ditches, Junk perpendicular to the fides of the bills. 6. By boring holes at the bottom of fuch ditches. 7. Ufe of ditches, where the wall-fprings can- not be intercepted. %. Holes through clay into a fand-ftone beneath. 9. Deep Springs rife higheft, when bored into. 10. Many fprings may be raifed higher than their fources. 11. Enlarging the bottom of wells increafes the water in them, 12. Springs difcovered on one fide only of fome mountains. Difcovered by even- ing mifts. By morning rime. By aquatic plants. Warm fprings. II. 1. Draining moraffes, where there is no fall. 2. In the craters of ancient volcanoes. 3. In countries of marble, granite, or quartz. 4. Fens below the level of the fea. Should be furrounded with dikes. 5. Ujes of aquatic plants. Ml. 1. Of flooding lands. 2. Ice preferves the grafs beneath. ‘The French bored holes in the ice. 3. Ad- vantages of flooding recapitulated. It deftroys rufhes. Saves manure. 4. Cau- tions to be obferved. Flooding not injurious to health. Vicinity of running water wholefome. §. Flooding lands might be performed to a great extent. By rivers, Springs, land-floods, and machinery. Hiero’s fountain. Horizontal wind-mill, and centrifugal pump. I, 1. THe great quantity of water required for healthy vegetation is treated of in Sect. X. 3. 1. But as all extremes are injurious, too | much water becomes pernicious to all except aquatic plants. Whence the neceflity of draining thofe lands, which. too much abound with moifture ; the art of which is better under {tood, fince the knowledge Ll of sph 258 - DRAINING Secr. XI. 1.2, of geology has been ftudied, and in fome meafure diffufed amongft the people, Lands in refpeét to the method of draining them may be divided into two fituations ; thofe which lie fo high, that the water can de- fcend from them, if it be properly collected and conducted; and thofe which lie fo low as to command no fall, fome of which are even below the level of the fea. 2. In regard to the former it generally happens, that the waters from the fprings beneath the foil have not a free paffage to the rivers in their vicinity; the nature of fprings fhould therefore be previoufly underftood. Many modern philofophers have endeavoured to fhew, that all the continents and iflands of the world, as well as the hills, which embofs their furfaces, have been raifed out of the primeval ocean by fubterraneous fires. This appears from the quantity of fea- fhells, which form innumerable mountains ; and from the fiffures in the rocks, of which they confift; the quantity of volcanic produc- tions all over the world ; and the numerous remains of craters of vol- canoes in mountainous countries. Hence the ftrata, which compofe the fides of mountains, lie flant- ing downwards ; and one or two or more of the external ftrata not reaching to the fummit, when the mountain was raifed up, the fe- cond or third ftratum, or a more inferior one, is there expofed to day. ‘This may be well reprefented by forcibly thrufting a very blunt inftrument through fome folds of paper, a bur will be raifed with the lowermoft leaf {tanding higheft in the center of it. Or if at the ori- cinal elevation of an extenfive mountain the loweft ftratum fhould not at firft {tand higher in the center of the fummit, it would in time become fo by fome of the upper ftrata of the mountain being gradually wafhed away by rains mto the valleys or rivers, On this uppermoft ftratum, which is colder, as it is more elevated, the dews are condenfed in large quantities; and fliding down pafs under the firft, or fecond, or third ftratum, which compofe the fides of the hill; Cy Xl, ; *Moneg 4 Q le MY be no y be dividg Can de ducted. a ; I Of wh: IC Wate... 5 Pig: e Previouf| ured to thew, ll as the bil the primer uantity of fe. the fiflures in Icanic produc: craters of vol rains, lie flat srnal {trata not ed up, the fe ere expofed t 1g a very blunt railed with the yr if at the ould it would ® ait heils On this ftratum ts a yclve Sect. XI. 1. 3. AND WATERING. 259 hill; and either form a morafs below, or a weeping rock by oozing out in numerous places ; or many of thefe lefs currents meeting to- gether burft out in a more copious rill. The immediate caufe of fprings confifts therefore in the conden- {ation of the atmofpheric moifture, during the night principally, by the creater coldnefs of the fummits of hills, which is explained in de- tail in the Botanic Garden, Vol. I. additional note 26. The water thus condenfed on the fummits of hills defcends between the ftrata of the incumbent foil, fometimes for many miles together; but ge- nerally from the neareft eminences into the adjoining vallies. 3. Thus there is a ftratum of marl, which I have obferved on the farface of the lands about Derby, which extends many miles in moft dire@tions. This ftratum of marl is of various thicknefs from 10 to 150 feet, and beneath it lies a ftratum of fand, which is alfo of vart- ous thicknefs from a few inches to fix or eight feet, and of various degrees of induration ; and beneath this lies another {tratum of marl toan unknown depth. On the top of Radborne common, about five miles north-weft from Derby, the fandy ftratum is quite loofe, and rifes above the ftratum of marl, which is deficient at the fummit of the hill. Three or four ftrong fprings of water burft out on the fides of this hill, which thus originate from the moifture of the atmo- {phere condenfed on the cold fummit, and pafling through the fandy ftratum between the two ftrata of marl. In the road to Duffield, about two miles north of Derby, the fand-ftratum is cemented into ftone, as well as in fome fituations near Radborne-common above mentioned. This ftratum of fand- {tone is fome feet in thicknefs, and lies four or five yards deep, be- neath the upper ftratum of marl, dividing it from the lower one. At Normanton, about two miles fouth from Derby, the fand-ftra- tum confifts. of a loofe fand, fo white and pure, that I imagine it might be ufed in the manufacture of flint-glafs, and lies about twelve feet deep, beneath the upper ftratum of marl, dividing it from the . L-l2 under 260 DRAINING SECT: eke 1535 under one. In the town of Derby on boring with defign to fink a well, after having paffed about thirteen yards through marl, fome {and was brought up by the auger, and water followed, as related in the Philof. Tranfad. Vol. LAXV. ‘The dews therefore, which are perpetually condenfing on the fum- mits of thefe hills, defcend beneath the upper and under fltrata of marl, through the thin flratum of fand, which divides them, and form St. Alkmund’s well, and many other fprings in the vicinity of Derby ; and probably all thofe which fupply the wells within the town. But there is a fituation, where the manner of the produion of {prings is moft agreeably vifible; it is about a mile from the city of Lichfield, near the cold bath ereGted by fir John Floyer, in a beauti- ful piece of ground, which was formerly Dr. Darwin's botanic garden. : In this place a grotto about fix yards wide and ten long has been. excavated on the fide of a hill confifting of filiceous fand-ftone with this peculiar circumftance ; that the upper ftratum of the fand-rock, which is there about five feet thick, is divided from the lower ftra- tum of it by a fheet of clay not more than three or four inches in thicknefs ; on the upper furface of this theet of clay, between the lips of thefe rocks, a perpetual dribbling of water oozes quite round the grotto, like a fhower from a weeping rock. Such fheets of wa- ter having been often obferved to flide between the ftrata of the earth almoft horizontally, like the horizontal joints of a ftone-wall, have, I fuppofe, given the name of wall-f{prings to them, to diftin- guith them from pipe-{prings, or fuch as burft out in a fingle rill. Thus this thin fheet of clay prevents the water from finking into the lower flratum of fand-ftone ; and produces other copious {prings, which are collected at about half a mile’s diftance, and conveyed by Jeaden pipes to the cathedral clofe of Lichfield, which is thus fup- plied with water of uncommon purity, which contains no calcare- ous u : 54 to ink mat, fom ve nie » aS related i uf J > ON the fy nde —— Arata of S th 2 : em , “ees » atid Is w thin the rodnd: * Proauction Of : - M the city of ry iN a beaut. wWit's botanic long has been nd-ftone with he fand-rock, he lower {tra Four inches il between the og quite round fheets of Wa- ftrata of the - : froneWal eongité ditt" + fingle rill. : ie ul jritd Dp fivkiv5 Sect, XI. 1. 4. AND WATERING, 261 ous earth, owing to its pafling through filiceous fand over a ftratum of clay, and which would be a treafure to the paper-mill or the bleach-yard. ~ 4. One other circumftance in the prefent conformation of the earth is neceflary to be mentioned ; which is, that at the time when the mountains were raifed all over the world by deep volcanoes, or by central fires, fome parts of the fummits of many of them, and of their fteeper fides, rolled down again into the new formed vallies. And fecondly, that fince that remote time the recrements of vegeta- ble and animal bodies have continually beeu wafhed down from the eminences by fhowers, and have contributed gradually to accumu- late in the vallies, and to form the plains, which exift on the fides of rivers. ‘This appears from the tin ores found in the vallies in Corn- wall in loofe pieces fimilar to thofe in the proximate mountains ; and from the black carbonic foil, or morats-turf, found in moit vallies. 5. From thefe clear ideas of the ftrata of the earth, and of the ftreams of water, which flide between them, and form what are terned wall-fprings, it is eaty to conceive, that the beft method of. preventing the vallies at the bottom of hills from being too moift muft be by cutting a long horizoutal ditch into the fide of the moun- tain to intercept the water, jut before the level land of the valley commences; and thus to carry away the water before it comes upon the plain beneath. For this purpofe at the foot of the hill where the plain, which is too moift, commences, fome auger-holes fhould be bored to find the depth of the fprings, that is to find the thicknets of the upper ftra- tum of the foil. If this be only four or fix feet, an horizontal ditch fhould be cut along the bottom of the mountain to intercept the wa- ter; which muft then be carried away by one or more other ditches opening into this, and conducting the water to collected into the neighbouring rivulet. ae As the ftrata, between which the water defcends in forming thefe ipriugs, 262 DRAINING Sect’. Al. Boas {prings, have generally the fame inclination as the furface of the hill, or nearly fo; it follows, that the holes fhould be bored, and the ditch cut, not vertically downwards, as is the common practice, but per- pendicular to the furface of the mountain ; as by that means the fe- cond ftratum will fooner be arrived at; as fhewn in Plate V. at the end of this Section. 6. But ifon cutting a ditch five or fix feet along the bottom of the hill perpendicular to the rifing plain, which forms the fide of it, the upper ftratum be not cut through; and in confequence no water oozes into the bottom of the ditch; it 1s then proper to bore other holes at the bottom of this ditch fome yards deeper, or till water rifes up through them into the ditch, if it can be fo difcovered. Where this fucceeds, many holes fhould be bored, and the water received into the ‘ditches, and conduéted into the adjacent river ; for the wa- ter will then rife into the bottom of this ditch fix feet below the wet furface of the valley, and thus flow away, rather than rife up from the lower wall-fprings, or apertures of the ftratum, through the in- cumbent foil to the furface of the valley, which is fo many feet higher. This well underftood is the great fecret for draining thofe grounds, where the {prings can not be cut into fimply by a ditch. This method has been fome years praétifed with fuccefs by Mr. Elkington, but was previoufly ufed and explained by Mr. Ander- fon, as he afferts in his introdu@ion to Vol. IIL. of his Effays on Agriculture, who funk a hole into the earth at the bottom of a ditch in the year 1764, and the water rofe fix feet above the furface of the ground, and has continued to flow with lefs violence ever fince that time. It fhould here be noticed, that where the water rifes with great force through holes thus bored into a deep ftratum, it is stabi to bring up ee with it much fand, fo as fometimes to obftruét its paflage ; which fand in this cafe mutt frequently be removed for a few days by the reapplication of the auger. Of this a remarkable in- 3. {tance . NE fe, ate Va th bottom ofthe ide of it, the ICE NO Water to bore othe, rll water Tiles red, Where fater received ; for the wa: yelow the wet rife up from rough the in fo many feet draining thofe y bya ditch, uccefs by Mr. y Mr. Ander his Effays tom of 4a ditch the furface d nce evel int Sect. X¥. 1.7. AND WATERING. 263 ftance is publifhed in a late volume of the Phil. Tranf. by Mr.Wul- liamy, who funk a well 236 feet deep and four feet wide; and, on then boring a few feet lower with a five-inch borer, fo much fand arofe with a violent {tream of water, as to fill up the whole well; which was repeatedly cleared away by buckets in its fluid ftate, and at laft the water ran over the furface to the amount of forty-fix gal- lons in a minute. 3 The manner of making thefe ditches narrower, as they defcend,. by fpades of an adapted breadth ; and of making the loweft part nar= rower than any other part, fo that the fhoulders or edges of it may fupport ftones, or facgots, to cover the whole at a {mall expence without obftructing the currents of water, are obvious to the work- men. In many fituations hollow bricks, or ridge-tiles, or old pieces: of plafter-floors, may be worth the aditional expence of providing them. 7. There may neverthelefs be found fituations, where the firft ftra~ tum of earth may be too thick to be eafily penetrated; or where the water, condenfed from the atmofphere on the fummits of the hills, may flide between the fecond and third, or between the third and’ fourth ftrata, which form the fides of thofe hills, owing toa deficien= cy of fo many of the {trata at the fummits of them; and hence that it may lie too deep to be eafily arrefted by a ditch, or by boring ; and yet by its being dammed up by the materials, which form the level plain of the valley, may rife up through thofe materials to the fur- face, and form boggy or morafly ground. | In thefe fituations the common unfkilful method of draining may be ufefully employed; which confifts in cutting many ditches four or fix feet deep acrofs the bog or morafs ; and covering them, fo that the water may have no obftruction- in paffing along them; which may thus, as it rifes from below, be in part collected and conveyed away ; though lefs advantageoufly than where the fprings can be in- tercepted. Another 264 DRAINING Sects XI. 1. 8. Another method of draining moift meadows has been by making or opening drains almoft annually by a large plough with two con- verging coulters, and other adapted parts, for the purpofe of cutting both the fides of a ditch at the fame time, and turning out the inter- vening turf and foil. Thefe large ploughs have been kept in fome -parifhes, and drawn over moift commons by twelve or twenty horfes, to form parallel ditches. Mr. Adam Scott has invented for the fame purpofe what he terms a mole-plough, which confifts of a coulter fifteen inches long, and two and a ‘half wide, tocut the fward ; and behind this an horizontal cone. of caft iron twenty inches long, and two and a half diameter at the bafe, to the middle-of which is fixed an upright bar two feet long, and three inches and a half broad, with a fharp edge. As this caft iron cone is drawn along fix or eight inches beneath the turf in moift Jands, either in the {pring or autumn, in many parallel lines, the water for a confiderable time is conveyed away, and no injury done to the furface ; which thus feems to be an ufeful machine, and may be well managed, I am informed, by fix or eight horfes. In very moift lands, or at very moift feafons, if more horfes be ufed, their feet will not fink fo deep into the turf, as each horfe will draw lefs; or a contrivance of adding broader fhoes of wood to the horfes like the {now-fhoes of higher latitudes, might an{wer this purpoie. See Tran- fact. of Society of Arts, Vol. XV. | 8. There are neverthelefs fome fituations, where the water is con- veyed beneath the firft ftratum on a thin bed of clay over a porus fand-ftone beneath it; as in the grotto at Lichfield above defcribed. In thefe fituations by boring many auger-holes, or by finking wells, through the ftratum of clay the water will penetrate the fand-ftone beneath it ; and either pafs away by the porofity of this kind of ftone, or by the cracks or joints which are always found in it; of which the horizontal joints were formed at the time of the produétion or accumulation of the fand beneath the fea, which was then formed in horizontal kept in (0 CW eaty hot What | - long, and 5 an horizont alf diamete At ‘two feet long, As this caf ie turf in moi allel lines, the HO injury dove +hine, and may orfes. In very ufed, their fee | draw lefs; a horfes like the ole. See Trat e water 1s cot over 4 ports bove deferibe! - inking well fand- ftom Me tery Sect. XI. 1. 9 AND WATERING. 265 horizontal {trata ; but the vertical cracks were made at the time of ifs elevation by fubterraneous fires. In thefe vertical fiffures the ores of lead, ponderous earth, and calcareous fpars, are found in the lime- ftone rocks of Derbythire ; and thofe of tin, and quartz, in the gra- nite rocks of Cornwall. ; 9. The knowledge of this part of geology concerning the forma- tion of fprings may be employed for many uleful purpofes ; thus where the wall-fprings, or water-conducting ftrata, lie fo deep as not to be acceflible at a fmall expence ; they generally exift between the fecond and third, or between the third and fourth ftrata; which rife into day higher on the fummits of the adjacent mountains than the fGrft ftratum ; and hence, when they are bored into, the water will rife higher, than when it is found beneath the firft. ftratum only ; which generally becomes deficient on lower parts of the adjacent eminences of the country. Thus where water, defcending in high columns between the {rata of mountains, is dammed up below by the materials, which fill up the vallies; if a hole be bored in the valley deep through the sncumbent foil and ftrata, it frequently rifes much above the fource of the new aperture, and fometimes above the furface of the-ground. In finking the king’s well at Sheernefs the water rofe 300 feet above its fource in the well, as related in Philof. Tranfa&. Vol. LXXIV. And at Hartford in Conneticut there is a well, which was dug fe- venty feet before water was found; and then on boring an auger hole through a rock the water rofe fo faft, as to make it difficult to keep it dry by pumps, till the hole could be blown larger by gun- powder ; which was no fooner accomplifhed, than it filled, and run over, and has been a brook for near a century. Travels through America, Lond. 1789. Lane. ; In the town of Richmond in Surry, and at Inflip near Prefton, in -Lancafhire, I am informed, that it is ufual to bore for water toa cer- tain depth ; and that when ‘it is found in both thofe places, it rifes : M m {fo 266 DRAINING Sect. XI..1. io. fo high as to flow over the furface. And there is reafon to conclude, that if fimilar experiments were made in many other places, fuch ar- tificial fprings might be produced at fmall expence, both for the com= mon purpofes of life, and for the great improvement of lands by watering them. 10. Another deduction, which may be made from this ecb ie of geology, is, that many {prings of water, which lie too low fog ferving a houfe, or ftreet, or town, or for watering higher grounds for on purpofes of agriculture or aaiteaes may i many fituations be dammed up many feet with little or no lofs. Thus when the new bridge was building at Dublin, Mr. G. Semple found a {pring in the bed of the river, ae he meant to lay the foundation e a pier; which by fixing iron pipes into it he raifed many feet ; and in bor- ing a hole near the Derwent in Derby about fifteen yards deep, the water rofe above the furface of the ground, and has continued to flow now for above twelve years in rather an increafing quantity. From having obferveda valley north-weft of St. Alkaiund’ swell near Derby, at the head of which that fpring of water once probably exifted, and by its current formed the valley, (which current in after times found its way out in its prefent lower fituation), I fufpeé, that St. Alk- mond’s well might by building round it be raifed high enough to: fupply many ftreets in Derby with fpring water, which are now only fupplied with river water. 11. A third dedu@ion from the knowledge of this geology con- cerning the production of {prings teaches, that by enlarging the bot- tom of a well, where the water oozes from between fe Caaapasiae {trata in too {canty a fupply, a proportionally greater quantity of wa- ter may be procured. The hole near the river Derwent in Der by above mentioned, is about an inch and a half in diameter, and was hored about fifteen yards deep through the uppermoft ftratum of marl into the fand beneath it, and fupplies Dr. Darwin’s houfe with two ‘or three hogfheads. of water a day. And Mr. Strutt near St. Pe- ter’s Is R00 Wade ee low fo igher or any hoe . Ons \ hen the ney LPTING in the O0 of a pier, > and in bor. ards deep, the tinued to flow ntity. From ll near Dery, y exifted, an er times fount that St. Alk- ich enough t0 are now only ceology coll oo roing the bot DO os yrrounding y of wa" eflY e | yantit Sect. XI. 1. 12. AND WATERING. 267 ter’s Bridge has funk a well for the ufe of his {fteam-engine about 200 yards from the former, which paffes through the fame upper fratum of marl, and is three feet in diameter at the bottom, and fup- plies, when required, a hundred hogfheads in a day. 12. The knowledge of this part of geology leads to another ufe- ful purpofe, the difcovery of fprings ; concerning which fome have pretended to poffefs fecret or myftical intelligence both in England and in France. When the eminences of a country were raifed out of the primeval ocean by fabterraneous fires, fome of them were raifed nearly equally on all fides, like the limeftone mountain at. Breedon in Leicefterfhire ; in which the central ftratum may be feen to ftand nearly ereét or vertical, and thofe on all fides at confiderable inclination. Other mountains were abruptly broken off on one fide only from the adjoining earth, like thofe which form the high torr at Matlock; which rife with one of their fides perpendicular as a wall by the Derwent fide; fo that the ftrata of the former of thefe moun- tains may be reprefented, as before mentioned, by the bur, which would be made on fome folds of paper, if a very hard blunt inftru- ment was thruft through them; and the latter by raifing up one edge of fuch folds of paper, {9 as to incline the whole of it at fome angle with the horizon. | As the fprings confit of the water, which flides between thefe snclined ftrata ; it is evident, that in fome eminences of sround they are only to be met with on one fide of the mountain; and in other eminences of ground on all fides of it. In fearching for fprings there- fore attention fhould be given to the ‘nclination of the ftrata of that part of the country, which may be often feen in marl-pits, gravel- pits, or in hollow lanes. But they may in general be found above any moitt or morafly plain or valley; the moifture of which fhews, that fprings exift in the {trata on that fide of the mountain. A fecond obfervation for the purpofe of detecting fprings may be made on mifty evenings ; as thofe parts of the ground, where the Mmz mift 268 DRAINING SECT. XI. 3. 42, mift commences, are moifter than thofe in their vicinity on the fame Jevel; and in confequence may generally, if they are not hollow bafons, poffefs {prings nearer the furface; for thefe moifter parts of the ground, having evaporated more during the day, are become colder on their furfaces than the drier ground in their vicinity ; and in mifly evenings, which are at the fame time calm, the {tationary air over thefe moiit parts of the ground is alfo more loaded with the evaporated moifture ; and on both thefe accounts thefe moifter fitya- tions are liable to fhew a condenfation of aerial vapour fooner than other places on the fame level. As mountains are colder in proportion to their height, which is explained in Botanic Garden, Vol. I. additional note 26, the even- ing mift fometimes commences fooner on them than in the valleys; but is feen earlier in thefe fituations over the moifter places, if they aré on the fame level with the drier ones, exactly as on the plains or valleys; and may therefore indicate the exiftence of {prings, un- Jefs thefe moifter places confift of hollow bafons containing water, which if not attenced to may in all fituations deceive the obferver. Another obfervation for detecting {prings may be made in rimy mornings ; for as moift earth is a better conduétor of heat than dry earth, the rime will fooner melt on thofe parts of the foil, which are kept moift by fprings under it than on other parts; as the common heat of the earth, which is 48 in this country, will fooner be con- ducted upwards in moift places to diffolve the rime on the furface. On this account the rime is frequently feen on frofty mornings, when the heat of the air is not much above 32, to lie an hour longer on dry cakes of cow-dung, or on bridges, or planks of wood, than on the common moift ground; as the latter much better coudués the common heat of the earth to the incumbent rime, which is ja contact with it. But as the heat of the common fprings in this country is 48, where they exift, the rime is fooner diffolved, than on the ftagnant moif- ture & ifte Miller Lty ht, which i > the eVelj- the valleys; aces, if they n the plains {prings, w- ning water, - obferver, ade in rimy eat than dry |, which ate he cominoi yner be cole the furlact y mornings ‘hour Longe wood, thal er condudts which § “ Sect. XI. 2.1. AND WATERING. 269 ture of bogs or moralles. Andas the fprings about Buxton and Mat- lock, and at Bath and Briftol, are fo much warmer than common fprings ; it is highly probable, that where thefe waters approach the furface of the foil, they muft much fooner diffolve the rime on frofly mornings 3 which may probably be obferved in fituations much higher than their prefent apparent fources; as they flide down between the snterior {trata of thofe hills, beneath the fummit of which they are: condenfed from the fteam of water boiling at great depths in the earth ; which rifes up through thofe perpendicular clefts of the rocks, which were formed at their original elevation, as explained in Bo- tanic Garden, Vol. II. note on fucus; and in Pilkington’s View of Derby fhire, V.I1. p. 256. In the winter months the rife of fprings may be detected in. moitt ditches by the prefence of aquatic plants, as of water-crefs, water- parfnip, brook-lime 3 as in thofe ditches, which become dry in the furnmer, thefe plants do not exift; and when thofe ditches with fprings in them are nearly dry, it may be difcovered which way the current has formerly defcended by the direétion of the points of the leaves of the aquatic plants as certainly as by a level ; an obfervation which I learnt from Mr. Brindley, the great canal-conductor of Staf- fordfhire. Finally, thefe arts of detecting the fituation of fprings may be ad- : vantageous to the attentive agricultor both for the purpofes of drain= ing thofe lands, which too much abound with water, and for the purpofe of watering thofe, which are too dry, and which hie beneath the level of the {prings, or to which the water may be raifed by wind-mills or water-engines to be explained hereafter. Il. 1. In refpect to draining thofe plains or morafles where no fall can be had, the water may in many fituations be caught by cutting a Jong horizontal ditch into the adjoining mountain perpendicular to the inclined plane, which conftitutes the fide of the mountain, above the level of the morafs, fo as to intercept all the wall-fprings ;. and may 270 DRAINING Sect. XI. 2,2. may then be conveyed away in wooden troughs or hollow bricks above the furface; and if fome water ftill finds its way into the mo- wafs, this lefs quantity may be conduéted to one extremity of the ground in open drains or covered foughs, and raifed by an horizontal windmill and centrifugal pump, as defcribed at the end of this Sec- tion; and thus the morafs may be converted into foil of the mot productive kind. 2. ‘There may be other fituations, as in the Peak of Derby fhire, where pools of water, or moraffes, are collected on the hollow fum- mits of hills; which have been the craters of volcanoes in the prime- val ages of the world, as Elden-hole near Caftleton, which feems to have been the fhaft of fuch a volcano. In many of thefe bafons on the fummits of hills there ftill exift what are called « Swallows,” or cavities ; where the water finks into the earth, as it colleéts, to pafs to fome diftant valley, as Elden-hole above mentioned, and as in the channels of the rivers Hamps and Manifold, between Athbourn and Leek. In others, as at the fummit of a fteep promontory called Axedge, near Buxton, andabout Broke-houfe, areunfathomed morafies, which are faid in fome places not to bear a fheep to pafs over them; and that on the more tenacious parts of them it is neceflary for the adventurer to ftep from taffock to taffock, or to carry along pole ho- rizontally in his hand, like thofe who {fkaite upon fufpected ice, to prevent his finking over head, if he fhould chance to fink at all. It is probable, that by finking a well, or boring a hole, where fuch moraffes or lakes now exift, into the obftruGted thaft of the an- ice ten times wer freezing not only the yes are conto . or the cal’ ft {pring ** y make much Sect. XI. 3. 4. AND WATERING. | 279 fome weeks before that on drier land in their vicinity. 3. The ground ss rendered more eafily penetrable by the roots of grafs, both by its being kept fofter, and alfo from its being feldomer frozen below the furface in the vernal months. 4. This early crop may be eaten off by cattle or fheep, and anew flooding for a fhort time will forward the growth of it fo as to produce a good crop of hay. 5. After the hay is removed another flooding for a fhort time enfures a luxuriant crowth of autumnal grafs, or aftermath. The difficulty of getting moitft lands free from rufhes is faid to be readily overcome by flooding them, and that efpecially after previ- oufly mowing them, as their fpongy pith will then abforb fo much water, as to caufe them to putrify by its ftagnation ; or if this be done in autumn or fpring, and a froft fupervenes, the water in their pith by expanding, as ‘t becomes ice, burfts and deftroys their organic ftructure, The following conclufion is copied from Parkinfon’s Experienced Farmer. ‘¢ Upon the whole, artificial watering of meadows is a moft profitable improvement ; it robs no dunghill, but raifes one for the benefit of other lands; for if a farmer can water ten acres of land, cut the grafs and ufe it either in ftall or fold-feeding, he might keep perhaps forty beafts ; and by working the manure made by them into a compoft, and applying that compott to other lands, he might either have a great deal more hay for the winter, or feed more cattle in the fummer.”” Vol. II. p. 68. 4. Two or three obfervations of importance fhould be here infert- ed. 1. That in flooding lands for a confiderable time, the water fhould only trickle over them from the canal, which leads it along the more elevated parts, and not ftand on it like a fifh-pond ; as in the latter cafe the grafs roots will perifh in a few weeks in the early {pring, to the great injury of the farmer, an example of which on feveral acres I once witnefled. | | As foon as any materials thus begin to putrefy beneath the water, a {cum I 280 DRAINING Sect. SI. 3:4, a {cum of white froth arifes owing to the air fet at liberty by putre- faction ; which is fuppofed by fome to injure the grafs, whereas it isa confequence rather than a caufe of injury, and fhews, that the water has ftagnated too Jong; and fhould either be immediately drawn off, or fupplied by a running ftream ; but the former fhould probably be preferred : if the ftems of grafs are fo tall as to rife above the running water, it is probable, that their death and putrefaétion do not fo foon occur. — Secondly. It is obferved by gardeners, that in dry feafons, if you begin to water any kinds of plants, you muft continue to repeat it; otherwife that they are fooner injured by dry weather, than thofe which have not been watered. This fa& alfo I think I have obferved, and it may depend on the circumftance of the roots of annual vege-~ tables fhooting themfelves lower down in dry feafons in fearch of moifture; but if this be given them in the commencement of their growth, they then fhoot their roots more horizontally, and are after- wards in confequence fooner deftroyed by the fubfequent dry wea- ther. Thirdly. Much cold water given fuddenly to plants, which were nearly perifhing with heat and drynefs, will I believe fometimes in- jure or deftroy them, as I faw occur this year, 1798, in June to fome rows of garden beans; which after being flooded for one night wie thered, and in part died, on the following day, which .was probably caufed, not by the excefs of water, as plants of this genus would feem to bear much moifture from an experiment of Lord Kaimes, who fays in the Gentleman Farmer, that he planted a pea on fome cot- ton-wool {pread on water in a phial, and that it {prung up, and fhot roots through the cotton-wool into the water, and produced large pods full of ripe feeds. The death of thefe beans was more probably occafioned by the torpor of the fyftem induced by cold, as occurs to thofe who have injudicioufly drank much cold water, or plunged into a cold bath, when they have been previoufly much weakened by the unneceflary teafons, if 0 € to repeat t; er, than thof have obferved f annual vere IS In fearch of ment of thei , and are after. Jent dry wer s, which wer fometimes 1 June to fore one night Ww + was probabl eel us would! who Kaimes; = Sect. XL: 3. 5. AND. WATERING. | 231 unneceflary activity of the fyftem occafioned by continued heat, or great exercife. See Se@. XIV. 1. 1. Nor is there reafon to fuppofe that to whatever extent this mode of cultivation of grafs could be carried in this country, that any injurious effects in refpe& to the health of the inhabitants-could be produced ; as this mode of flooding is not by ftagnant water, as in rice grounds ; which D. A. J. Cavanilles, who has lately publifhed a work on the cultivation of rice in the kingdom of Valencia, believes to be injurious to the health of the inhabitants. Magaz. Encyclop. T. 3. In thefe cold climates the vicinity of running ftreams may per- haps be rather falubrious than the contrary ; as the air is cooled in hot weather, and warmed in cold weather, by its contact with their ever-changing furfaces, till they become frozen. I at this moment recollect many, who lived to an healthy old age in the valley of the Trent near the very edge of the water, whofe names I could repeat. But ftagnate waters, from which putrid exhalations arife, produce agues in cold countries, as in the fens of Lincolnfhire; and putrid fe- vers in hot ones; from which our armies fuffered fo: much at St. Lucia both in the prefent and the laft war. 5. This practice of flooding is capable of being extended to a won- derful degree in this country, not only by ufing the natural falls of brooks and {prings, and by occafionally damming them up to fupply higher fituations; and by effectually {preading the land-floods from accidental fhowers over the inferior lands toa great extent. And laftly, the water, which is now dammed up to fupply the numerous mills, might be diffufed in rills over a thoufand meadows, or part of it be raifed by pumps to higher grounds; and thus fertilize and en- rich the country; while the grinding of corn, {pinning of cotton, roll- ing iron bars, and other mechanic purpofes, might be effected by wind-mills, or fteam-engines, in almoft every part of the ifland. For this purpofe likewife the new method of raifing water by the vis Inertiz or acquired momentum of moving {treams might be well Oo applied, 282 DRAINING, &c. Sect. XI. 3.6, applied, which was formerly ufed by Mr.Whitehurft of Derby on a {mall {cale at Oulton in Chefhire, as defcribed with a plate of the machine, to which an air-veflel is ingenioufly added, in the Philofo- phical Tranfa€tions for the year 1775, Vol. LXV. p. 277, and which is now adapted to variety of ingenious machinery by M. Boulton, Efg. of Soho near Birmingham ; and is well explained with two prints in the Repertory of Arts and Manufactures, No. LI. 6. The following water machine, which is on the principle of Hiero’s fountain, is defigned to raife part of the water of a {pring, or {mall brook, where fome feet of fall may be acquired, to a greater height for the purpofe of watering higher levels of ground; and the horizontal windmill with centrifugal pump is defigned for the fame purpofe, where no fall can be acquired. We fhall then perhaps have {atiated fome of our readers with this fubjeét of watering lands, and | may conclude with the fhepherds in Virgil’s Eclogue, Claudite jam rivos, Pueri, fat prata biberunt. SECT: 7s and Whig, M. Boulton, ed with tie € principle of a fring, o > CO a greater und 5 and the d for the fame 1 perhaps have ing lands, aud opt! PEATE ¥. PLA I #2 V. Reprefents the ftrata of a hill. a d is the upper ftratum, fuppofe of marle ; ¢ d is the fecond ftratum, fuppofe of fand; ¢ f reprefents the accumulated earth in the valley. It is-defigned to fhew, that in boring holes through the upper ftrauum to find that beneath it, they fhould be formed perpendicular to the fide of the mountain, and not perpendicular to the horizon, as is the common practice, as by thofe means the hole yy is much fhorter than the hole «+. As explained in Seét. XI. 1. : \ \V WW yhyqabay ta TLE plate V. Sect. XI. 1.5 \ \\ \ YS WMO IY RAW PLA: Bh PIGA ILE =~ Vi Is a fection of a machine fimilar to Hiero’s fountain, but defigned to raife water to a great perpendicular height, where there is the convenience of a {mall fall. a 6 the ftream of water, 4 ¢ ¢ the height of the fall of it, fuppofe ten feet, de two vef- fels of lead or iron containing, fuppofe, four gallons.each, fg bik/ are veffels of lead con- taining, fuppofe, two quarts each, 0 p two cocks, each of which paffes through two pipes opening one and clofing the other, gr a water balance moving on its centre s and turning the two cocks o and 9, alternately, ¢ w and w two air-pipes of lead one quarter or half an inch diameter within, y x, y x, y %, water-pipes one inch diameter. The pipe 4 cc is always full from the ftream a d, the {mall cifterns gil, and the large one d, are fuppofed to have been previoufly full of water, then admit water by turning the cock o through the pipe ce into the large ciftern e. This water will prefs the air, which was in this ciftern ¢ up the air-pipe w x, and will force the water from the fmall cifterns gz / into the cifterns 4 & and great C. At the fame time by opening B, the water and condenfed air, which previoufly exifted in the large ciftern d, and the {mall ones fh k, is difcharged at B. After a time the water balance q1s Clofes the cocks now open, and opens their-antagonifts, and the cifterns Jk are emptied in their turn by the force of the condenfed air from the ciftern d, as the water enters into it from the pipe 4c. POL PANY SNUBS’ UUYOLY, KYO09t, 12 PIysygny “wopUeg \ & 4 Be # PLATE VII. PUA. Vil Ts a fe€tion of a machine for raifing water a few feet high by the power of the wind for the purpofe of draining moraffes, or of watering lands on a higher. level. It confifts of a windmill fail placed horizontally like that of a fmoak-jack, furrounded by an oétagon tower; the diverging rays of this tower, a b, ab; may confift of two-inch deals only, if on a fimall feale, or of brick-work ifon a largerone. ‘Thefe upright pil- lars are conneéted together by oblique horizontal boards-as fhewn at A’ B, by whieh boards placed horizontally from pillar to pillar, in refpect to their length, but at an angle of about 45 degrees in refpeét to their breadth, fo as to form a complete otagon including the horizontal windmill fail near the top of it; the wind as it ftrikes againft any of them, from whatever quarter it comes, is bent upwards and then {trikes againft. the horizontal wind-fail, ‘Thefe horizontal boards, which form the fides of the octagon, may either be fixed in their fituations, orbe made to turn upon an axis a little below their centres of gravity, fo as to clofe themfelves on that fide of the octagon tower moft diftant from the wind, It may be fuppofed that the wind thus refle€ted would lofe confiderably of its power be- fore it ftrikes on the wind-fail, but on fixing a model of fuch a machine on the arm of a long whirling lever, with proper machinery to count the revolution of the wind fail,when thus included in a tower and moving horizontally ; and then when meved vertically as it was whirled on the arm of the lever with the fame velocity, it was found on many trials by Mr. Edgeworth of Edgeworth Town in Ireland, and by myfelf, that the wind by being thus reverted upwards by a fixed planed board did not feem to lofe any of its power. And as the height of the tower may be made twice as great as the diameter of the fail, there is reafon to conclude that the power of this horizontal wind-fail may be confiderably greater, than if the fame fail was placed nearly vertically oppofed to the wind in the ufual man- ner. At the bottom of the fhaft of the wind-fail is placed a centrifugal pump with two arms at C D, which has been defcribed in mechanical authors. It confifts fimply of an upright bored trunk, or cylinder of lead, with two oppolite arms with an adapted valve at the bot- tom to prevent the return of the water, and a valve at the extremity of each arm to pre- vent any ingrefs of air above the current of the water as it flows out. cece isa circular trough to receiye the ftreams of water from C and D, to convey them where required. ‘ Plate VIL. ; Sect. XT. 3.6. im nt zg ‘ ic y SS i =4 wil ce | i t erent | i “te 2 Lh ‘i cen i a BA) | EZ ; ; y f orden Published Jan* 12 i800, by J Johnson, S!Pauts Church Yard. Nw CS wos Sect. XII. 1. AERATION, &c. SECT. Xl. AERATION AND PULVERIZATION OF THE SOIL. 1. Soils contaix inflammable matters and water. ir confifts of oxygen, nitrogen, and heat. Produces carbonic, nitrous, and phofphoric acids, ana volatile alkali with water when buried inthe foil. Heat and light given out from the union of carbon and oxygen in a letter-wafer. Sow and fet foon after the plough or fpade. 2. Pe- netrability of the foil increafed, and mixture of its ingredients. Retains the rains. Enlarges the furface. 3. Ujes of allowing. Turnips faid not to impoverifh the foil, why. 4. Fallowing injurious to rich lands, why. §. The great advan- tages of Tull’s drill bnfbandry. Prefers borfe-boeimg to hand-hoeing. An im- proved drill machine. 6. Advantages of tranfplanting wheat. 7. Of barrowing — wheat in fpring. 8. Rolling wheat in fpring. As almoft all foils not only contain carbon, and other inflammable thaterials, which are capable of uniting with oxygen, and thus pro- ducing the carbonic and other acids; but alfo contain water, which by its decompofition, when in contaé& with confined air, produces ammonia or volatile alkali by the union of its hydrogen with azote ; and nitre by the union of its abundant oxygen with another part of: the abundant azote or nitrogen of the atmofpheric air ; there is rea- fon to conclude, that the great ufe of turning over the foil with the plough or fpade depends principally in the production of thefe effects by the confinement of both the oxygen and the azote or nitrogen of the air in the interftices of the foil; and on this account we have en- titled this fe&tion the aeration of the foil rather than the oxygenation 002 of 284 AERATION AND Sect. XII. r. of it, as the latter belongs to the refpiration rather than to the nutri- tion of vegetables. When atmofpheric air is imprifoned in the cavities of the foil by turning over its furface, which muft be in greater quantity, when the foil is reduced into the very {mall fragments, which has been called pulverization ; and when it is the leaft prefled down by animals trampling onit, it more readily unites, I believe, with the materials above mentioned than in its free ftate; which is probably effeéted by double or triple chemical affinities. For this atmofpheric air confifts of oxygen, azote, and the fluid matter of heat; now if the heat, which occafions the oxygen and azote of the atmofphere to exift uncombined in the form of gaffes, be attracted from them by any other material, as they are confined in the cavities of the foil, they may by their nearer approach to each other combine into nitrous acid; or the oxygen may in its fluid ftate, not in its aerial one, more readily unite with carbon; and form a fluid, not an aerial, carbonic acid; which we believe to be of fo much confequence in the growth of plants, as fhewn in Seat. X.4. Add to this, that if any putrefactive procefs be proceeding, where atmofpheric air is thus imprifoned in the cavities of the foil, and by the lofs of its heat is converted from a gas toa fluid; that the azote may unite with the hydrogen of the decompofing water, or contri- bute to decompofe it ; and thus to form volatile alkali, which like the nitrous acid, may either during the procefs of its formation, or af- ter it is formed, be of effectual fervice to vegetation, at the fame time the oxygen given out from the decompofing water may contribute like that of the atmofphere to produce carbonic, nitrous, or phofpho- ric acids ; and thus to render carbon, phofphorus, and the bafis of nitre, capable of being abforbed by vegetable lacteals. Where atmofpheric air is confined along with water, I well re- member from experiments I made long ago, by inverting a bottle fill- ed with air in a jar of water, that the bulk of the air was in fome days ie AUtr). oil by Whey been UMals terials ted by > fluid N and zafles, nfined ) each ftate, orm a of fo Xe 4. where ind by ofpho- afis of of] re" Je fill for? day® Sucr. XII. 2. PULVERIZATION. 285 days fo much diminifhed as to occupy only half the bottle, which probably occurs from the decompofition of both the water and air ; and the produétion of ammonia and nitrous acid, both which are be- lieved to be fo ferviceable to vegetation, as mentioned in Sect. X. 2. Qs That the heat of the atmofpheric air 1s given out, when oxygen unites with carbon, is fhewn by the heat of hot-beds ; and of fer- menting faccharine and mucilaginous fluids, as in the production of ardent fpirit ; and may be beautifully feen in the combination of oxy- gen with carbon in the burning of one of thofe common letter-wa- fers, which confift of the mucilage of flour, and red lead or mi~ nium ; not one of thofe, which are called Irifh wafers, and which are coloured with vermilion. If one of thefe minium wafers be made to blaze in the flame of a candle, the oxygen contained in the mi- nium unites with the carbon of the flour, and gives out a very lumin- ous fpark, and confequent great heat, and at the fame inftant a {mall globule of melted lead drops down, and may be agreeably {een, if re- ceived on a fheet of white paper held under it. It is alfo probable, that heat is emitted during the produétion of nitrous and of phof- phoric acids. From thefe obfervations it appears, that feeds fhould be fown, and roots planted, foon after the foil is turned over; while the produc- tion of the carbonic, nitrous, and phofphoric acids, and of volatile al~ kali, and perhaps many other proceffes, are proceeding, rather than after they are completed; and alfo while the fluid element of heat 1s paffing from its combined ftate, and permeating the foil, which in this- cold climate in the vernal months muft be highly conducive to vege- tation. 2. By thus turning over the foil with the plough or fpade the pe- netrability of it by the roots of plants is alfo much facilitated ; and for this purpofe, as well as for the admixture of atmofpheric air, it can {carcely be reduced into too fine molecules, or a kind of wet pow- der ; 286 | AERATION AND Sect. XII. 3. der; for the moifture of foil is as neceflary for its being permeated by the young roots of plants, as its {mall cohefion, as mentioned in sect. X. 3. 6. Secondly, a more intimate mixture of the various ingredients, which moft foils poffefs, as carbon, calcareous, argillaceous, filiceous, and magnefian earths, with various metallic oxydes, as thofe of iron, and fometimes of manganefe, and calamy, all which by frequent turning over the foil with the plough or fpade, become mixed { as to act on each other or on the roots of vegetables in every minute part of the foil. And thirdly, the vernal rains are retained by their finking more readily into the pores and cells of land recently turned over, and which ftill poffeffes an uneven furface. Befides a greater furface of it being continually expofed to the paffing air, and to the heavier im- purities, which it perpetually contains, as carbonic acid, foot, odours of many kinds. 3. A recapitulation of thefe circumftances leads us to the know- ledge of the ufe of fallowing lands, by repeatedly turning them ever much carbonic acid is produced in its fluid ftate; and perhaps fome of the nitrous and phofphoric acids; thefe may remain united with the vegetable recrements, or with volatile alkali, or with calcareous earth. 2. The parts of the foil may become better mixed together, and thus either chemically affeé&t each other to their mutual meliora- tion; or they may more uniformly fupply nutriment to the roots, which penetrate it. 3. The foil may become broken into a moift powder, and may thus be more eafily. permeated, and fupply a greater furface of its cavities for the vegetable abforbents to apply themfelves to. 4. Unprofitable plants, or weeds, not being permitted to grow on it, or their being perpetually ploughed under the foil in their early growth, much vegetable nutriment will be referved by not being ex- pended ; -or it will be increafed by the faccharine and mucilaginous matter of the young plants, which are thus buried in it. It ut © Dart ig More cr, and Ce of it let im: odours knows Mm over 9s fome d with careous gether, neliora- ; roots, , moitt greatet mnfelves Tow on ir catly ing ee yginov® It - the ground, on which they have grown dur Scet. XII. 4. PULVERIZATION. 284 It fhould be added, that fome plants are {aid not to impoverifh ing their herbaceous ftate,, before the feed-ftems have arifen; as turnips, when drawn up and carried away to feed cattle or fheep on other grounds, This has been afcribed by fome authors to the foil having been fhaded by their thick foliage, and thus not having fuffered fo much by evaporation. Some have afcribed this fuppofed melioration of the foil to its having been fereened or overfhadowed by the thicker foliage of fuch crops; andi that as the putrefactive procefs of vegetable recrements proceeds beft yn damp and confined air, as wood decays fooneft in cellars, they fup- pofe the foil may thus become improved. But Mr.Tull feems either to doubt the fact, or to attribute it to the ground, where fuch plants: are cultivated, being ufually once or twice hoed ; and thus in effect to have been followed by the repeated aeration and pulverization of the foil, and the deftruétion of innumerable weeds. If neverthelefs the fad be true, not only all the circumftances above mentioned may contribute to produce it, but alfo, as it appears by the experiments of Prieftley and Ingenhoufe, that though the perfpirable matter of vegetable leaves gives out oxygen in the funfhine, yet that it gives out carbonic acid in the fhade; which even in its aerial: or gafleous form is much heavier than common air, and will therefore {abfide on the earth in the thade of this perfpiring foliage, and con- tribute to-enrich the foil by the hourly addition of carbon. 4. Neverthelefs where the foil is already replete with manures, and thefe. proceffes productive of carbonic, nitrous, and phofphoric acids, and of volatile alkali, are going on in proper abundance ; fuch {oils muft be injured by being too frequently turned over in fummer fallowing ; and thus by expofing too great a furface, and that too fre- quently, to the air, the funfhine, and the rain; by which much of the fluid carbonic acid will be converted into aerial carbonic acid, and e{cape, as well as the phofphorus and the ingredients in their ftate pre- vious to the production of nitrous acid, and of the volatile alkali. On this 288 AERATION AND Seer. XII. ¢, this account in the manufa@ure-of nitre in France, Spain, and Pruffia, it is dire&ted to cover the compoft of foil and animal recre- ments with a fhed to prevent too great exhalation and ablution, Hence though a fummer fallow may be of advantage to a poor foil, which has nothing to lofe; it muft be difadvantageous to a rich one, which has nothing to gain. Lord Dundonald in his work on the Cotinection of Agriculture and Chemiftry ingenioufly {uppofes, that foils become injured, when much expofed to the air by fallowing, from the carbon or other inflammable matters uniting with oxygen; and that then be- ing again combined with other materials, they become infoluble, pro- ducing limeftone, calcareous nitre, and phofphat of lime. But there is another injury to foil by frequent fallowing, which I {ufpect to be more extenfive, from the efcape of carbonic acid, or of nitrous acid, or of ammonia, into the atmofphere in the form of gas, as above mentioned ; or their being wafhed away by rains, 5. Hence the great advantages of Mr.Tull’s ingenious difcovery of the drill hufbandry are eafily underftood, 1, By fowing the wheat in tows, fcattered bya drill-plough at regular diftances, and buried at a regular depth, the grain is neither crowded, nor too thinly difperfed. 2. Nor are the roots buried either too deep in the foil, or too thal- low. 3. By turning the foil firft from the rows in the {pring for a week or two, and then turning it up againft the rows, the foil be- _ with new ftems will thoot out, generated by the caudex of the f{e- cond leaf of the corn-ftem ; which is now within the foil, or in contact with it, as explained in Se@. IX. 3. 1. and 7- XVI. 2. 2, Thus Mr. Tull’s method of heaping foil againft Wheat-plants up to the fecond joint anfwers in fome degree the fame purpofe, as -tranfplanting the roots, and fetting them deeper in the foil with much very of heat in ed at a Sect. XII. s. PULVERIZATION. 289 much Jefs expence of labour. But for the more perfect pulveriza- tion of the foil, and the more complete aeration of it, he infifts much on the preference of horfe-hocing to hand-hoeing ; as the former paffes deeper into the foil, and thus expofes a greater quantity of it to the air; and efpecially of that part of it, which before lay too much beneath the furface to be previoufly much affected by the in- cumbent atmofphere. But the great objection to the ufe of the horfe-hoe is, that the alternate rows of corn muft be placed at too great a diftance, as will be again fpoken of in Se&. XVI. 2. 2. To the many advantages of the drill hufbandry above recited Mr. Tull adds, that ‘© where the fpring-turnips are ufed too late in the year, there is not time to bring the land into tilth for barley, and there is a lofs of the barley crop in confequence 5 which he fays 1s entirely remedied by the drilling method; for by that the land may be almoft as well tilled before the turnips are eaten or taken off, as it can afterwards.” Hufbandry, Chap. VIII. p. 89. So many great advantages feem to accrue from Mr. Tull’s method of drill-fowing and horfe-hoeing, that a curious queftion offers itfelf, Why it has not been more generally adopted? Firft, I fuppofe, be- caufe it is difficult to teach any thing new to adult ignorance, fo that the mafter muft for fome time attend the procefs with his own eye. Secondly, I believe the axle-tree of Mr.Tull’s fowing machine did not accurately emit the proper quantity of feed from the hopper, and was liable to bruife and deftroy fome of it in its paflage. And thirdly, that the improved drill machine of Mr. Cook’s patent is too expen- five for the purchafe of {mall farmers, who fear-that it may not an- {wer the expected advantages. I'have therefore given a print at the end of this work of a machine conftruéted on a cheaper plan, which is fimply an improvement of that defcribed in Mr. Tull’s book, by enlarging that part of the axle-tree which delivers the grain, into a cylinder of fome inches diameter Spi be with 290 AERATION AND Sect. XII, 6, with excavations in the rim; which rim rifes above the furface of the corn in the feed-box, and lets drop again into the feed-box, what- ever grains fill the holes above the level of the rim, as that fide of the cylinder afcends. Whence the quantity delivered is uniform, and no grains are in the way to be bruifed or injured, as explained at large along with the print; and the whole machine is fimple, and of fmall expence. 6. The moft effectual method of obtaining the great combined ad- vantages of aeration and pulverization of the foil is by tranfplanting the roots of wheat, and parting them, as already {poken of in Se@t. IX, 3. 7. By taking up the roots and replanting them in {oil lately turn- ed over, and confequently expofed to the air, which is now confined in its interftices, all the advantages already mentioned are effectually received, from the new made fluid, carbonic, nitrous, and phofphoric acids, and from the ammonia, and other unnamed combinations. Se- condly, all the advantages arifing from the eafy penetrability of the loofe foil by the root-fibres, which are believed by Mr.Tull to put out more radicles with abforbent mouths at every part, where they are diffevered, like a bruth or pencil of hairs. Thirdly, by parting the root-{cions from each other they acquire greater {pace of air for their re{piring leaves, and of foil for their abforbent roots, Whereas when too many ftems arife from one root, or many feeds are fown near together, a tuflock is produced in a conical form rifing higheft in the center; which feems to be occafioned by the conteft of the ftems for air and light ; their roots alfo muft defcend lower in their conteft for moifture, and for other advantages of the foil; whence many of thefe crowded {tems become barren, producing no ears, or ill-corned ones. Another benefit from tranfplanting corn is owing to the quicker tendency to frudtification, and confequent fooner ripening of the grain. ‘Thus tranfplanted garden beans and tranfplanted brocoli flower fooner, and I {uppofe produce lefs ftems: or {traw, as men- tioned Xl, ¢ face of > What, Of the And yo at large and of ned ad. lanting o Ct. IX, Y turn. onfined tually {phoric ns. Se. of the put out hey are ing the or their $ when yn neat heft in e ftems -contelt many of -corned quicker of the procoll 4g men” tioned Sect. XII. 6. PULVERIZATION. 291 tioned in Set. XVI. 1.2. Iam alfo well informed by the Rev. Mr. Pole of Radborne, that the roots of thofe turnips, which were drawn out of the ground and tranfplanted, became confiderably larger than thofe, which were only hoed in the common manner; which I fup- pofe to have been owing to many of the extremities of the roots hav- ing been torn off in drawing them out of the ground; and that thence the tendency to fhoot up the new central ftem is delayed, and the re- fervoir of nourifhment accumulated in the tuberous root is thus in- creafed in quantity, as feveral of thefe turnips weighed ten and eleven pounds ; and hence probably the tranfplanting turnips by means of a cylindrical fpade defcribed in Vol. IV. of the Bath Society, which tears the roots lefs, might not have been fo advantageous. Something fimilar occurs in tranfplanting fruit-trees. See Sects AV. 2. 4. But the great advantage of tranfplanting wheat above the drill- hufbandry confifts in being able at the fame time to divide the root- {cions from each other; and thus not only to prevent their crowd- ing each other, but alfo wonderfully to increafe the produc from a fingle grain, with many other advantages mentioned by Mr. Bogle in the works of the Bath Society, Vol. III. p. 494. Another great advantage of tran{planting wheat confifts in this, that it may be fowed in a garden, one acre of which will produce fets for one hundred acres, if they be divided and planted at nine inches dif- tance from each other ; and as they are not to be tranfplanted till the {pring, wheat may be thus cultivated in moifter fituations than would otherwife be friendly to its growth. And that a clean crop may be certainly thus procured; becaufe if the land be ploughed immediately before the plants are fet out, the corn will {pring much quicker from the plants, than the weeds from their feeds; and the corn will thence bear down the growth of the weeds. For many other particulars the reader is referred to the ingenious paper of Mr. Bogle above mentioned, who thinks the tranfplanting Pp2 might 292 AERATION AND Secr. XII, 7, might be done by boys and girls at a fmall expence; I fhall only add, that rape-feed, which is generally fown in Auguft, and not reaped till the Auguft following, might be profitably tranfplanted, as well as peas and beans. And laftly, that it is probable, that fome means of making the holes to receive the plants might be much expedited by a broad wheel to be drawn by a man or horfe with prominent pegs on its periphery two inches tall, and nine inches afunder. 7. Another means of aeration and of pulverization has been ufed in re{fpect to wheat crops by many with advantage, and that is by drawing a lightifh harrow over a wheat-crop in the fpring, which, where a crop is thin, is particularly recommended; and may alfo be of fervice where it is too thick. The harrow by breaking the clods,and by turning up the foil againft the ftems of many plants, earths them deeper as in hoeing ; and thus by burying the fecond joint occafions it to tiller, or fhoot out new root-{cions; at the fame time the earth is expofed to the air, and many weeds are rooted up and covered, and fome roots of the corn. The drawing a fharp harrow over a field of wheat in the {pring muft cut or tear many of the roots of thofe ftems, which it comes near, which according to Mr. Tull’s theory would fhoot out many new radicles, or pencils of fine roots, and thus acquire more nourifh- ment. But I fufpe& that tearing of many of the root-fibres prevents the too luxuriant growth of the {tem and leaves, and thence fooner produces the frudtification, as in tranfplanting. At the fame time the earth being loofened becomes more penetrable to the remaining roots, as well as more nutritive from its aeration. Others have even ploughed a field at this feafon with good effect, as Mr. Bogle afferts ; but both of them appear to be only inferior kinds of drill hufbandry ; and the former may fo far be of confider- able utility. 8. Another method of aerating and pulverizing the foil of a wheat field in {pring is by rolling it, which may be done before or after the 4 -. (fe Xu, ll Only *Teapey } Well 23 Cans of dited by nt Pegs en ufed lat js by Which, y alfo be il againg and thus Dut new air, and 1€ corn. 1¢ {pring it comes ut many nourifh- prevents se {ooner time the ng roots, od effect, y spferio! confider : fa wheat yf¢ Srcr. XII. 8. PULVERIZATION. 293 ufe of the harrow, oF without it. As the furface of a wheat field is generally left rough with clods or eminences, the preffure of a hea- vyith roller will not only pulverize thefe, and thus expofe their inte- rior furface to the air, and raife the foil round the wheat-ftems above the fecond joint, and thus induce them to fhoot out new root-{cions, or tiller ; but will alfo prefs down the wheat roots into the foil, and thus alfo promote the growth of new ftems, as mentioned in Sect. XVI. 2. 5. if it be performed, when the ground is neither too wet nor too dry for fuch an operation. SECT. 294 LIGHT, HEAT, Secr. XIII. role Op; Ons lamar .G tt § OF LIGHT, HEAT, ELECTRICITY. I,1. Licur and heat are different fuids. Light does not heat tranfparent bodies, A glafs fire-/creen, combines with opake bodies, and heat is detruded. 2. Light combines with folid oxygen, and with heat converts it into gas. Perfpiration of plants is decompofed by light. The hydrogen retained gives the green colour. Wa- ter hyper-oxygenated. Oxygenated marine acid. Colourlefs nitrous acid. A branch immerfed in carbonic acid and water. 3. Etiolation of vegetables. Bleaching ow- ing to oxygen. Colour of plants to hydrogen, and the yellow tan of the fein. Pure air from dew. Perfpiration of plants oxygenated. Light tans living bodies, and bleaches dead ones, both vegetable and animal. 4. Ue of light in vegetable repi- ration. Plants do not refpire in the night. Truffles and fungi live without light. 5. Spring water frequently oxygenated. Air liberated by points. 6. Plants re- quire oxygen. Fallacy of contrary experiments. Ul. 1. Heat univerfal. Counter- atis gravitation, Is the cau/e of fuidity, and of aeriform ftate. Particles of mat- ter do not touch. Heat becomes combined. Is fet at liberty in production of acids. dh freezing water. 2. Froft deftroys Siuidity. Ice expands. Separates compound Siuids from each other, and burfts the veffels of plants. Not of evergreens. Rime Sryfts and black frofis. Low fituations not proper Sor gardens. Ufe of coping ftones on fruit-walls. Rows of young peas from 8. E. to S.W. Bend Jig-trees on the ground. roft erroneoufly believed to meliorate the foil, and to be wholefome. Clay rendered denfer by froft. Snow proteéts plants. Animals covered with Jfnow are not wet or farved. Lichen rangiferinus. 3. Cold deftroys vegetable irritability. leat is a flimulus. Acquired habits of plants. 4. Cold produced by evaporation. Plants not to be watered in the funfbine. 1.1. ELectricity confifis of two fluids. Forwards the growth of plants whether pofitive or negative. Lightning defiroys them. 2. It affifts the decompofition of water in vegetables. 3. Clouds 6 ave ‘Xt. it bodies. 2. Light ation of Yr. Wo. A branch bing ot. n. Pure dies, and ble refpi- ut light. Jants re- Counter- - of mat- of acids. compound Rime ng fones as on the ye. Clay ow are jtabilsty. nor ation s of #0 jghinin | Clouss id Sect. XII. 1.1. ELECTRICITY. 295 are generally elettrifed plus. Experiment on vapeur. Raia from hydrogen and oxygen. Thunder foowers. 4. Eleétric points to collet dew, and promote ve- getation. Eleéfric clock. | I. 1. PHILOSOPHERS are not yet agreed, whether light and heat be the fame fluid under different modifications, or two different fluids,which exift frequently together. The latter opinion feems to be more pro- bable from the circumftances related below, and alfo from the ana- logy of other aqueous, aerial, or ethereal fluids, which appear to con- G{t of two other fluids combined or diffufed with each other. Thus water confifts of oxygen and hydrogen combined together, Atmo- fpheric air of oxygen and nitrogen diffufed together. Electricity pro- bably confifts of two fluids, which may be termed vitreous and re- finous eleétricity. Magnetifm alfo probably confifts of two fluids, which conftitute northern and fouthern polarity. The power of at- traction feems to confift of gravitation and of chemical affinity. And laftly, the element of fire confifts I fuppofe of light and heat. The diffimilarity of light and heat is evinced by this fimple cir- cumftance; that as light gives no heat to tranfparent bodies, which the emanations from a fire do, there is reafon to believe them to be different fluids. Thus when fmoke is blown near the focus of a large burning glafs, it does not afcend ; which fhews, that the air is not heated and rarified by it; though it would burn or vitrify in an in- ftant any opake body, which might be oppofed to it; but the ema- nations of heat from a fire foon rarify and warm the air in its vicinity, caufing it to afcend, as may be feen bya fpiral card-vann placed over a chimney-piece, and which is agreeably feen in the ufe of the new olafs fire-fcreens of Parifian invention, which placed before a parlour fire permit the rays of light to pafs, but intercept the emanations of fluid heat. Whence it would feem, that light does not itfelf communicate heat to opake bodies, when it falls on them; but combines with them, and. 296 LIGHT, HEAT, SECT, XIII. 4. 2, and by that union heat is detruded or given out; which heat may produce inflammation of the material, if it be of an inflammable na- ture, by uniting it with the oxygen of the atmofphere; and thus producing an eduction of more heat from the oxygen, and greater in- flammation of the burning body. 2. Another effential difference between light and heat confifts in the particular attraction of the former to oxygen; infomuch that by their union the combined or folid oxygen becomes changed into an aerial, or gaffeous ftate; as conftantly occurs, when tlhe fun fhines on the hy pel oxve eenated water, which is perfpired or exhaled from plants, as mentioned in Botanic Garden, Vol. I. Cant. IV. 1.25. But as an addition of heat feems neceffary to the converfion of a folid or fluid body into an aerial or gaffeous one, I fuppofe the fun’s light at the fame time by combining alfo with the water fets at liberty fome latent heat from it, which gives wings to the oxygen. The water perfpired by plants, when expofed to the funfhine, is believed to be decompofed, as it efcapes from the fine extremities of the exhalent or perfpirative veffels of plants; and that the hydrogen is reabforbed by the mouths of thofe veffels, as explained in Botanic Garden, Vol. I. note 34. That this happens to a certain degree is evinced by etiolated or blanched vegetable leaves becoming green, when expofed to the funfhine in a few days; which is, I believe, produced by their retaining the hydrogen of the water they perfpire, as it is decompofed by the fin® s light. But it is alfo probable, that the ili a fluid of plants is previ- oufly hyper-oxygenated in the vegetable circulation. Firft, becaufe there is never perceived any fmell of hydrogen to attend this procefs of liberating oxygen by the fun’s light. And fecondly, becaufe the fol- lowing produétions of oxygen gas by the fun’s light are fimilar phe- nomena ; though I fuppofe the points or hairs on vegetable leaves may contribute to the efcape of the oxygen, as explained in Botanic Gar- Ren, Vol. I. note to. Sir Hips: ‘at May able Na, Nd thys ater ibe nfifts in that by - Into ay 0 fhings led from 25. But folid or 5 light at tty fome thine, is mities of iydrogen 1 Botanic degree is g greet believe, perfpite, is previ ? becaule is proce! fe the for nilar phe oqves nic OH Git Sect. XIII. 1. 2. ELECTRICITY. 297 Sir Benj. Thompfon, now Count Rumford, in a paper publithed in Philof, Tranfa@. Vol. LX XVII. put thirty grains of raw filk previ- oufly wathed into fome fpring water, and expofing it fome hours to the funfhine obtained from it very pure vital air, or oxygen gas. In that experiment the fpring water feems to have been in a ftate of hy- per-oxygenation, and the points or fine edges of the raw filk to have affifted its liberation from the water in the funfhine, as explained in Botanic Garden, Vol. II. note on fucus. 2. The hyper-oxygenated marine acid is known very haftily to part with its fuperabundant oxygen in the funfhine. 3. Mr. Scheele inverted a glafs vefiel filled with colourlefs nitrous acid into another elafs-vefiel containing the fame acid; and on expofing them to the fun’s light, the inverted glafs became partly filled with pure air, and the acid at the fame time be- came coloured. Crell’s Annal. 1786. As water contains*85 hundredth parts of oxygen to 15 of hydro- gen, it may become much oxygenated occafionally by a {mall lofs of hydrogen in the vegetable fyftem ; or by the carbonic acid being de- compofed in plants by the fecretion of carbon, which conftitutes fo great a part of them ; and that on both of thefe accounts they may yield oxygen gas, when expofed to the fun’s light, as appears from the following experiment related from Von Uflar by G. Schmeiffer. Ob- fervat. on Plants. Creech, Edinburgh, p. 92. If two branches of a plant are immerfed, one in common water, and the other in water impregnated with carbonic acid, we then find, that the branch immerfed in the latter yields a much greater quan- tity of oxygenous gas in the funfhine than the other. The difference in fome experiments has been found in the proportion of 264 to 1. But the proportions vary when different plants are fubjected to trial. Thus the carbonic acid, with which the water is impregnated, 1s de~ compofed by the branch, the carbon apparently enters into the con- ftitution of the plant, while the oxygen is fet at liberty, and efcapes Qq in 298 LIGHT, HEAT, Sect. XU. 1. 3, in the form of gas in the funthine; but not in the night, as then the carbon is perfpired along with it. | 3. A third circumftance, in which the effeéts of light differ effen- tially from thofe of heat, appears in the blanching or etiolation of ve- getables; under whatever temperature of heat a plant is kept, it be- comes white, if the light be excluded from it, and is fo far difeafed, as mentioned in Seét. XIV. 2. 4. Whence all vegetables turn towards the window, if confined in a room, and in denfe woods grow taller, than in open grounds, for the purpofe of acquiring accefs to this ne« ceflary fluid. On this fubjeét many experiments are related by M. Senebier on vegetables confined in a dark cavern. From the experiment laft related of the nitrous acid becoming co- loured, when the fuperabundant oxygen was volatilized by the fun’s light, or attracted from it; and from the experiments of bleaching cotton by the hyper-oxygenated marine acidj“where the union of oxygen with the colouring matter feems to deftroy the latter by forming a new acid, which is colourlefs, it appears, that the abfence of oxygen occafions the colour of vegetable bodies, probably by the accumulation of hydrogen ; and that on this account, when they are fecluded from the light, they become white, or blanched, or etiolat- ed, by their not being in a fituation to part with fo much oxygen, as when they are expofed to the hight. Hence plants growing in the thade are white, and become green by being expofed to the fun’s light ; for their natural colour being blue, the addition of hydrogen adds yellow to this blue, and tans them green. I fuppofe a fimilar circumftance takes place in animal bodies ; their per{pirable matter is probably hyper-oxygenated ; and, as it efcapes in the funthine, lofes its fuperabundant oxygens; and by the hydro- | gen being retained the {kin becomes tanned yellow. Though this muft occur in lefs quantity in animals, as they perfpire fo much lefs than NING co. re fun’s eaching inion of atter by abfence by the they are --etiolat: oxy gel, ye green yr being ms them Sect. XIII. 1. 3. ELECTRICITY. 299 than vegetables ; and the greateft part of their perfpired matter, which . Soe . : exhales from the lungs, is not expofed to the fun’s light. In proof of this it mutt be obferved, that both vegetable and animal fubftances become bleached white by the fun-beams and water, when they are dead, as cabbage-{ftalks, bones, ivory, tallow, bees-wax, linen and cotton cloth ; and hence, I fuppofe, the copper coloured natives of funny countries might become etiolated, or blanched, by being kept from their infancy in the dark, or removed for a few generations to more northern climates. It is probable, that ona funny morning much _ pure air becomes feparated from the dew by means of the points of vegetables, on which it adheres, and much inflammable air imbibed by the vegeta- ble, or combined with it ; and, by the fun’s light thus decompofing water, the effects of it in bleaching linen feem to depend; the water is decompofed by the light at the ends or points of the cotton or thread; and the vital air unites with the phlogiftic or colouring matters of the cloth; and produces a new acid, which ‘is either itfelf colourlefs, or wathes out ; at the fame time the hydrogen or inflam- mable part of the water efcapes.. Hence there feems a reafon, why cotton bleaches fo much fooner than linen ; viz. becaufe its fibres are three or four times fhorter, and therefore protrude fo many more points ; which feem to facilitate the liberation of the vital air from the inflammable part of the water. A fun-flower three feet anda half high, according to the experi- ment of Dr. Hales, perfpired two pints in one day, (vegetable {tatics) which is many times as much in proportion to its furface, as is per- {pired from the furface and lungs of animal bodies ; it follows, that the vital air, liberated from the furface of plants by the funfhine, muft much exceed the quantity of it abforbed by their refpiration; and that hence they improve the air, in which they live, during the light part of the day; and thus blanched vegetables will fooner become Qq2 tanned 300 LIGHT, HEAT, SecT. MINI. 2, 4. tanned into green by the fun’s light, than etiolated animal bodies will become fanned yellow by the fame means. Lafily. This retention of the hydrogen-on the fkins of vegetables and animals, when their per{pirable matter is decompofed by the fun’s light, and by which the former becomes green, and the latter yel- low, is evidently owing to the power of life; becaufe when either of them are dead, the action of the funfhine on the water fprinkled on them again blanches them, or bleaches them white. It is hence evident, that the curious difcovery of Dr. Prieftley, that his green vegetable matter, and other aquatic plants, gave out vital air, when the fun fhone upon them; and the leaves of other plants did the fame when immerfed in water, as obferved by Mr. Ingen-~ houz, refer to the perfpiration of vegetables, not to their refpiration. Becaufe Dr. Prieftley obferved the pure air to come from both fides of the leaves, and even from the ftalks of a water-flag, whereas one fide of the leaf only ferves the office of lungs, and certainly not the ftalks. Exper. on Air, Vol. HI. And thus in refpeé& to the circum- {tance, in which plants and animals feemed the fartheft removed from each other, | mean in their fuppofed mode of refpiration, by which one was believed to purify the air, which the other had injured, they feem to differ only in degree; and the analogy between them re- mains unbroken. 4. The conteft for light, as well as for air, which is fo vifible in the growth of vegetables, as defcribed in Botanic Garden, Vol. II. note on cufcuta, fhews the former to be of great confequence to their exiftence as well as the latter. Thus many flowers follow the fun during the courfe of the day by the nutation of the ftalks, not by the rotation of them, as obferved in the fun-flower by Dr. Hales ; and the leaves of all plants endeavour to turn their upper furface to the light, which is their refpiratory organ, or lungs, as fhewn ia sect. 1V. The L. ‘4, “8 wil Ptables 1€ fun, ter vel. 1 elthey rinkled ey, that Ut vital T plants | Ingen. piration, th fides reas one not the circum- ed from y which -ed, they hem te- vifible 1 Vol. Il. eto theif the {un , not by 7 Hales+ news phe Secr, XIII. 5. 5. ELECTRICITY. 301 The great ufe of all plants turning their upper furfaces of their leaves to the light is thus intelligible ; the water perfpired from thofe furfaces 1s hyper-oxygenated ; and, as it efcapes from the fharp edges of the mouths of the perfpiring veflels, when a€ted upon by the fun’s light, gives out oxygen 5 which oxygen, thus liberated from the per- fpired water, and added to that of the common atmofphere, prefents to the refpiratory terminations of the pulmonary arteries on the upper furfaces of leaves an atmofphere more replete with vital ait. This neceffity of light to the refpiration of vegetables is fo great, that there is reafon to believe, that many plants do not refpire during the night, but exift in a torpid ftate like winter fleeping infects. Thus the mimofa, fenfible plant, and many others, clofe the upper furfaces of their oppofite leaves together during the night, and thus preclude them both from the air and light. And the internal fur- faces of innumerable flowers, which are their refpiratory organs, are clofed during the night, and thus unexpofed both to light and air. The fungi neverthelefs, which are termed vegetables, becaufe they are fixed to the earth, or to the ftones, or trees, or timber, where they are found, can exift without light or much ait; as ap- pears in the truffle, which never appears above ground ; and by other fungi, which grow in dark cellars; and in efculent mufhrooms, which are cultivated beneath beds of traw. From this circumftance of their exifting without light, and from their {mell of volatile al- kali, like burnt feathers, when they are burnt, and from: their tafte when cooked and eaten, they feem to approximate to the animal kingdom. 5. Laftly. It may neverthelefs be fufpected,. that in many of the experiments of Dr. Prieftley and Dr. Ingenhouz, the produétion of vital air might be fimply owing to the action of the fun’s light on the water, in which the vegetables were immerfed, like that from the filk in the experiment of Count Rumford ;. and that the fine points, or fharp edges of thofe bodies,. contributed only to facilitate the. 302 LIGHT, HEAT, Sect. XII. 1.6, the liberation of it, when expofed to the funfhine, which thus. dif- oxygenate the water by their united effet. This appears on immerfing a dry hairy leaf in water frefh from a pump, innumerable globules like quickfilver appear on almoft every point ; for the extremities of thefe points attract the particles of wa- ter lefs forcibly, than thofe particles attraét each other; hence the contained air, whofe elafticity was but juft balanced by the attraGtive power of the furrounding particles of water to each other, finds at the point of each fibre a place, where the refiftance to its expanfion is lefs ; and in confequence it there expands, and becomes a bubble of air. It is eafy to forefee, that the rays of the funthine, by being re- fracted and in part reflected by the two furfaces of thefe minute air- bubbles, muft impart to them much more heat than to the tranfpa- rent water; and thus facilitate their afcent by further expanding them ; and that the points of vegetables attract the particles of water lefs, than they attract each other, is feen by the fpherical form of dew-drops on the points of grafs. 6. It may be added in this place, that there may alfo be a fallacy in the fuppofed refults of thofe experiments, where plants have been confined in hydrogen or azote mixed with atmofpheric air ; and have been believed to have vegetated more vigoroufly, and to have me- liorated the air. In thefe experiments I fufpe@, that the impure part of the air was attracted by the water, and taken up by the abforbents of the roots of the plants from the water, rather than by the abforbents of their leaves or {tems in the air; and that the melioration of the air was occafioned, as above defcribed, by the a€tion of the light on the water: perfpired from the furface of the plant, or liberated by its points from the water, with which part of it was covered. This is rendered more probable, becaufe plants and feeds in the experiments of others ceafed to vegetate in thofe gaffes, which were totally de- prived of oxygen, as in M, Scheele’s experiments on the growth of feeds. Il, 1. The eas NUS dir : from , “Very > of Was Ace the ttrattiye finds a XPanfion Ubble of EINE Te. nute airs tranfpa. ‘panding of water form of a fallacy ave been and have ave mes pure patt sforbents for bents of the aif st on the ed by its This 3 eriment tally d wth 0 * J. TH SroT., Xill. 2: ¢. FLECTRICITY. 303 IL 1. The fluid matter of heat is one of the moft extenfive ele- ments in nature, perhaps next to that of gravitation ; all other bodies are immerfed in it, and are preferved in their prefent ftate of folidity or fluidity by the different attraction of their particles to the matter of beat, which thus counteracts the powers of gravitation, and of chemical affinity, which would otherwife comprefs them into one folid chaotic mafs ! Since all known bodies are contractible into lefs fpace by depriving them of fome portion of their heat ; and as there is no part of nature totally deprived of heat ; there is reafon to believe, that the particles of bodies do not touch, but are held towards each other by their felf- attraction, or recede from each other by their attraGtion to the mafs of heat, which furrounds them ; and thus exift in an equiltbrium be- tween thefe two powers. If more of the matter of heat be applied to them, they recede far- ther from each other, and become fluid ; if {till more be applied, they take an aerial form, and are termed gaffes; and tt 1s probable, that the ethereal fluid of eleétricity may alfo be diffufed with heat, as well as the ethereal fluid of light. , Thus when water is heated to a certain degree, it would inftantly affume the form of fteam, but for the preffure of the atmofphere ; which prevents this change from taking place fo eafily; the fame is true of quickfilver, diamonds, and of perhaps all other bodies in na- ture; they would firft become fluid, and then aeriform, by appro- priated degrees of heat. On the contrary, this elaftic matter of heat, termed Calorique in the new nomenclature of the French academi- cians, is liable to become confolidated itfelf in its combinations with fome bodies, as certainly in nitre, and probably in combuftible bodies, as fulphur and charcoal. This combined heat is univerfally fet at liberty in the production of acids by the union of oxygen with all inflammable bodies, as fhewn in Se&t. XII. 1. It is alfo taken from fome bodies by the vicinity of 6 very 304 : LIGHT, HEAT, Secr. XIII. 2, 2. very cold ones, as water when frozen lofes fuddenly a part of its combined heat, at the moment it becomes ice. 2. It is evident, that without fluidity the blood or juices can not circulate in animal or in vegetable veffels; whence fo great a dimi- nution of heat as to produce froft on this account would deftroy them if long continued; at the fame time too great a deduction of heat is known to deftroy the irritability of animal as well as of vegetable fibres, and muft on this account alfo prevent the circulation of their fluids, and occafion the mortification of parts of them, or the death of the whole. But when fluids are converted into ice, the bulk of them is enlarged to a confiderable degree, and that with fuch vio- lence as to burft iron veffels, as bombs, which are filled with water, Whence in this manner alfo froft deftroys thofe parts of vegetables, which are moft fucculent ; as the early fhoots of afh trees, and other young plants, are frequently deftroyed in the beginning of May by a frofty night. The veffels of thefe fucculent parts of plants are diftended and burft by the expanfion of their frozen fluids; while the drier or more refinous vegetables, as pines, yews, laurels, and other evergreens, are lefs liable to injury from cold. The trees in valleys are on this ac- count more liable to injury by the vernal frofts, than thofe on emi- nences; becaufe their early fucculent fhoots appear fooner in the year. Another method, by which the act of freezing may deftroy vege- table life, may be by feparating fome part of their fluids from other parts of them. ‘Thus when wine, or vinegar, or falt and water; or clay diffufed in water, and perhaps milk, are frozen; the watery part, as it congeals, protrudes from its forming cryftals the fpirit, the acid, the falt, the clay, and probably the opake particles of the milk ; and by a fimilar procefs on vegetable and perhaps on animal fluids, when expofed to great cold, they may be rendered unfit for future circulation or hfe. See Sect. XV. 4. 1. The CII]. 7 art of its S Can noe Ca din. troy ther OF heat js egetable 0 Of thei the death © bulk of fuch vio th water, egetables, and other May by a nded and r or more reens, are 1 this ac- 2 of emi er in the roy vege- om other water, e watery {pirit, the he milks m fuidss The Sect. XIII. 2. 2. ELECTRICITY. 305 The expanfion of ice neverthelefs well accounts for ‘the greater mifchief which is fometimes done by vernal froft, when preceded by much rain, or mift, or dew, as by hoar-froft, than by the dry fro{ts without rime, called black frofts; as the vegetable veflels are then fuller of fluids. But when mift or dew attends a frotty night, but has not preceded it, I fuppofe a hear froft may be lefs injurious than a black froft; as the cafe of ice on the buds of trees, or on young grafs, being inftantly produced, covers them with a bad conductor of heat, and prevents them from being expofed to fo great cold, as in the continuance of a black froft without hoar or rime. See Sect. AV.) 3 5: Mr. Laurence, ina letter to Mr. Bradley, complains, that the dale- mift attended with a froft on May-day had deftroyed all his tender fruits; though there was a fharper froft the night before without a mift, that did him no injury; and adds, that a garden not a ftone’s throw from his own on a higher fituation, being above the dale-mift, had received no damage. Bradley, V.II. p. 232. From this inftruc- tive fact it appears, that very low fituations even in this cold climate are not proper for the purpofes of a garden. And on the contrary, very high fituations are equally improper on account of their greater cold, and the confequent backwardnefs of their vegetable products. See Sect. XV. 3. 5. Hence fruit trees againft a wall, which are covered with coping ftones projecting fix inches over them, are lefs injured by the vernal frofts; becaufe their being thus fheltered from the Jefcending night- dews has prevented them from being moitt at the time, they were frozen ; which circumftance has given rife toa vulgar error amongit gardeners, who fuppofe froft to defcend. . Hence as-the freezing winds of this country are from the north- eaft, a gardener fhould.extend his rows of young peas and beans from the fouth-eaft.to the north-weft, and raife a mound of earth behind them, and might fhelter them occafionally with ftraw, placed on tne Rr ground 306 LIGHT, HEAT, SEcT. XIII. 2.2, ground behind the young plants, and fupported a few inches over them in front by poles placed horizontally over the rows; remem- bering the old proverb, The wind from north-eaft Deftroys man and beatt ; The wind from fouth-weft Is always the beft. The immediate caufe of the coldnefs of the N. E. winds is, that they confift of regions of air brought from the north over evaporat- ing ice, and gain an apparent eafterly dire€tion, becaufe they arrive at a part of the furface of the earth, which moves with greater velo- city, than the furface of the part of the earth, they come from. So on the contrary the S.W. winds are warm, as they confift of regions of air brought from the fouth, and gain an apparent wefterly alae tion, bacants they arrive at a part of the earth’s furface, which moves » flower than the furface nearer the equator, whence they came, and of which they had previoufly acquired the velocity. sis the common heat of the earth in this climate is 48 decrees, thofe tender trees, which will bear bending down, are eafily fecured from the froft by fpreading them upon the ground, and covering them with ftraw or fern. This particularly fuits fig-trees, as ehiey are very flexible, and as they are furnifhed with an acrid j juice, which defends them from infeéts; but I have neverthelefs found them in this fituation much eaten by mice. It has been believed by many, that froft meliorates the ground ; but it is now well known, that ice contains no nitrous particles, as was formerly fuppofed ; and that though froft by enlarging the bulk of fome moift foils may leave them more porous for a time after the thaw ; yet as the water exhales, the foil becomes as hard as before, being prefied together by the incumbent atmofphere. « And from an obfervation of Mr. Kirwan’s, mentioned in Setion XV, 4. 1. it ap- : pears, UI, 2.4 TeMem, Is, that Vaporat- CY atrive ter velo. om. So F regions ly direc- h moves me, and degrees, 7 fecured covering as they e, which them 10 grounds ‘icles, a the bulk after the 5 beforts from ah r, it ap” peal Sect. XIII. 2.2. ELECTRICITY. 307 pears, that moift clay becomes denfer or more folid by being frozen ; and if this fhould not occur, yet it would quickly become as folid as before by the felf-attraction of its particles, called /etting by the pot- ters; as well as by the preflure of the atmofphere ; as its water ¢x- hales, and leaves vacuities between its particles. Add to this, that on the coafts of Africa, where froft is unknown, the fertility of the foil is much fuperior to our own. In refpe& to the commonly fuppofed falubrity of frofty feafons to mankind, and to other animals, the bills of mortality are an evidence in the negative in refpect to mankind, as in long frofts many weakly and old people perifh from debility, occafioned by the diminifhed heat not being fufficient to excite into action their veffels previoufly too inirritable ; and many birds, and other wild animals, and tender vege- tables, perifh benumbed by the degree and continuance of the cold. It fhould however be obferved, as frofty air is alway dry, except when frozen mitts diffolve, as they adhere to the warmer fkins of ani- mals, that it does not generally affect us with fo great a fenfation of cold, as when air near the freezing point is loaded with moifture ; as the moifture of fuch air is perpetually evaporating from our fkins, and produces on them a degree of cold greater than the fimple con- tact of dry air produces, when it is but a little beneath the freezing point. Hence frofty air is more agreeable to thofe young or ftrong people, who can keep themfelves warm by exercife ; that is, who can generate heat by increafed fecretions. But fevere and continued frofts deftroy the old and infirm, who cannot ufe much exertion ; and the children of the poor, who want both food, fire, and cloth- ing, in this harfh climate. It may neverthelefs be true, that fnows of long duration in our win- ters may be lefs injurious to vegetation than great rains and fhorter frofts. 1. Becaufe great rains carry down many thoufand pounds worth of the beft manure into the fea; whereas {now diffolves gra- dually, the upper furface, as it thaws, fliding over the under part, Rr 2 which 308 LIGHT, HEAT, Secr. XIII. 202, which remains frozen, and thence carries away lefs from the land into the rivers; whence a fnow flood may be diftinguifhed from a rain flood by the tranfparency of the water. Secondly. Snow protects vegetables from the feverity of the froft; fince it is generally in a ftate of thaw, where it is in contaét with the earth; as the earth’s heat is 48 degrees, and that of thawing fnow is 32°. The plants bétween them are generally kept in a degree of heat about 40, by which many of them are preferved.' On this ac- count fome plants from Siberia were faid to perith by the frofts at Upfal; becaufe the fnows did not commence at the fame time as in the colder climate, from which they were brought. Thus the lichen rangiferinus, -coral-mofs, vegetates beneath the {now in Siberia, where the degree of heat is always about 40; that is in the middle between the freezing point and the common heat of the earth, And as this vegetable is for many months of the winter the tole food of the rein-deer, who digs furrows in the fnow to find it; and as the milk and flefh of this animal is almoft the only fuf- tenance, which can be procured by the natives d uring the long winters of thofe higher latitudes, this mofs may be faid to fupport fome mil- lions of mankind. Snow proteéts vegetables, that are covered by it, from cold, both becaufe it is a bad conduétor of heat itfelf, and contains much air in its pores. When living animals are buried in fnow, as fheep, or hares, the water, which their warmth produces, becomes abforbed into the furrounding fnow by capillary attraétion, and the creatures are not moiftened by its dropping on them; but the cavity enlarges, as the fnow diffolves, affording them both a dry and a warm habita- tion. If this was generally known, many cold and weary travellers in {nowy nights might be faved by covering themfelves with fnow inftead of endeavouring to proceed. It fhould be added that Hailenfratz has endeavoured to thew by ingenious chemical experiments, that rain water and fnow contain 4 both ; foow 5, “Stee of this acs frofts at Me ag m reath the ); that js n heat of 1€ winter w to find only fuf- o winters ome mil- old, both ich air 1 fheep, of abforbed creature enlarges 00) habita- travellers ith {20" fhew by V ¢ op tail poth Secor, XIII. 2. 3. ELECTRICITY. 309 both of them a redundancy of oxygen compared with river water, which they may have acquired in their defcent through the atmo- {phere ; and that as oxygen is fhewn by the experiments of Ingen- houz and Senebier to promote the growth of feeds and of plants, he concludes, that rain water and {how promote vegetation in a much greater degree than river water or ice, which feems to accord with the popular obfervations on this fubject. 3. Mr. John Hunter by applying thermometers to the internal parts of vegetables newly opened difcovered, that they poffeffed in frofty feafons a degree of heat above that of the atmofphere, though lefs than that of cold blooded animals. Whence another deleterious effect of cold on vegetable bodies muft be by deftroying their irritability, and by that means ftopping the abforption and circulation of their juices ; in the fame manner as is feen in the pale benumbed fingers of fome people, when expofed to the cold ; and which is the immediate caufe of death in thofe, who perifh in the {now in winter, which occurs long before their fluids are frozen. The neceflity of a certain degree of heat to produce or to preferve the activity of the abforbent veffels of vegetables is well evinced by the experiments of Hales and Duhamel on the rifing fap of vines in the vernal months. On a frofty day, when the fun fhone on one of thofe wounded trees, the fap flowed on the fouth fide of the tree, but not on the north fide. Phyfique des arbres, Vol. Il. p.258. M. Duhamel further obferves, that the maples in Canada, where the froft is long and fevere, begin to bleed, when wounded with the firft thaw, and ftop again, when it freezes; and that this in frofty days occurs only on the fouth fide of the tree. This acquaints us, that one of the principal properties of heat in refpet to organic bodies, whether of vegetables or animals, con- fifts in its ating as a ftimulus; and that in a greater quantity than that, which the organized being has been accuftomed to, it aéts as an excefs of {timulus ; and thus increafes the activity of the fyftem in 310 LIGHT, HEAT, Sect. XIII. 3,1, in refpeét to the abforption of its food, circulation of its juices, and quantity of its fecretions, and confequently to its more rapid growth; but all increafe of ftimulus becomes injurious by its excefs, and is cer- tainly followed by debility ; as is feen in thofe of our own fpecies, who are habitually kept in too warm rooms, or are accuftomed to drink intoxicating liquors. | Hence a wife gardener muft regard the acquired habits of tender vegetables; the inhabitants of his green houfe, and thofe plants, which have been expofed to a greater heat for any length of time, fhould be gradually cooled, and watered with fubtepid water; fince expofing them to the cold of this climate is otherwife liable to de- {troy their irritability and occafion their death, 4. The great cold produced by evaporation is now well under- {tood. In all chemical proceffes, where aerial or fluid bodies become confolidated, a part of the heat, which was before latent, becomes preffed out from the uniting particles; as in the inftant that water freezes, or that water unites with quick lime. On the reverfe, when folid bodies become fluid, or fluid ones become aerial, heat is abforbed by the folution ; whence it may be faid in popular language, that all chemical combinations produce heat, and all chemical folutions pro- duce cold. ‘This fhould teach the careful gardener not to water ten- der vegetables in the heat of the funfhine, or,in a warm dry wind; left the hafty evaporation fhould produce fo much cold as to deftroy them; and that more certainly from their having been previoufly too much ftimulated by heat, and in confequence their power of life, or irritability, having been already diminifhed ; as further fpoken of in Sect: ALV. 2, 2. Be) Ree ‘The mechanical theory of electricity invented by Dr. Franklin is believed by fome philofophers not fo well to explain the various phenomena of electricity, as may be accomplifhed by an hy- pothefis of the exiftence of two electric fluids diffufed together, and {trongly attracting each other, one of them to be called vitreous, and the XU, , d4, Yigg, au d STowth. " ) and i Cer. ‘cw (eee ' lbecigs S Of tende: th of time, ALEr § fince able to de. ell under. lies become t, becomes that water erfe, when is abforbed ge, that al utions pro- water teil- dry wind; ; to deflroy previoully wer of life, r fpoken of Sect, XIII. 3.1. ELECTRICITY. gir the other refinous, eletricity. The latter opinion Tam inclined to efpoufe, but fhall not here enter into a detail of the theory; but fhall only obferve, that the experiments on vegetation have been principally made with the accumulation of the vitreous electricity only, and the confequent exclufion of the refinous ; that is, with what is commonly termed pofitive electricity, and not with what is termed negative eledtricity. It is therefore to be withed, that fome future experiments may be made with the refinous or negative electricity in preference to the vitreous or pofitive electricity, or with both of them alter- ternately or comparatively. The influence of pofitive or vitreous electricity in forwarding the germination of plants and their growth feems to be pretty: well efta- blithed; though Mr. Ingenhouz did not fucceed in his experiments, and thence doubts the fuccefs of thofe of others; and though M. Rouland, from his new experiments believes, that neither pofitive nor negative eleétricity increafes vegetation ; both which philofophers had previoufly been fupporters of the contrary do¢trine 5 for many other naturalifts have fince repeated their experiments relative to this objeét, and their new refults have confirmed their former ones. Mr. D’Ormey and the two Roziers have found the fame fuccefs in nu- merous experiments, which they have made in the two laft years ; and Mr. Carmoy has fhewn in a convincing manner, that electricity accelerates germination. Mr. D’Ormey not only found various feeds to vegetate fooner, and to grow taller, which were put upon his infulated table, and fuppli- ed with eletricity ; but alfo that filk-worms began to fpin much fooner, which were kept ele@rified, than thofe of the fame hatch, which were kept in the fame place and manner, except that they were not electrified. Thefe experiments of Mr. D’Ormoy are de- tailed at length in the Journal de Phyfique of Rozier, Tom. XXXV. : 26% Mr. Bartholon, who had before written a tract on this fubje&, and propofed 312 LIGHT, HEAT, Sect. XIII. 3.2, propofed ingenious methods for applying eledtricity to agriculture and gardening, has alfo repeated a numerous fet of experiments ; and fhews, that natural ele€tricity as well as the artificial increafes the growth of plants, and the germination of feeds; and oppofes Mr, Ingenhouz by very numerous and conclufive facts. Ib. Tom. XXXV. P- 401. My friend Mr. D. Bilfborrow in June 1797 fowed muftard-feed in four garden pots at Mr. Hartop’s at Dalby Hall in Leicefterthire. He fabiected one of thefe to pofitive or vitreous eleétricity, and ano- ther to negative or refinous electricity, and obferved that the feeds in the pot fubjeéted to the negative or refinous electricity germinated a day before the pot fubjected to pofitive or vitreous electricity, and both of them much before the two pots, which were not eleétrifed, but otherwife expofed to the fame circumftances. Nor do the injuries occafionally received from lightnimg in its paf- fage through trees or corn fields from or to the earth or clouds, which are mentioned in Sect. XIV. 2. 3. in the leaft invalidate this opinion of its general utility as well as that of the fluid element of heat; for the excefs of the moft falutary ftimuli become Sims both to ve- getable and animal bodies. 2. Since by the late difcoveries in chemiftry there is reafon to be- lieve, that water is decompofed in the veffels of vegetables; and that the hydrogene, or inflammable air, of which it in part confifts, con- tributes to the nourifhment of the plant, and to the production of its oils, refins, gums, fugar, &c. And laftly, as ele&tricity has by late experiments been found to decompofe water into the two airs, termed oxygen and hydrogen, there is a powerful analogy to induce us to believe, that it accelerates or contributes to the growth of vege: tation ; and like heat may poffibly enter into combination with many bodies, or form the bafis of fome yet unanalyfed acid, 3. The folution of water in air or in calorique feems to acquire electric matter at the fame time, as appears from an experiment of © 1 feed in erthire. ind ano. feeds mM nated g ity, and lectrifed, 1 its paf- Is, which 5 Opinion feat 5 for th to ves nto be and that (ts, colle tion of y has by two alts, 9 induce of vege th maby ment Ni Seer. Xlll..9-4 . ELECTRICITY: 313 Mr. Bennet. He put fome live coals into an infulated funnel of me- tal, and throwing on them a little water, obferved that the afcending fteam was eleétrifed plus; and the water, which defcended through the funnel, was electrifed minus. Hence it appears, that. though clouds by their change of form may fometimes become electrifed minus, yet they have in general an accumulation of pofitive elec~ tricity. This accumulation of electric matter alfo evidently contri- butes to fupport the atmofpheric vapour, when it is condenfed into the form of clouds; becaufe it is feen to defcend rapidly, after the flathes of lightning have diminifhed its quantity. According to the theory of Mr. Lavoifier concerning the compo- fition and decompofition of water, there would feem another fource of thunder-fhowers; and that is, that the two gafles termed oxygen gas, or vital air, and hydrogen gas, or inflammable air, may exift :n the fummer atmofphere in a ftate of mixture, but not of combi- nation ; and that the eleétric fpark, or flath of lightning, may com- bine them, and produce water inftantaneoufly. 4. A profitable application of electricity by the gardener or agri- cultor to promote the growth of plants is not yet difcovered ; it is neverthelefs probable, that in dry feafons the erection of numerous metallic points on the furface of the ground, but a few feet high, might in the night time contribute to precipitate the dew by facili- tating the paflage of ele€tricity from the air into the earth; and that an erection of fuch points higher in the air by means of wires wrap- ped round tall rods, like angle rods, or elevated on buildings, might frequently precipitate fhowers from the higher parts of the atmo- {phere. And laftly, that fuch points ere¢ted in gardens might promote a quicker vegetation of the plants in their vicinity by {upplying them more abundantly with the electric ether ; if the events of the ex- periments of the philofophers above mentioned are to be depended upon, which may at leaft be worth a further trial, 5s 5. For 314 LIGHT, HEAT, &c. Sect. XIII. 3: 5 5. For the purpofe of keeping a few flower-pots perpetually fub ject to more abundant electricity, Mr. Bennet of Wirk{worth in Der- byfhire affixed a {mall apparatus to the pendulum of a clock, as de- {cribed below with a plate; but has not yet fufficiently attended to it to determine its effect on vegetation. SECT. IL ally fob. l ih Der. Ky as de, Til. LATE VI PL gpct PLATE (WH Shews the ftru€ture of Mr. Bennet’s electric Doubler, applied to the pendulum of a clock for the purpofe of fubjeéting a flower -pot to perpetual pofitive or negative ele€tricity. A the brafs plate, which is always infulated by its glafs pedeftal, on which the elec-. tricity is accumulated. B the brafs plate, which becomes eleCtrified by the influence of the moving plate C, which is alfo infulated. D the pendulum wire. C is infulated by the glafs-tube EE. The wire F F is alfo infulated by the fame glafs, being faftened to. the middle of it by a brafs focket at G. H H H HH are wires to connect the plates with: -each other, or with the earth. I 1 a ftring to be carried from the plate A over infulated: hooks to any part of a room, or to an infulated flower-pot. Now if A be pofitive, and C moves, till it be parallel to it, and the wires at the bot- tom touch each other, then C becomes negative, and moving till it be parallel to B, and its wire touched by the uppermoft H, then B becomes pofitive ; and when C returns to- A, the ele&tricity of A and B becomes united by means of the infulated wire F F touch- ing HH. The longer end of F is bent fo as not to touch the wire of B, till the end is srought to it. Thus the pofitive electricity of A is increafed. The wires are curled into feveral rings to make them more elaftic, as otherwife they would foon be pufhed out of their places, and the proper contacts not occur. “Fhe plates A and B may be fixed on heavy pedeftals, that they may be moved upon a fhelf to a pro- per diftance from the plate, which hangs by the pendulum wire. The heavier the pen- dulum and the larger the plates, the more eleétricity may be accumulated. With my fmall apparatus fixed to a Dutch wooden clock fparks are fometimes produced between the plates, and fomefimes the clock has been ftopped by their attraétion to each other. Perhaps the plates fhould not be circular, but fomething like a lady’s fan, when expand- ed, the bottom being a part of the curve defcribed by the moving pendulum, with the fides dire€ted towards the point on which it moves. This drawing and defcription of his Pendulum Doubler was fent me by Mr. Bennet of Wirkfworth, and is referred to at the end of Sect. XIII. of this work. If another in- fulated flower-pot was connected with the plate B inftead of the wire at the uppermoft H, perhaps it might be kept in a ftate of minus, or negative electricity, at the fame time that the other flower-pot was kept in a ftate of plus or pofitive electricity. M of LeSricity ich the elec. luence Of the iNfulated by g fattened t Ne plates with aver infulated "es at the bot. lel to B, and 1 C returns to ire F F touch- “11 - till the end is stherwife the} The plates flhelf to a pro- avier the pete gj. With my Juced between to each other. Pal, when expam ath the Jum, Wit Mr. Bennet ¢ ¢ another ip Plate VII. London, Published Sane 1 Bev, bv STohn son , St Pads therch Yard. ~ Secl XT Ww e = ] @ {9 pad oa | Secr. X1V. DISEASES OF PLANTS. SE CT... AIV- DISEASES OF PLANTS. al caufes. 1. Difeafed irritability. Irritability derived from oxygen. LExhaufted by too great frimulus. Shade apricot flowers from the fun. Much water after a bot day injurious. Irritability accumulated by le/s flimulus. Experiment on euphortia. Habits of plants brought from the fouth. Taken to In the bleeding feafon. Vines in hot-houfes. Habits of plants, Irrt- much cold, lefs after much beat. Greateft in the morning. Hyberiating animals. Variation of beat contributes to health. 0. Eryfipbe mildew. A Jeffile fungus. Give light and ventilation. Drain the land. Sow early. Rubigo, ruft. Probably another fungus. Uredo frumenti. Blight. 4. Clavus, ergot. On rye; which it renders unwholefome. Afcribed to infects by Duhamel. 5. Uftilago, fmut. Afcribed to infetts by Linneus. Ts probably owing to want of impregnation. EHow prevented. 6. Gangrend, canker. Affects apple- trees from old grafts. From wounds. Bind living bark on the wound. Or paint the alburnum. 7. Suffufio mellita, honey-dew. If occafioned by the apbis? Suc- ceeded by a black powder. 8. Exfudatio miliaris, miltary fweat. On vines in bot- houjes from too great heat in confined air. 9. Fiuxus umbilicalis, fap-flow. From wounds in pring, and after midjummer. Bind on fpange. Strangulate with wire. 10. Secretio gummofa, gum fecretion. Bind on lead. . Sponge, Indian rubber. Apply folution of green vitriol. Bind on a new bark. If. Difeafes from exter- nal elements. 1. Draught and moifiure. 2. Heat and cald. Shelter early bloj- ing. Injures trees and wheat fields. By de- foms from the funfoine. 3. Lightning ftroying their irritability, like the ftimulus of fome poifons. By burfting their veffels. How to prevent. 4. Light. Etiolation of fea-cale. §. Of atid clay. Of frerile fand. 6. Noxious exbalations, from lead-w ¥, Difeafes from intern America. tability greater after being expofed to orks, and lime-kilns. 7. Poifons of arfenic, muriatic acid. %. Condiments. Alcohol. Opium. Sea-falt. Its ufe ee J a r £ and effec? on vegetables. Ufe in the worm of |oeep. 9. External inurtes. Wound YY Jocep. § S's 2 grape- Vale 316 DISEASES Sect. XIV. 1.4, grape-ftalks. Caprification. Pluck pears to ripen them. III. Difeafes from infects. 1. From their nefts and young. On rofes, on quince-bloffoms, on aco- nite. 2. Aphis on peach trees. Slugs prefer withered leaves. Cows eat withered thiftles. ‘Tbe potfon of yew leaves. diftory of the apbis. Means of deftroying them. Aphidivorous larva and fly. 3. Caterpillars on apple-trees and goofe-berries. Burn the leaves. Put a fringe round goofeberry-trees. Deftroy white butterflies, Cabbage caterpillars deftroyed by ichneumon fly. 4. Infetts in hot-boufes. Smoke of fulphur injurious to trees. §. Beetles beneath the foil. Snails. Slugs. Roll turnips before fun-rife. Slugs prevented by lime or falt. Caught by a board. Fly on turnips. Roll them. Steep turnip feeds in liquid manure asin China. 6. Beetles. Fern-chaffer. Deftroys crops of wheat. Sow wheat foallow. Roll it, or firew falt in fine powder. Thrips phyfaphus on wheat. Corn butterfly. May-chaffers on hedges. Locuft. Encourage hedge-birds, larks, rooks, bedge-bogs. Some caterpillars wholefome to eat, others poifonous. All very hardy and difficult to de- firey. AV. Deftruction by vermin. 1. Mice. Tuffocks of wheat from their granaries. Encourage the breed of owls. 2. Water-rats like beavers, how driven from a fifo-pond. They eat vegetables. Are attratted by feents. How to poifon them. How to entrap them. 3. Moles never drink. Sometimes fwim. Wark before fun-rife. How to deftroy them by traps. Tue difeafes of vegetables may be divided into thofe, which ap~ pear to originate from internal caufes, thofe from the external ele- ments, and thofe from the nidifications or depredations of infects ; to which may be added the depredations of other animals. We fhalk begin with difeafed irritability. DISEASES FROM INTERNAE CAUSES. I. 1. It has already been fhewn, that the buds of vegetables are individual beings, and conftitute an inferior order of animals; and that they poffefs irritability, and fenfibility, and voluntarity, and have affociations of motion ; as explained in Zoonomia, Vol, I. Se&. XIII. But as the three latter kinds of excitability are pofleffed in a fo much lefs * X1y ‘Ty ms, on a on Witheres j def ‘Ding 80 e-berrig Thies Tilpe eID, ee | ~ OiiOke to 2? © Outte ] it, or Prev A Lay “t baffer ; bags. Same difficult to de. ‘at from their §, bow driven How to payor wim, Work which ap- ternal ele of infects; We fhall retables ‘ - al Sect. XIV. 1. 1- OF PLANTS. A17 lefs degree by vegetable buds, than by more perfect animals, we fhall only confider the difeafes of their irritability. M. Girtannir endeavoured to fhew, that animal irritability originates from the oxygen, which conftitutes fomewhat lefs than a third of the atmofphere, which they breathe. And M.Van Uflar has applied the fame idea to vegetable life; and has endeavoured to fhew, that their irritability alfo originates from the oxygen, which they acquire - either by the refpiration of their leaves, or by the abforption of their roots. And indeed, as refpiration 1s every minute neceflary to animal life, there is reafon to believe, that fomething immediately neceflary to the exiftence of life is acquired by the lungs of animals from the atmofphere rather than from the food, which they digeft ; and that this, which is believed to be the oxygen only, is mixed with the blood, and feparated again from it by the brain, and fpinal marrow, after having undergone fome change in the circulation or fecretion of it. : In the fame manner it is not improbable, but that the fpirit of ve- getation may have a fimilar origin, probably from the uncombined oxygen of the air, refpired by the upper furfaces of their leaves; and not from that, which is abforbed by their roots in a more combined ftate; and that this oxygen is again feparated from their juices by the fenforium, or brain, of each individual bud, after having under- gone fome change in the circulation or fecretion of it. See Sect. IV. 1.2. The circumftances attending vegetable irritability are fimilar to thofe belonging to the irritability of animals upon a lefs extenfive {cale, as detailed in Zoonomia, Vol. I. Se&. XII. When vegetable fibres have been long ftimulated more than na- tural or ufual by increafe of heat, the fpirit of vegetation becomes ex- haufted; and in confequence a flighter degree of cold will deftroy them : becaufe their fibres after having been long excited by a greater ftimulus will ceafe to aét on the application of one, which is much 4. lefs 5 318 DISEASES Sect. XIV. 1. 1. lefs; whence after hot days tender plants are more liable to be de- {troyed by the coldnefs of the night. Whence in more northern cli- mates the gardeners fhade their tender vegetables, as the flowers of apricots, in the fpring-frofts from the meridian fun, as well as from the coldnefs of the night; which is generally the greateft about an hour before funrife. In the hot days of June 1798 I twice obferved feveral rows of gar- den beans become quite fickly, and many of them to die, from being flooded for an hour or two with water from a canal in the neigh- bourhood ; which I afcribed more to the fudden application of too great cold, after being much enfeebled, or rendered inirritable, by the exceflive heat of the feafon, than to the too copious {upply of water to the dry ground; to which fhould be added, that fome plants are more liable to be thus injured than others; as the {traw berries, young cab- bage plants, and onions, which were in the fame fituation, received benefit and not deterioration by being thus occafionally watered in that dry feafon. On the contrary, when plants have been long expofed to a lefs ftimulus of heat than natural or ufual, the fpirit of vegetation be- comes accumulated ; and if they are too fuddenly fubjeéted to much greater heat, their too great increafe of action induces inflammation, and confequent mortification, and death; as occurs to thofe people, who have had too much warmth applied to their frozen limbs. Ex- periments of this kind were inftituted by Van Uflar; he increafed the irritability of euphorbia peplus and efula by fecluding light and heat from them; and, when he expofed them toa meridian fun, they be- came gangrenous, and died in a fhort time. This greater or lefs irritability of plants is to be afcribed to their previous habits in refpe& to the ftimulus of greater or lefs heat. Thus the times of the appearance of vegetables in the {pring feem occafion- ally to be influenced by their previoufly acquired habits, as well as by their prefent fenfibility to heat, For the roots of potatoes, onions, wil IV, 4 be ae, bern gj, OWersg of | 8 from about ay S of Sars om being © neigh. DN Of tog le, by the Water to are more dung cab. , Teceived vatered in 1 to a lefs ation be- | to much mmation, fe people, abs. Ex reafed the r and heat , they be .4 to thelt Sect. XIV. 1.1. OF PLANTS. 319 will germinate with much lefs heat in the fpring than in the au- tumn; as is eafily obfervable, where thefe roots are ftored for ufe ; and hence malt is beft made in the fpring, as the barley will then ger minate witha lefs degree of heat. The grains and roots brought from more fouthern latitudes ger- minate here fooner than thofe, which are brought from. more nor- thern ones, owing to their acquired habits.. Fordyce on Agriculture. It was obferved by one of the fcholars of Linneus, that the apple trees fent from hence to New England bloflomed for a few years too early for that climate, and bore no fruit; but afterwards learnt to ac- commodate themfelves to their new fituation. (Kalm’s Travels.) Vines in grape houfes, which have been expofed to the winter’s cold, will become forwarder and more vigorous than thofe, which have been kept during the winter in the houfe. (Kennedy on Gar- dening.) ‘This accounts for the very rapid vegetation in the northern latitudes after the folution of the {nows. The increafe of the irritability of plants in refpeét to heat, .after having been previoufly expofed to cold, is farther illuftrated by an ex- periment of Dr.Walker’s. He cut apertures into a birch-tree at dif- ferent heights 5 and on the 26th of March fome of thefe apertures bled, or oozed with the {ap-juice, when the thermometer was at 39; which fame apertures did not bleed on the 13th of March,when the thermometer was at 44. ‘I'he reafon of this I apprehend was, be- caufe on the night of the 25th of March the thermometer was as low as 343; whereas on the night of the 12th of March it was at 415 though the ingenious author afcribes it to another caufe. Tranfa& of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, V. I. p. 19. There is an obfervation.in Mr. Tull’s work, which he ingenioufly aferibes to the acquired habits of plants. ‘* By the extremely hard winter of the year 1708 or 1709, fome lucern in Languedoc was killed, along with all the olive trees and walnut trees by the feverity of the feafon; though 1 could not hear that one walnut tree was 3 Killed 320 DISEASES Secr. MV. 1:0) killed in England. Perhaps thofe in France having been accuftomed to much hotter f{ummers were unable to endure the rigour of the fame winter, that did not deftroy the fame plants in England.” Horfe-hoeing Hufbandry, Ch. XIII. p. 201. | By adapted experiments Medicus is faid to have found, that the irritability of plants is greater in the morning, lefs in the middle of the day, and much lefs in the evening. And Von Uflar found, that their irritability in refpeét to their contrations was increafed in cool and rainy weather. Obferv. on Plants by Schmeiffer. Edinb. So the parts of animals become more fenfible to heat after having been pre- vioufly expofed to cold; as our hands glow on coming into the houfe after having for a while been immerfed in f{now; and many infe&ts, and other animals, which hide themfelves in the earth, and fleep during the winter, were obferved by M. Spallanzani to difappear at a feafon, when the heat of the atmofphere was much higher than in the fpring, when they again made their appearance. Hence it follows, that plants, which are kept in a warm room during winter, fhould occafionally be expofed to cooler air to increafg their irritability; as otherwife their growth in the {pring is obferved to be very tardy. Mankind for the fame reafon requires the perpe- tual variations of the heat of the atmofphere to preferve or reftore the irritability, and confequent activity, of the fy{tem. Whence the health and energy of men are greater, and their lives longer, in this variable ifland, than in the tropical continents, which poffefs greater warmth, and lefs variation of weather. 2. Linneus in the Philofophia Botanica has given names to but four internal difeafes, eurifiphe, mildew ; rubigo, ruft ; clavus, ergot, or fpurs and uftilago, {mut ; to which may be added many others as defcribed below. Eryfiphe, a white mucor, or mould, or mildew, with feffile tawny heads, with which the leaves are {prinkled; this is frequent in humulus, hop; lamium, dead nettle; gallopfis, arch-angel ; li- : thofpermum, Cen pre. INtO the id many rth, and difappear b higher ‘M room | increal obferved \e perpe- sftore the ence the r, 10 this fs greater ys, erg others ® Secr, ALY ore OF PLANTS. 321 thofpermum, ftone-feed; and acer, maple. This mucor is a plant of the fungus kind, which will grow without light, or change of air, like other fungufes; and with its roots penetrates the veflels of the vegetables to which it adheres. But thefe veffels are probably previoufly injured by internal difeafe. The methods of preventing or deftroying it muft confift in thinning the plant, or removing thofe in its vicinity, fo as to admit more light, and greater ventilation, which may at the fame time eradicate the mildew, and reftore the internal vigour of the plant. | _ As the greater dampnefs of fome land fupplies one permanent caufe of mildew, as well as its being too much overfhadowed by thick foliage, the methods of prevention muft confift in properly draining the land, and ufing drier kinds of manure, as coal-afhes and bone-afhes, as well as by. thinning the crops. And laftly, it is re- commended to fow early in the feafon for the purpofe of procuring forward crops; as this difeafe is faid more to injure late crops owing to the greater dampnefs of the ground in autumn. 3. Rubigo, ruft, a ferruginous powder fprinkled under the leaves, frequent in alchemilla, lady’s mantle, rubus faxatilis, effula degener ; and particularly in fenecio or jacobza ; and efpecially in a burnt woody foil. | This is probably another fungus fimilar to the former, or to fome kinds of lichen, which grows beneath the leaves of vegetables pre- vioufly difeafed, and may probably be prevented or deftroyed by ex- pofing the plant to more light, and greater ventilation, as in the mucor above mentioned. An account is given by Mr. Lambert in the Tranfactions of the Linnean Society, Vol. IV. of a difeafe which may probably be fome- what fimilar to the rubigo, which he calls uredo frumenti, or blight of wheat, and defcribes it to be a fungus, which covers the {tems of wheat in wet feafons, when it is nearly ripe, fo as to give the field an appearance of being covered with foot. The ftem of the wheat is ae faid ‘i DISEASES Secr. XIV. 1.4. faid to appear to be fplit, and the growth of the plant to be much injured. He defcribes the fungus to be linear-oblong, tawny-black. 4. Clavus, ergot, or fpur, occurs when feeds grow out into large horns, black without, as in fecale, rye, and in carex. This difeafe frequently affects the rye in France, and fometimes in England, in moult feafons, and is called ergot, fpur, or horn-feed; the grain be- comes confiderably elongated, and is either ftraight or crooked, con- taining black meal along with the white; and is faid to appear to be pierced by infe&ts, which are fuppofed to caufe the difeafe. Mr. Duhamel afcribes it to this caufe, and compares it to galls on oak-leaves; but this has not yet been eftablifhed by fufficient obfer- vations. By the ufe of this bad grain amongft the poor, difeafes have been produced, attended with great debility, and mortification of the extremities, both in France and England. Did. Raifon. Art. Siegle. Philof. Tranfa&. Vol. LV. 106. 5. Uftilago, fmut, when the fruit inftead of feed produces a black meal, as in wheat, barley, oats, {corzonera, tragopogon. Much is {aid on this difeafe in the Dict. Raifon of Bomare. Art. Bled, who recommends fteeping the grain, before it is fown, in brine; which is generally directed to have fo much falt added to the water, as may increafe its fpecific gravity, till an egg will {wim in it; or fecondly, to fteep the feed-wheat in lime water; or thirdly, which he thinks moft efficacious, in an alkaline ley made by adding pot-ath to lime- water. In the fyftema nature of Linneus under the article Vermes, Zoo- phyta, Chaos uitilago, there is a quotation from Munchhaufen, that the uftilago is a black powder, which is found in the deftroyed grains of barley, wheat, and other graffes; and in the florets of tragopogon fcorzonera. And that this powder being macerated in warm water for fome days paffes into oblong animalcules, hyaline in refpe& to colour, and playing about like fith, as may be feen by a microicope ; and I, 4, Nuch ack. larg leaf d, In i be. » CON. to be lls On obfer. $ have of the Siegle, a black luch 1s J, who hich 1s ag may ondly, thinks o limes g, L00 n, thet 4 grails _ wate p wal ipett © ofcope } nnd Sect. XIV. 1. 5. OF PLANTS. 323 and are again mentioned in Linneus’s differtation on the invifible world. : There is an ingenious paper in the publications of the Bath Society, in which the author obferves, that the fmut in wheat only happens, when wet weather occurs at the time of the flowering of the wheat ; which may burft the anthers, and wath away the farina. He thinks that fteeping the wheat in brine or lime water is an ancient error, and can be of no ufe but to feparate light wheat from that which 1s good. For he found {mutty ears and good ones growing from the fame root ; and thence it could not depend on any contagious material, or infe€ts eggs, adhering to the feed; and in fome even the fame ear contained both found and fmutty corns. And laftly, that fome of the corns had one end {mutty, and the other found ; and he concludes, that it muft be owing to the want of impregnation from the defect of the farina fecundans; and that the putrefaction fucceeded the death of the grain. From the obfervations of Spallanzani on leguminous plants the probability of this opinion is much confirmed. He found that the feed was produced by the female organ of the plant, long before it was impregnated; which could not happen, till the flower was open, and the anther-duft ripe. Whence it is eafy to conceive, that for want of impregnation, or the vivifying principle, the wheat-corn muft putrefy like the addle eggs of poultry, which are unimpregnat- ed, and thence die, and in confequence putrefy. If this difeafe of {mut fhould become a ferious evil, it might pof- fibly be prevented by fowing the grain in diftant rows; and after fome days fowing other rows between them of the fame, or of anio- ther kind of wheat; by which means, if wet weather fhould deftroy the anthers of one fet of rows, the alternate ones might fupply fa- rina to their ftigmas, if the weather became favourable. See Sect. XVI. 8. 2. , Wheat difcoloured-by {mut may be’ wafhed, and readily dried on $e: a malt 24 DISEASES Sect. XIV 106, 3 a malt kiln, and may be thus eafily made marketable and equally good; for the living grain will not: abforb much water in a fhort time; or it may be mixed with clean fand, and after being well agi- tated the fand may be feparated by a riddle; and if neceflary the fame fand may be wafhed and dried for repeated ufe. 6. Befides the four internal difeafes above fpoken of, as mentioned by Linneus ; and the uredo of Mr. Lambert, there are probably many others, which have not yet been fufficiently attended to, as the can- ker, gangrena; the honey-fweat, exfudatio mellita; the miliary {weat, exfudatio miliaris; the fap-flow, fluxus umbilicalis ; and the gum fecretion, fecretio gummofa. The canker, which may be termed gangrena vegetabilis, is a nies gedenic ulcer of the bark ; which is very -deftrudhive to apple-trees, and pear-trees, as it fpreads round the trunk or branches, and de= ftroys them. Mr. Knight has obferved this difeafe to be moft frequent and fatal to thofe trees, the fruit of which has been long in fafhion; as they have been perpetually propagated for a century or two by ingrafting:; which he believes to be a continuation of the old tree, though nou- rifhed by a new ftock ; and that the canker is thus a difeafe of old age, like the mortification of the limbs of elderly people, and arifes from the irritability of a part of the fyftem. But it feems more probably to be an hereditary difeafe, as the buds of trees being a lateral progeny, and more exactly refembling thew parents, mutt be more liable to the difeafes gradually acquired or in- creafed by the influence of foil or climate ; and have not the proba- bility of improvement, which attends the progeny of fexual genera- tion. It is neverthelefs frequently produced on trees by external violence, as by a ftroke with a fpade by a carelefs labourer, who 1s digging near them; but this probably may more eafily affe& the old grafts above mentioned. When a deftruétion of the bark is. thus pciduced by'ex- ternal 1€ Can. ail milia 4 ay ind the nd fatal as they rafting; oh note e of old 1d) ariles rhe buds 12 theif - re] . odor i e probe genet iorene® ing nc ,] A 5 avow 4 by rest | Gror. WLy «1.7 OF PLANTS. 325 ternal violence, it may poflibly be cured by the application of a piece of living bark from a lefs valuable tree, bound on as mentioned in the next article, and in Set. XVII. 3. 10. The edges of thefe gangrenous ulcers of the bark fhould be nicely pared with a knife; fo as to admit the air, and to prevent the de~ predations of infeéts and the lodgment of moifture, which might promote the putrefaction of the ftagnant juices, and fpread the gan- rene; this fhould be fo managed as only to cut away the dead lips of the wound, but not fo as in the leaft to injure the living bark. Some thick white paint may then be fmeared on the naked albur- num or fap-wood on a dry day, which may prevent infects from. in ferting their eggs into it, and produce maggots, which erode and deftroy the wood; and may alfo prevent the dews and rains from rotting it. The paint fhould neverthelefs. be fo fpread, as not to touch the edges of the wound ;.as.it might injure their growth by its poifonous quality ; a quarter of an ounce of fublimate of mercury, hydrargyrus. muriatus, rubbed with about a. pound of white lead paint, might render it. more noxious to infects. See Set. XVII. 3. g. and 10. 4 | 7. The honey-dew, which may be cailed. fuffufio mellita, confifts of a faccharine juice, which I have fuppofed to be exfuded from the tree by the retrograde motions of the cutaneous lymphatic veffels, connested either with the common fap-veflels defcribed in Sect. If. or with the umbilical veflels defcribed in Seét. IIE. 2.8. inftead of its being carried forwards to increafe the growth of the prefent leaf- buds, or to lay up nutriment for the buds, which are in their em- bryon. ftate ; and may thus be compared to the diaboetes mellitus, or to the {weating ficknefs of the laft century. The faccharine and nutritious quality of the honey-dew, fimilar to that. of the fap-juice, which rifes in the vernal months from the birch and maple, is evident from its tafte; and from the number of bees and ants, which are faid to feed on it, when it appears on fome trees ;- 326 DISEASES Sect. XIV. 1.9, trees; and which fhews, that its exfudation muft be confiderably injurious to the tree, as before mentioned in Sed. VI. 6. 3. In a paper written by the Abbé Boiflier de Sauvages, he deferibes two kinds of honey-dew ; one of which he concludes to be an exfu- dation from the tree, and the other he afferts to be the excrement of one kind of aphis, which the animal projects to the diftance of fome - inches from its body on the leaves and ground beneath it ; and which he believes the animal acquires by piercing the fap-veflels of the leaf. This paper is detailed in Wildman’s work on Bees, p. 46. The circumftances are diftin@ly defcribed, and by fo great a philofo- pher as Sauvages of Montpellier, that it is difficult to doubt the au- thenticity of the faét. But that a material fo nutritive fhould be pro- duced as the excrement of an infect is fo totally contrary to the {trongeft analogy, that it may neverthelefs be fufpected to be a mor- _ bid exfudation from the tree ; though thefe infects might’ occafion- ally prey upon it, and void it almoft unchanged at thofe feafons, be- caufe the infects continued fome months after the honey-dew ceafed, and before it commenced, as mentioned below ; and the upper fur- faces of the leaves became covered with a black powder, which had before been covered with the honey-dew. And laftly, becaufe on other trees, as on the peach and nectarine, at other feafons of the year, no honey-dew is perceived, though the aphis much abounds to the great injury of the trees. Early this morning, June 18, 1798, I obferved a remarkable ho- ney-dew on an extenfive row of nut-trees, corylus avellana, which grow by the fide of a pond of water; the fun fhone bright, and the upper furface of every leaf, which was illumined by the fun, was covered with a vifcid juice, which tafted as fweet as diluted’ honey. From many of thefe leaves large drops hung from the point, and dur- ing that day and the following one much of this honey dropped down fo as to moiften the gravel walk beneath the branches of every tree, and feemed more fluid as the funfhine became warmer; and the leaves, Ut F fome Which of the P. 46, hilofo. the au. be pro. to the a mor -Cafion- ns, be cealed, yer fur ich had aufe on of the yunds t0 able bo . which and the UD; wat Sect. XIV. 1. 7. OF PLANTS. SS) =: leaves, which were concealed from the fun, appeared to have lefs of the honey-dew, and fome of them none of it. How long this honey-dew had continued before I obferved it, I cannot tell, but probably many days, as the weather was then, and had been uncommonly dry and warm, and fhining ; and after two or three days, when the weather changed, the morbid exfudaticn, if fuch it was, or the excrementitious depofition of this vifcid honey, became checked and gradually difappeared. Beneath every leaf of this extenfive hedge of filberts I difcerned fifty or a hundred aphifes of all fizes, and many of them had wings ; but 1 could not perceive, that any of them had been on the upper furfaces of the leaves, where the honey only exifted; nor were any bees, or butterflies, or ants, about thefe leaves; ou which they muft have adhered, if they had fettled ; which pofhbly they were aware of, as a hive of bees was at no great diftance. M. Duhamel obferved a fimilar {weet juice drop in fuch quantity from willows by the fide of a river in very hot and dry weather, that children were bufy in catching or gathering it, and that it tafted like manna, but was more agreeable. He alfo mentions its dropping from nut-trees. Phyfique des arbres, Vol. I. p. 150. M. Reneaume, in the Memoires of the Academ. des Sciences, obferved a fimilar exfu- dation from the maple, and fycamore ; and adds, 1. That it was unétuous and fweet, 2. That it was in the greateft quantity on the leaves expofed to the fun, which appeared wet on their upper fur- faces; and that it was not feen before fun-rife. 3. That bees col- leéted it as anxioufly as common honey. 4. And that fome leaves died, whofe difeharge was very great. 5. That it exifted in a very dry and hot feafon. But neither of thefe philofophers {peak of its being attended by the aphis. The aphis this year was uncommonly numerous, the leaves of the peach and neétarine' trees were half of them deftroyed’ by this perni- cious infeét, and became bliftered and curled I fuppofe by their punc- 6 . | tures ; 328 DISEASES Sect. XIV. 1. 3, tures; which were made fome weeks earlier in the year, and by an aphis without wings, and differing fomewhat in their fhape, but without any appearance of honey-dew on thofe trees. But 1 could not difcover any punctures or other difeafe of the leaves of thefe nut- trees, and therefore doubt whether thefe infects, though fo numer- ous on the under furface of every leaf, could be the caufe of the mor- bid exfudation, if fuch it was, on their uppér furfaces; and the more as I could not diftinguifh, that they preyed upon the honey thus produced ; and I afterwards obferved that they continued in immenfe numbers under every leaf, when the weather became cooler, and moifter, and the honey-dew ceafed to be vifible. But after a few weeks I obferved the upper furface of every leaf became covered with a black powder like foot ; whether this was a new material, or re- mained after the exhalation of the honey-dew, I did not determine by experiment. But if both the honey-dew and this fubfequent black powder on the upper furfaces of the leaves, were the excrement of the aphis on the under furfaces of the leaves over the former, or ow- ing to an exfudation from the tree, muft be determined by further obfervations. But as a fecond period of fap-flow is believed to exift about mid- fummer, or a depofition of vegetable nutriment for the new buds, as ~ defcribed in Sect. III. 2. 8. there is reafon to fufpeat, that the ho- ney-dew is owing to the inverted action of the external lymphatics eccafioned by the debility induced by the continued heat, and per- haps to the moifture of fituation. Whence the nutritive fluid is thrown upon the external habit inftead of being applied to nourifh the new buds, or to be laid up as a refervoir for their ufe. And that if it be voided by the aphis, it is owing to their puncturing the fap- veflels with the fine probofcis, which they poflefs, at this feafon only, or ina diftempered ftate of the tree, and drinking more of it than they are able to digeft. For a further hiftory of this infect fee No. 3- 2. of this Section. 8. Exfudatio mine by nt black ment of , OF OWs y further put mid- buds, the ho mphatic and per » fluid 5 ) pourif And tbat , the fap fon of if it , feo 5 ful Sect, XIV. 1. 8. OF PLANTS. 329 8. Exfudatio miliaris, miliary fweat, appears to be produced by » too great and continued heat, as it exifts on vines in hot-houfes, which are kept too warm, or too clofe in refpect to their ventila- tion. This fecretion has not the fweet tafte like that of the honey-dew, but confifts of mucilace ; which, as the watery part evaporates by S ) y?P Pp y heat, remains on the plant in very {mall round hard globules, lke millet feeds, whence their name. I once witneffed a very fimilar ap- pearance of minute hard round globules on the fkin in a miliary fe- ver, which eafily were rubbed off with the finger; and were proba- bly occafioned, as in this vegetable difeafe, by too great heat, and the exclufion of air, as deferibed in Zoonomia, Vol. Il. Clals. dy 1s 3. a 2- In the evaporation of perfpirable matter, which in its difeafed ftate may be more mucilaginous than natural, in confined bed-rooms or hot-houfes, I fuppofe, the aqueous part only is exhaled, and the mu- cilaginous part remains in the form of a globule ; in the fame man- ner as ftalaétites are formed on the roofs of caverns from a folution of calcareous earth in water, fimply by the evaporation of the water. g. Fluxus umbilicalis, fap-flow, this occurs, when the alburnum or fap-wood of trees is wounded in the vernal months, as in birch and maple, defcribed in Set, Ill. 2. 2. and confifis of a faccharine and mucilaginous fluid fimilar to the honey-dew, or fuffufio mel- lita; and is often very troublefome, when vines in hot-houfes are pruned too late in the feafon, as tlie whole branch is liable to bleed to death, owing thus to the lofs of the fap-juice, which ought to be employed in nourifhing the young buds, and expanding their leaves. When fome perennial plants have rifen but a certain height from the ground, if their {tems are much wounded, or cut off, the roots are liable to bleed to death from this difcharge of the umbilical fluid, or fap-juice, which ought to have nourifhed and expanded the new buds and foliage ; as may be feen in cutting down the heracleum fpondylium, cow parfnep, in April ; and on this account it has been : Uu rccommended 330 DISEASES SECT. KIV. 1.46, recommended to mow down thiftles, and other weeds, which are troublefome from their numerous increafe, early in the fpring ; as many of them will then die, and the reft be much weakened by the fap-flow, which attends their wounds at that feafon. In refpeét to trees another period of fap-flow is faid to exift, when the new buds are forming after Midfummer, as {poken of in Sect. IH, 2.8. Whence wounds at this feafon alfo muft be injurious; where this lofs of fap-juice occurs in hot-houfes various applications have been recommended by gardeners. I fufpedct that a bit of {ponge bound upon the end of the cut branch, or on the wound, by means of fome elaftic bandage, muft be the moft certain application ; or a wire twifted round the end of the branch cut off, fo tightly as to {trangu- late the whole circulation of juices, and confequently deftroy the part above the ligature. 10. Secretio gummofa, gum fecretion, a morbid production of gum, which differs from the fap-juice above defcribed, as it contains no faccharine quality, though like the former it exfudes from the wounded alburnum of deciduous trees; whether the wound be ori- einally caufed by internal difeafe, or by external violence, as men- tioned in the gangrene of the bark above defcribed. Where this happens to cherry-trees, prunus cerafus, a gum ex- {udes like gum arabic ; which in dry weather hardens, as it adheres, and thus prevents the further difcharge of this nutritive material; otherwife the tree weeps away its life, perifhing from deficient nou- rifhment. In fimilar manner a refin is emitted from the injuries or wounds of pine-trees, and fome other evergreens, with great injury to the growth, or the deftruction of the tree. This exfudation of the gum or refin of trees, as it happens chiefly in fummer, is probably a part of nutritious fluid defigned for the new buds, which in moft deciduous trees are formed about this time, and fhould be prevented from continuing to flow by binding on the part, previoufly made fmooth by a knife, a metallic plate, as of the lead in ty . D ate ys Dr XH Y the When ‘, Where | have bound fome . Wite algu- oy the ion of tains m the be ore ; mel m ef jheres, sterial; yt nou- ries of Sect. XIV. 2.1. OF PLANTS. 331 in which tea is wrapped, fo as to prevent rain or dew drops from dif- folving the indurated gum. A bit of fponge, or of foft leather, or of Indian rubber, .caoutchouc, might be bound on under the lead, till the wound is healed. Might not a {trong folution of green vitriol in water, or fome ink, if applied to the extremities of thefe bleeding veflels, ftimulate them into contraction, and prevent the further ef- fufion of gum? Another-method might be worth trial, which is mentioned in Se. XVII. 3. 10. A piece of bark from a fimilar tree of inferior value might be cut out, fo as nicely to fit the wounded part, after its edges were nicely {moothed, and might be tied on by a proper ban- dage, as the lifting cut from the edges of cloth, or flannel, fo that its elafticity might fecure a perpetual preflure without injury. II, DISEASES FROM EXTERNAL ELEMENTS. 1. In climates liable to inceflant rains or perpetual drought for a ‘length of time many difeafes of vegetables mutt originate from the excefs of moifture, or to the want of it; which are not very frequent in this country. In moift feafons the leaf-buds of plants, as of grafs and corn, as well as of trees and perennial vegetables, grow too lux-— uriantly; and the flowers and confequent fruits or feeds are later, and contain more aqueous, and jefs mucilaginous and faccharine matter. On the contrary, in dry feafons the leaf-buds are lefs vigorous, and therefore in lefs quantity, as the crops of hay, and the quantity of ftraw ; but the fruits and feeds ripen earlier, and are of more grate- ful flavour, and more nutritious. 2. The effect of heat on vegetation is fpoken of in Sect. XII. 2. 2. The excefs of that element is feldom much injurious to the vegetation of this country, unlefs it may contribute to increafe the drynets of the foil, when there is a fcarcity of moifture, But the de- : Uua2 fect 332 DISEASES SECT. XIV. 2, 2 cm, fe& of the element of heat, or in common language excefs of cold, is frequently deftru€tive to the early fhoots of the afh, fraxinus, and to the early blofloms of many fruit-trees, as apples, pears, apricots; as thefe are either more fucculent, or have lefs irritability, or more fenfibility ; on both which accounts they are more liable to be dif. eafed by cold. The blights occafioned by froft generally happen in the {pring,. when cold nights fucceed to warm fuiny days, as the living power of the plant has then been previoufly exhaufted by the timulus of heat, and is therefore lefs capable of being excited into the actions, which are neceflary to vegetable life, by the greatly diminithed fti- mulus of a freezing atmofphere. In fome northern climates, where the long funny days fucceed the diflolving of the fnows, as in Denmark and in Ruffia, the gardeners are faid to: fhelter their wall-trees from the meridian fun in the ver- nal months; which preferves them from the cold of the fucceeding night; and by preventing them from flowering too early avoids the danger of the vernal frofts. The deftru€tion of the more fucculent parts of vegetables, as their early fhoots, and that efpecially when expoted to frofty nights, was fpoken of in Se&. XIII. 2. 2. and can only be counteraGed by co- vering them from the defcending dews or rime by the coping -ftones. of a wall, or matts of ftraw. 3. The blafts. occafioned by lightning are more frequent, T be- lieve, than is ufually fuppofed ; as I am informed by thofe, who purchafe extenfive woods, that very many trees on being fawed' through are found cracked, and much injured by lightning. J had laft year a ftandard apple-tree, and a tall apricot-tree, in full leaf blafted at the fame time by lightning, ‘as was believed, They both: lott all their leaves; the apple-tree neverthelefs put out a new fo- liage, and recovered, and bore fruit this year ; but the apricot, which: was nailed to a high wall, never fhewed any returning life, Mr. ids the s their $, Was by co- -{tones , 1 be 2, wid fawed | had sll leaf y botlt é ew for Ww hich Me Sect. XIV. 2.3+ OF PLANTS. 333 Mr. Tull afcribes one injury to the health of wheat plants, and fre~ quently their death, to lightning 5 the effects whereof, he fays, may be obferved by the blackifh parts or patches vifible in a field of wheat, efpecially in thofe years which have more thunder-ftorms than ufual, and‘adds that againft this there is no remedy. The ereétion of frequent metallic points could alone fecure a garden or field from this misfortune 5 which probably occurs more frequently on damp fituations, than on dry ones; as mentioned in the account of Fairy Rings in Botanic Garden, Vol. I. note XI. The manner in which lightning deftroys the life of vegetables may be Gmilar to that, in which it deftroys animal life; which is I fuppofe by its great (timulus exhaufting the fenforial power in the violent action it occafions, and thus producing total inirritability to the common ftimuli, which ought to excite the vital actions of the fy{- tem; fimilar to which, though with lefs expedition, feems to be the effect of fome poifons on the animal fyftem, as the diftilled water of Jauro-cerafus, a folution of arfenic, the contagious matter of fevers, and even a common emetic; all which by their {trong ftimulus feem almot inftantaneoufly to render the ftomach, and other parts of the fyftem, nearly or entirely inirritable, or difobedient to their natural ftimull. It may alfo affect vegetables in another way fimilar to that, which probably alfo happens, when their young fucculent fhoots are frozen 5 that is, by burfting their veflels, as it paffes through them, by its expanfive power; as happens to the large branches of fome trees, and to ftone- buildings, and other bad conductors of electricity, when: they are ftruck with lightning. The expanfive power of eleétricity is not only fhewn by trees and towers being rent by lightning, but by the found, which fucceeds the paflage of it through air; fince a vacuum, Of nearly a vacuum, in re- {pect to air muft previoufly be made by the prefence of the electric fluid; and the fides of this vacuum rufhing together, when the B {tream 334 DISEAS ES Secr, XIV. rer o ftream has paffed, occafions the confequent vibrations of the air, which conftitute found, whether in the audible {park of eleétricity, or the tremendous crafh of thunder. See Seé&. XIII. ce 4. The element of light, as well as that of heat, is neceffary to ve- getation.. In this climate they both feem in general to be injurious only by their defect, and feldom by their excefs. But as light acts as a ftimulus on the more irritative or fenfitive parts of plants, which appears by the expanfion of many flowers, and of fome leaves, when the fun fhines on them; and ‘by the nutation of the whole flower, as of the fun-flower, helianthus ; and by the bending of the fummits of all plants confined in houfes towards the light ; there may be difeafes Owing to the excefs of this ftimulus, which have not been attended to; to prevent which the flowers of tragapogon falfafi, and of other plants, clofe about noon. Other unobferved difeafes may be owing to a defect of the ftimulus of light ; as a mimofa, fenfitive plant, which I had confined in a dark room, did not open its foliage, though Jate in the day, till many minutes after it was expofed to the light. The excefs of light has not been obferved to be attended by vege- table difeafes in thefe more northern latitudes; but the difeafe pro- duced by the deficiency of it, which is termed etiolation, or blanching, has been fuccefsfully ufed to render fome vegetable leaves and ftalks efculent by depriving them of much of their acrimony, and of their - cohefion, as well as of their colour; as is feen in the blanching of celery, apium; endive, cichorium ; Cinara, cardoon; fea-cale, crambe., The following method of the growth and etiolation of fea-cale is tranfcribed from the letter of a friend ; to which fhould be added, that the young heads of this vegetable without blanching are equal or fuperior to moft kinds of brocoli, braffica. ** Sea-cale feed fhould be fowed the latter end of March or beginning of April in drills, and then earthed up. In autumn it fhould be tranfplanted into bigh beds, one row of roots in a bed, about a foot afunder, and in the winter ~~ 4, Vhich Or the tO Ve, Urloye ats a0 Which Whey rer, a3 Nits of feats tended ; other OWing plant, hough ight, "Vege fe pro- ching, | ftalks f their ring of a-cale, scale s added, : equal fhould drills, o big! iD the willl Sact. SIV. 2:5. OF PLANTS. 335 winter it fhould be covered up. It muft be kept dry, that is, the beds made in the drieft ground ; it 1s not fit to be eaten till the third year after it is fowed. ‘he year before it is eaten it muft be co- vered up in the beginning of winter, firft with ftable dung, which may be kept from prefling on it by a few fticks placed like a cone ever each root ; then with long litter two or three feet high; the higher the better, becaufe the more it is forced, the earlier it is fit to be gathered, and the whiter it will be. It is to be gathered about the beginning of January, and fo on till May, one bed being kept under another. It fhould be boiled and fent up on toaft like afpara- cus, and is an excellent vegetable, and at an early feafon.” 5. The earth, on which vegetables infert their roots, fometimes prefents noxious materials to their abforbent fyftem, as the acidity of fome clays ; into which when the roots of fome fruit trees penetrate, they are faid to lofe their health, as mentioned. in Sect. II. 9. by the death or decay or their root-fibres. Pure filiceous fands alfo prevent vegetation from their containing no carbonaceous matter, and by their fo readily permitting the dews and rains to exhale from them, efpecially in hotter climates, where they conftitute a moving furface unfriendly to all organized life. 6. There are alfo noxious exhalations diffufed in the atmofphere in the neighbourhood of fome manufactories; which are faid to injure: the growth or deftroy the life of vegetables ; as the {moke from the furnaces, in which lead is {melted from the ore, from potteries, and from lime-kilns ; to which may be added the marine falt, or marine acid, which abounds in the too great vicinity of the fea. To thefe belong the experiments of Dr. Pefchier of Geneva, who immerfed feveral plants in vapours of nitrous acid, of volatile alkali, and of ether, to the great injury or death of the plants. Jour- nal de Phyfique par Delametherie, T. ul. p. 345: 7, Unwholefome or poifonous materials may be applied to vegeta~ bles fo as to difeafe or deftroy them ; as their abforbent fyftems like thofe 336 DISEASES SECT. XIV, 2.8, thofe of animals are liable to imbibe many noxious materials, as men-= tioned in Sect. Hl. 8. A flight folution of arfenic, {prinkled on a peach-tree in the {pring, deftroyed the branches which received it, A folution of liver of fulphur was equally fatal to the branches of a nectarine-tree, and alfo oil of turpentine. Mr. Von Uflar affirms, that watering plants with a due quantity of oxygenated muriatic acid will increafe their irritability; and if carried beyond a certain degree will injure or deftroy the vegetable by giving it too much oxygen; which is known in due quantity to be a falutary material, and the moft neceflary of all others to ve- getable as well as to animal life. 8. There are materials called condiments, which are believed to poflefs ftimulus without nutriment in refpect to animal bodies, as ipice, falt, bitters, as the hop, and probably opium and vinous {pirit. Thefe when taken into the ftomach increafe ‘its activity, and render the animal for a time fat, and even {trong ; but as all increafe of ftimulus, beyond what is natural, is followed by debility; after a time the animal becomes weak, and emaciated ; and enervated in mind as well as body ; as is uniformly feen in thofe who are addiéed to the ufe of much beer and wine, or of opium ; and in a lefs degree where {pice, or falt, or bitters, are taken in too large quantity. Ps What then fhall we fay to the ufe of common falt in agriculture ? as it is a {timulus, which pofleffes no nourifhment, but may incite the vegetable abforbent vefiels into greater aCtion ; it may in a cer- tain quantity increafe their growth by their taking up more nutri- ment in a given time, and performing their circulations and fecre-- tions with greater energy. In a greater quantity its ftimulus may be fo great as to a@ as an immediate poifon on vegetables, and deftroy the motions of the veffels by exhaufting their irritability. After a time I fufpe&t vegetables. will always be liable to difeafe from this ftimulating nutritive material ; and-that though it may increafe the early growth of the plant, it will injure its flowering or feed- Odies, a US {piri d-render creafe of era time ) mind 8 ed to the ee wher culture! pay incit in a cel re putt Sect. XIV. 2. 8. OF PLANTS. 337 feed-beating ; and that hence, if it be ufed at all, it fhould be a little before the time, that the plant would acquire that part of its growth, which is wanted. Thus if the herb or young ftem only be wanted, as in fpinage, mercury, afparagus, apply falt early ; if the flower be wanted, as in brocoli and artichoke, or in tulip or hyacinth, moiften them with a flight {olution of falt, when the flower-bud is formed. When the fruit or feed is wanted, as in melons or cucumbers, or peas and beans, apply the (olution of falt ftill later, and at all times with rather a parfimonious hand. See Sect. X. 7. 4. Similar to this, where animals difeafed with fuperabundancy of fat are required, it 1s cuftomary, I am told, to feed poultry for the Lon- - don markets by mixing gin and even opium with their food, and to keep them in the dark ; but they muft be killed as {oon as their cor- pulency is formed, or they foon become weak, and emaciated like human drunkards. And ‘n fome countries, as in Languedoc ut France, the livers of geefe and ducks are required to be enlarged and ’ difeafed 5; as they are reckoned a dainty by modern epicures, as well as by the ancient ones, who {peak of the tumidum jecur anferis; and for this purpofe the animals are kept in the dark, and crammed with more than their natural quantity of nutriment ; but are faid to be- come lean,. and to die, if not killed as foon as this difeafe is pro- duced. It is neverthelefs to be obferved, that fea-falt as well as other fti- mulating condiments may be advantageoufly ufed as medicines, though injurious as common food. Thus it is afferted by Baron Schulz in the communications to the board of Agriculture, Vol. I. Part III. and IV. p. 318, that it deftroys the fafciola hepatica, or fewk-worm in fheep.. Some have recommended one ounce of falt to be given every day diffolved in water, but it 1s probable, it might be ufed with greater advantage, if hay was moiftened with the folution, which would thus at the fame time fupply them with better nourifh- xX x ment 338 DISEASES Sect. XIV, 2, 3} ment than generally falls to the lot of thefe difeafed fheep, on fuppo- fition that they would eat it. The rot of theep, I fufpeé, arifes from the inactivity of the abfor- bent veffels of the liver of that animal; whence the bile is too dilute, efpecially in: moift feafons.; whence the flewk-worm, as.I have feen in. the fhambles,. inhabits the common bile-duét, and at length erodes the liver, caufing ulcers ;. which-from the {ympathy of the lungs with the liver occafions a cough, and a heétic fever from the abforption. of the matter. Hence the falt by its additional. ftimulus may render the bile lefs dilute by promoting a greater abforption. of its aqueous. parts, as well as a greater fecretion of it; which however ] fufpec. would be much more efficacious, if about fixty grains of iron-filings, made into a ball: with flour was given every morning for a week along: with the falt, as further explained in Zoonomia, Part III. Art. teide 6. 4. . Since writing the above account of common falt asa condiment), andthe probable confequences attending the ufe of it, I have met, with fome experiments. publifhed by Lord Kaimes.in his Gentleman. Farmer, which feem much to confirm the preceding account. He watered fome Jerufalem artichokes, helianthus tuberofus, which. were planted in feparate pots, with.a folution of fixed vegetable al- kali, others with volatile alkali, others with weak lime water, others. with ftrong lime water, others with putrid. urine, and laftly others with water impregnated with putrid animal and vegetable fubftances,, I fuppofe as they exiftin adunghill. All thefe faline folutions at fir(t encouraged the growth of the refpective plants, fo as much to fur-. pafs thofe in the pot, which was moiftened only with common wa- ter, as a ftandard to compare the others to ;. but by additional quantis ties of the folutions, they all, except the laft, gradually loft their vigour, and perifhed. in the end, as I fuppofe, by the excefs of fti- mulus. There 2.8 1PDo. for. il - > leey TOdes With Ption Ender UEdys {ped Alin oS alone 4,2, ment, e met leman paste which, ble al- others. others Lancesy, at firlt @ {ut- yn War yoatl + theif of fit pie Seer. AIV. 2.°9. OF PLANTS. 359 There is alfo an experiment in the works of Mr. Anderfon, which feems to thew, that common falt poffeffes no nutritive quality adapt- ed to vegetable growth; and that in fome foils, or to fome vegeta- bles, it would feem not even to act as a ftimulus or condiment. He marked out a circle of fix feet diameter in the middle of a grafs field, which he diftinguifhed by driving a ftake in the centre; on this circle he ftrewed common falt, fo as to lie nearly an inch thick on the ground. The grafs {prung up in this circle in the fame manner as in the other parts of the ground, and the place could only be diftin- cuithed by the ftake, though it was left there for fome years. Encycl. Britan. Art. Agriculture. See Sect. X. 7. 5. of this work. This ex periment is worthy to be repeated, left there might have been fome miftake attending it; as fo many authors have given experiments with contrary refults; and as fome other neutral falts were fhewn to promote vegetation in the experiments of Dr. Home. 9. Some diitates from external violence have been already men- tioned in this Section, in which the injury is a remote rather than a proximate caufe of the difeafe, as in the canker fometimes, and the fap-flow, and gum-fecretion. But fome other difeafes from external violence have me purpofely produced, as well as that of etiolation, and turned to advantage ; as the bunches of grapes, which have ac- quired their full fize, are faid to ripen fooner, if the flalk of the bunch be cut half through. ‘Tournefort fays, that the figs in Pro- vence and about Paris ripen fooner, if the buds be wounded with a ftraw dipped in‘olive-oil. And laftly, the figs in the ifland of Malta are made to ripen fooner by caprification; as fpoken of in Botanic Garden, Vol. II. note on Caprificus. And it may daily be remarked, that thofe apples and plums ripen fooner, which have been wound- ed by infeéts ; and that pears will ripen confiderably fooner, if they be immaturely plucked from the tree, which mutt be efteemed iu- jurious to the life of the pear; and as the converfion of auftere acid juices of fruit into fugar in the procefs of ripening may bein part che- 2 mical, 340 DISEASES Sect. XIV. 3.1. mical, it may proceed more haftily, when the life of the fruit is im- paired or deftroyed ; as feems to occur in the drying of germinated barley, and in baking pears, as well as in bruifing apples for the pur- pote of making cyder; whieh laft effet might probably be much improved by the addition of warmth. , III. DISEASES OCCASIONED BY INSECTS. 1. Among the difeafes of plants Linneus adds in his Philofophia Botanica the nefts of thofe infeéts, which depofit their eggs in plants; whence a variety of excrefcences. Thefe are, 1. The galls of oak, of ground-ivy, ciftus, trembling poplar, willow, and hawk-weed, 2. Bedequar of rofes, or briar-balls. 3. Follicles of piftachia, and black poplar. 4. Contortions of ceraftium, chick-weed, veronica, fpeedwell, and lotus, 5. Scales of firs, willows, and rofes. He then adds, that the duplicature and prolification of flowers 1s often occafioned by infects, as common chamomile, matricaria, 1s thus made proliferus ; and that carduus caule crifpo bears larger flo- rets, with the piftils growing into leaves, by the wounds of infects. It muf be obferved, that thefe excrefcences on the leaves of fome plants, or mutation of their manner of growth, are not always the confequence of a fimple wound or puncture of the infeéts, but of the depofition of their eggs, or young offspring ; which afterwards con- tinue to ftimulate the growing plant into unnatural motions, and confequently into unnatural growth ; like the inflammation. and con- fequent new cranulations of flefh in the wounds of animal bodies ; if the fkin is prevented from f{preading over them, will rife which, fh; or beneath the fkin, where it into large fubftances of fungous fle is loofe, as in wens. Many flowers are deftroyed or rendere dation of infe@ts, as rofe-buds by the cynips; and I reme ferving one dry fummer, that every bloffom of a large quince d unprolific by the depre- _ mber ob- tree was ofophia plants: of oak, weed, ia, and TOnICa, ywers 13 carla, 1s ger flo- infects of {ome yays the it of the rds con ons, and and cob . bodies: will me Sect. XIV. 3.2. OF PLANTS. 341 was pierced by a fly, and rendered unprolific before the bloffoms had opened. I have alfo (een the hood of the aconite, fo replete with an acrid juice, pierced by infeéts to plunder it of its honey. 2. The curling of the leaves of neétarine, and peach, and cherry-- trees, with the cells or bladders on their furfaces, are formed in con- fequence of the wounds inflicted by the aphis; in the.fame manner. asthe galls and bedeguars on the oak and fweet-briar by other infects, . but without their nidification or the depofition of their eggs; though from the fudden and general appearance of thefe injuries they have- been afcribed to blights from inclement weather< Some obfervers have believed neverthelefs, that thefe affected leaves . were previoufly out of health ; which occafioned them to fupply a proper fituation for thofe infeéts, which moleft them; as I have fre- quently obferved, that {nails. or flugs eat thofe leaves, which have - been plucked from cucumber plants, and are beginning to wither ; in preference to thofe, which are growing ‘in perfect health. Mr. Lawrence relates, that in June the leaves of fome of his wall- pear-trees. were much injured by a hail-ftorm, which léaves were af- terwards blighted, and become full of tumours from infects; and the pears, which were then as large as walnuts, all perifhed. On this . Mr. Bradley remarks, that infeéts generally lay their eggs on the.dead : or putrefying parts both: of vegetable and animal bodies ; and adds 4a. conjecture, that the parent infeéts-may circulate in the jaices of the plant, which however-is not probable, as though microfcopic animals . d in the ftagnating juices of animal bodies, as in ; have been difcovere the puftules of the itch, and in the faeces in thedyfentery, and even in 4 the femen, which may have ftagnated in the veficulz.feminales; yet < no fuch animalcule have, I believe, ever been detected in recent blood, , or any recent fecretions from it. A predilection for fome withered leaves appears alfo in larger ani=- mals as well as in infeéts; cows wil} eat young thiftles, a few hours . after they are cut down, as their prickles become flaccid ; and horfes.. refute. 342 DISEASES SECT. XIV, ee refufe the young fhoots of yew-trees, as they grow; but. will eat them when they are cut off, and begin to wither; and on that ac. count lofe a part of their acrimony; though there is ftill often faf ficient. peifon within: them to-deftroy the animal. And it is even ‘probable, that when the leaves of yew are withered to a greater de- gree, their poifonous acrimony becomes fo far deftroyed, that they ceafe to be deleterious to horfes; fo that in Heffe in Germany it is cuftomary in the winter to crop the young fhoots of yew-trees, and mixing them with other provender to give them as common food to ‘horfes. See Anderfon on Agriculture, Vol. III. p. go. On this account if wall-trees are frequently watered by an engine, {o as to moiften their leaves or branches as well as the ground at their roots on the dry days in fpring, by which they will be kept in vi- gorous growth, I was told, that they would totally or nearly efcape the depredations of infeéts ; but I found by an experiment well con- duéted on three trees, that this management had no effet; and I alfo obferved in the {pring and fummer of this year, 1798, which feems to have much favoured the produétion of the aphis, that they at- ‘tacked the moft healthy leaves of peach and neétarine trees, as well -as the others; and that plums, cherries, black currants, and many other trees fuffered by their depredations, though previoufly in perfe& vigour. And laftly, that on repeatedly having wathed off many thou- fands of aphifes from peach and ne@arine leaves by a ftrong ftream from.a forcible water-engine, that they evidently crawled again up the ftems.of the trees, or onthe wall to which they were nailed, as in another day the lowermoft branches were thus more infefted with ‘them than the upper ones. The hiftory of the aphis, puceron, or vine-fretter, is fo curious, tthe deftru€tion it commits on the foliage of the peach and ne@arine asin dry fummers fo irréfiftible, and its exiftence on other trees fo extenfive, that it demands our particular attention. See No. 1. pegs this Se@tion. From the obfervations of Swammerden, Bonnet, Dr. Richardfon, rjOUSs bar ine es 10 7: of - Me {ors Sect. XIV.: 3.:2 OF PLANTS, | 343 Richardfon, and of other philofophers, this extraordinary infe& rifes in the {pring from eggs, which are faid to be attached by the parent aphis to the twigs of trees in the autumn, and are believed to produce not a larva or caterpillar, but a progeny fimilar to the parent; every ene of which produces in about ten days not anegg, but another liv- ing progeny to the ninth generation, without being connected amato- rially with each other. The ninth generation produces males and fe- males, fome of both kinds with. wings, and others without. them ;. and this tenth generation from thofe,. which were hatched from eggs, become amatorially connected, and produce eggs ;. which:are laid om. the new twigs of various: trees for the next year’s progeny to be hatched by the vernal.fun. Philof..Tranfact. Vol. LXI. p. 182. In this uncommon circumftance the eggs.of the aphis refemble the- feeds of plants; which firft produce fome fucceffive generations of leaf-buds, which are-a-viviparous. progeny,. before they again pro- duce feeds, which are their oviparous progeny, as mentioned in Sect, 1X. 3. 1. of this work. Nor is-this to be aferibed to: what has been. termed equivocal generation, orto an impregnation of nine fetufes enclofed within each other, as fome have fuppoied. But this central. produétion of the viviparous progeny of the aphis feems. to. refemble the lateral produ€tion of a viviparous progeny from the polypus,,. which in time detach themfelves from their parents; like the buds. of the polygonum viviparum, or the bulbs of the magical onion, al- lium magicum ; which are produced from the ee -cup inftead of - feeds, and in time detach themfelves, and fall on the ground. Se that thefe aphifes are not, I fuppofe, to be efteemed fecundated fe- males, but proliferous. males, as explained in Zoonomia,. Vol. [i Set. 39..0n generation. This double mode of reproduction, fo exaa&ly refembling the Buds. and feeds of trees, accounts for the wonderful increafe of this infect; which according to Dr, Richardfon confifts of ten generations, and of fifty at an average in each-generation ;: fo that the fum of fifty multiplied. 344 DISEASES Seer. XIV. 3. 2, multiplied by fifty, and that product again multiplied by fifty nine times, would give the product of one egg only in countlefs millions; to which muft be added the innumerable eggs laid by the tenth ge- neration for the renovation of their progeny in the enfuing f{pring. Their punctures of the leaves of peach and nedtarine trees in the vernal months, and of cherry, plum, and currant trees im the fum- mer, produce a {welling and elevation of the cuticle of the leaf on its upper fide, and a confequent curling of it with its upper furface out-. wards, which terminates in a deftruction of it to the great injury of ‘the tree, and frequently to the death of it; while the leaves of the nut-trees, mentioned above, in No. 1. 7. of this Section, appeared to be but little injured by them, though fifty or a hundred of thefe in- fe&ts were feen under every leaf about Midfummer, both before and after their affufion with the honey-dew. From Dr. Richardfon’s account the aphifes on the rofe-tree ap- peared in February, when the weather happened to be warm, from {mall black oval eggs; which were depofited on the laft year’s fhoots in autumn; and that, when the weather became colder, great num- bers of them perifhed, by which circumftance the rofe-trees are in fome years almoft freed from them. They came to their full growth before April, and after having twice caft off their exuviz, every one of them produced about fifty young ones; all of which came into the world backwards, and ad- hered fometime to the vent of the parent by their mouths or fore- part ; as fhewn in a magnified ftate at fig. 2. plate IX ; and were at length fet down on fome tender fhoots of the plant, and came to ma-~ turity in about ten days, cafting off their coats two, three, or four times. The ninth generation in October confifted of males as well as fe- males, which were feen to cohabit ; and the eggs produced by their intercourfe, he afferts, were depofited generally near the new buds, or on other parts of the twigs of the trees, which they poflefled. 8 Thefe. . }: 2, | Liye ared to efe ins ore and Tee ap- 1, from 5 thoots it num- 5 are 10 - having out fifty and ad of fore Sect. XIV. 3. 2. OF PLANTS. 345 Thefe were at firft green, but in a few days became brown, and by degrees quite black. They were of regular oval figures about one tenth of an inch in length, and about half as broad, and adhered firmly by means of fomething glutinous, and refitted the feverity of the winter. | Other infeé&ts, which are produced from eggs, and become winged butterflies or moths, live for fome time in the intermediate ftate of caterpillars or larvae. During this ftate of their exiftence they feed on the leaves, on which they are hatched; or on fruits or kernels; but after they have acquired wings and organs of reproduction, fome of them take no food, as the filkworm; and others live only upon ho- ney, as bees, and moths, and butterflies. Now the aphis, I {uppofe, - has no intermediate ftate between the egg and the fly, and there- fore makes no holes in the leaves by eating them ; or if any of them previoufly exift in a caterpillar, or larva ftate, it can be only thofe which are produced from eggs in the early {pring, which is worthy of future attention. Whence I fuppofe, that this fly lives not by confuming the fo- liage of the plants, which it inhabits; but by piercing the pulmo- nary veffels in their natural ftate, or the lymphatic veffels of the leaf in their retrograde ftate, by a fine tube or probofcis, which it poffefies, and which it may be feen by a common lens perpetually to employ, as {hewn under its chin in the magnified infect at figure firft of plate 1X. For the fap-juice or vegetable chyle is brought from the radi- cles of each leaf-bud, and propelled up the long caudex to the pulmo- nary artery of the leaf, where it becomes oxygenated, and converted into vegetable blood. And may thus be extracted by the tubes of thefe infects before its fanguification. Perhaps thofe aphifes, which were from eggs, might eat fome part of the peach leaves during their larva ftate, if fuch exifts, and occa- fion them tocurl up. While thofe, which were a viviparous progeny, might only pierce the fap-veflels, or blood veflels; and thus not ap- Yy parently 346 DISEASES Szct. XIV. 3.2, 3 parently injure the leaves; as on the nut-trees, where perhaps they were not hatched from eggs, but might have come thither in their winged ftate, and have then produced their innumerable viviparous. offspring ; as on the nut-trees above mentioned I could not difcern. the eggs, from which they were hatched, and a few larger aphifes. with wings appeared early in the feafon amongft the {maller ones. without wings. We may finally conjecture on this interefting fubjed, firft, that the: aphifes produced from eggs early in the {pring may have a larva or caterpillar ftate, and that during that ftate they may feed on the young leaves of peaches, nectarines, plums, and cherries, and thus. oceafion them to curl and die. 2. That thofe, which are not from eges, have no larva ftate, and only puncture the larger chyle vefiels of the young twigs,. or the pulmonary arteries of the leaves, which receive the vegetable fap-juice from the roots,. and thus that they fuck it up, and live on it, before it is converted into blood, as moths,. butterflies, and bees, live on honey in their winged ftate, though on other parts of vegetables,.as on their leaves, or anther-duft, in their larva ftate 3; and that thefe punctures are attended with no vifible in- jury to the leaf. 3. That for a. week or two about Midfummer, when the umbilical veflels of the new buds convey the fap-juice to them,. or to the refervoirs of nutriment preparing for them, that the aphifes by piercing thefe veflels, or the pulmonary arteries of the leaves, ac- quire fo large a quantity of this faccharine material, that it paffes through them almoft unchanged, falling on the leaves and ground beneath them, and produces what 1s called the honey-dew ; but that this happens only for a fhort feafon, as a week or two about Mid- fummer, during the production of the new buds. And laftly, that the black powdery material on the upper furface of the leaves of the nut-trees and plum-trees, and of the fhrubs which grow beneath them, is an excrement from the aphifes, which haig on the under furfaces of the leaves above them, like the black bitter powder in the nut~ t they moths, ugh on n their 4 : Die Ife Sze. XIV. 3. 2: OF PLANTS. 347 nut-fhell; which is the excrement of the curculio, which has eaten the {weet kernel. Secondly, having laft year written the above, I have had ano- ther opportunity of attending to the aphis during the fummer of 1799, and fhall add the further remarks, which I have been able to make on this moft curious and important animal, which may 1n pro- cefs of time deftroy the vegetable world. As the month of June was again in this fummer very dry, though not very warm, the aphis was propagated in immenfe numbers on a great variety of trees, f{hrubs, and herbaceous plants. The row of nut-trees mentioned in No. 1. 7. of this SeGtion was infefted with a oreater number of them this year than in the preceding one; yet during the feafon about Midfaummer there was fo little honey-dew this year, that it might have efcaped obfervation, if at had not been particularly attended to; yet what did appear was only on the upper Surfaces of thofe leaves, which had other leaves impending over them crowded with aphifes ; whence I had no doubt, but that it was voided by the millions of aphifes, which adhered on the under furfaces of thofe fuperior leaves with their backs downwards. On examining them with a ftrong magnifier I could frequently perceive them infert their probofcis or trunk into the veffels of the inferior furface of the leaf ; and particularly obferved, that when they were not moving from place to place, that they generally ftood with their heads towards the foot-ftalk of the leaf of nut-trees, or to- wards the bafe ‘of the twigs of plum-trees, which circumftance I fhewed to many of my friends. Both before and after the exiftence of the honey-dew a black ma- terial, which was fometimes moift and fometimes dry, appeared on the upper furfaces of thofe leaves only, which had other leaves;crowd- ed with aphifes over them, and even on the upper {urface of the Jeaves of fome herbaceous plants, which grew under thefe nut-trees, Yy2 and. 348 DISEASES Sect. XIV. 3. 2, and alfo on others, which grew under plum-trees, which. were much infefted with an aphis of a greener colour. To prove beyond poffibility of error that this black matter was de- jected on the leaves below by the aphifes, which were walking with their heads downwards on thofe above, I fewed flightly witha needle and thread under feveral leaves a piece of writing paper about the fize of the leaf; and obferved on the next day that many black marks were diftinguifhable on the paper. On plum-trees and on many herbaceous plants innumerable aphifes were feen on the upper tender part of the upright fhoots, adhering with their heads downwards; and on the hanging fhoots with their heads upwards ; and inferting their probofcis into the vefiels, I {up- pofe, which contained the afcending fap-juice. But on. the nut-trees the moft tender or uppermoft parts of the young fhoots were covered with very numerous briftles, which appeared to be an armour pur- pofely produced to defend them from thefe deftructive infects, and hence they were principally found on the under furfaces. of the leaves. As the chyle of animals is mixed with the venous blood, and is im- mediately projected by the force of the heart into the pulmonary ar- tery, at the extremities of which it is principally converted into blood by its expofure to the air; fo in the vegetable fyftem the fap-juice muift be mixed with the returning venous blood, and carried forwards to the extremities of the pulmonary artery of the leaf, before it is converted into vegetable blood. Thefe pulmonary arteries pafs along the under furfaces of leaves, as the upper furfaces.of them are cover- ed by the fine terminations of them on an air-membrane for the pur- pofe of refpiration ; hence on thefe under furfaces of leaves the aphifes adhere, and pierce the branches of the pulmonary arteries with their probofcis ftanding with their heads towards the ftalk of the leaf, that: they may thus meet the ftreams of chyle or fap-juice yet unchanged into» 3.2 ‘ Wera S de. With Ede C fize Narks Dhifes ering } their | Lup. trees vered r pur of the 1$ IMs ry al- ) blood pejuice rwards e it i 3 along cover 1€ puts aphile b thell uf, that range! ypto Sect. XIV. 3. 2. OF PLAN T'S. 349 - jnto blood; which accounts both for their exifting in all kinds of weather on the inferior fide of the leaves, and for their ftanding with their heads towards the foot-ftalks of them. Thus on an upright twig of a plum-tree I this day obferved a number of aphifes adhere ‘with their heads downwards with their probotcifes inferted into the tender ftem, and fo near to each other, that the tail part of the lower ones extended one third of their length over the head part of thofe above them, and gave fomewhat the appearance of fcales; while on the hanging twigs they adhered with their heads upwards, {till intent to meet the ftreams of fap-juice in the afcending chyle vefiels, or in the pulmonary arteries. Dr. Bradley and others obferve, that about Midfummer there ap- pears to be a paufe in vegetation, and that at this time the new buds are generated ; and Duhamel and others found, that the bark of fe- veral trees became at this time as eafily to be feparated from the al- burnum as in the fpring ; as is related in Se@. III. 2. 8. of this work. At this time therefore there exifts a new flow of fap-juice to fupply prefent nutriment, or to furnifh a refervoir of future nutriment to the newly generated or expected embryon, either before or after its _ vivification, or its impregnation, if fuch a procefs may be fuppofed to occur in the production of buds, At this time then, when there exifts a fummer-flow of fap-juice,. this pernicious infect in uncounted millions pierces the fap-veffels round the new {hoots, or the pulmonary arteries beneath the leaves ; and thus drinks the vegetable chyle, or fap-juice, with fuch avidity, as to part with much of it again almoft unchanged. This I now believe with Sauvage to be the origin of one kind of honey-dew cer- tainly ; and if another kind of honey-dew exifts, as he mentions, where there are no aphifes, I fufpedt, as obferved in No. 1. 7. of this Se@tion, that it muft arife from the inverted ation of the lymphatic veflels of the leaf, at the time of the increafed quantity of fap-juice 3 : about Cm ae FF ‘dl ; about Midfummer; but have not had an opportunity to afcertain thefe facts. Thirdly. There appears to be a power impreffed on organized bo- dies by the great author of all things, by which they not only in- creafe in fize and ftrength from their embryon {tate to their matu- rity, and occafionally cure their accidental difeafes, and repair their accitental injuries, but alfo a power of producing armour to prevent thofe more violent injuries, which would otherwife deftroy them. Of this laft kind are the poifonous juices of fome plants, as of atropa belladonna, deadly nightfhade, hyofcyamus, hen-bane, cynoglofium, hounds-tongue. Other plants are armed with thorns and prickles to prevent the depredation of animals, as ilex, holly, crategus, haw- thorn, ribes groffularia, goofeberry; the leaves of which would be perpetually devoured but for this kind of prote€tion. Other plants fecrete a vifcid juice to agglutinate the infe&ts, which crawl up to- wards their fructification, as filene, catchfly, drofera, fun-dew ; and others by the contra¢tion of their leaves or petals arreft or deftroy the infects, which attack them, as dioncea mufcipula, and apocynum an-= drofemifolium. But how can vegetables prote&t the whole inferior furfaces of their leaves, and of their young rifing {tems from the innumerable pro- geny of the deftructive aphis, which penetrates their chyle veffels and their arteries ; and which from their immenfe numbers may in pro- cefs of time deftroy the vegetable world. Many vegetables have not yet acquired any means of defence, and have therefore the firft growth of their foliage much injured, or totally deftroyed by this deftructive infe€t, as the nectarine, and peach, and plum, and cherry-trees, in many parts of this country, as is every year feen and lamented. Some vegetables have neverthelefs already acquired an armour, which leffens, though it does not totally prevent, the injuries of this animal. ‘This is moft confpicuous on the {tems and floral-leaves of mois- aw; and {troy the ‘num als as of their able pro- reftels and yy in pide , have not i ft grows! Jeftrvci™ , trees! pted. , artnout ries oft j-leave po Sect. XIV. 3. 2 OF PLANTS. 351 mofs-rofes, and on the young fhoots and leaf-ftalks of nut-trees. Both thefe are covered with thickfet briftles, which terminate in glo bular heads, and not only prevent the aphis from furrounding them in fuch great numbers, and from piercing their veffels fo eafily, but alfo fecrete from the gland, with which I fufpect them to be termi- nated, a juice; which is inconvenient, or deleterious to the infect, which touches it, Hence mofs-rofes appear to be lefs injured by the aphis, than other rofes, which have lefs of this armour; and while on plum-trees, and on many herbaceous plants, they hang round the upright young fhoots with their heads downwards, and infert their trunks, fo as totally to conceal the rifing fhoot ; yet on nut-trees, though they are feen in millions beneath the leaves on the unarmed parts, they never appear round the young fhoots, nor on the large trunks of the vef- fels beneath the leaves, all which have acquired a panoply of briftles with glandular heads to them, like thofe round the mofs-rofe, but without the branching ftruéture of the latter. While thofe plants, which are not infefted with the legions of this felf-produdtive animal, have probably acquired fome material mixed with their fap-juice, or blood, which is poifonous to them; as thofe plants, which poffefs a milky or a yellow blood, as the {purges euphorbia, or,the celandines chelidonium, or the fig-tree, ficus. Nor is this more aftonifhing, than that the holly-trees fhould an- nually fupply prickles only to their lower leaves, about fix or eight feet from the ground, as high as the animals can reach them, which would prey upon them; but refufe the expence of putting forth prickles in their higher branches, which are faved by their fituation, as I have repeatedly obferved on the numerous holly-trees, which are the ornament of Needwood foreit. From hence I fufpe&t, that another reafon, why the leaves of nut- trees and of rofe-trees are not curled up or bliftered like thofe of nectarines, peaches, plums, and cherries, is becaufe their foot-ftalks, I and. 352 DIS EAS ES Sect. XIV, 3.2, and the larger branches of the pulmonary arteries, are defended by thefe briftles, which are perhaps only beginning to appear on the leaf-ftalks of the plum, but which may increafe in the progreffion of time; as all the works of nature may be approaching to greater perfection, as mentioned more at large in No. 2. of the laft Se@ion ef this work. Fourthly. The means of deftroying an infeé fo extelifively inju- rious not only to gardens and hot- hati but to half the vegetable world, would be indeed a valuable difcovery. If the eggs exift on the young buds, as Dr. Richardfon affirms, fome applieeting to thefe before they are hatched, which might diflolve their thells, as by very dilute marine acid injected on them; or by fome adhefive material which might invifcate them as foon as they are hatched, whether they appear firft in their larva ftate, like minute caterpillars, or in the form of the parent aphis, as eps fuds injefted on the twigs before the leaves begin to unfold ; or perhaps by rubbing them ith oil or glue by means of a fponge, or a painter’s brufh; but experiments alone can determine the effect of thefe applications, both on. the infeé& and on the tree. Lime water alone will not readily deftroy the aphis, as 1 obferved by immerfing leaves with aphifes on them; which crept up the leaves, and thus efcaped. But if pot-ath, or fixed alkali, be mixed with lime, the folution becomes fo cauftic as to deftroy many infeéts without injuring the foliage of trees, or the ftems of wheat, if we may credit M. Socoloff, who in the tranfa@tions of an Academy at Peterfburgh, Vol.V. afferts, that he added three parts of quick-lime newly made to two parts of a faturated folution of fixed alkali in wa- ter; which poured on the ground deftroyed the earth-worms, and {prinkled on the leaves ee deftroyed the caterpillars, but did not injure, or much injure the foliage of trees, or the leaves of Bai: plants. ‘Tar water has lately been {aid to deftroy flugs, white {nails with- out uvit or glue s alone fe and »bferved up the . mixed 7 infects a if we demy # ick-himt jjin We ms, 2 t did pot of whe Js wi f 0 b Seer. KIV. 3. 2: OF PLANTS. 353 out fhells, and might be worthy a trial by injecting it on trees at firtt with caution, left it fhould injure them ; as it is probably the vegetable acid chiefly, with a {mall portion of effential oil, which 1s diffolved, or mixed with the water, by agitation. See No. 3. 5. of this Section. Previous to the pullulation of the buds, it is alfo believed to be of ereat fervice to water wall-trees with lime-water, or with foap-fuds, or perhaps with the addition of fome pot-afh to either of them to make a more cauttic ley, fuch as is recommended for fteeping feed- wheat; but this with caution, as I have known a folution of hepar fulphuris kill the branches of a tree, which were moiftened with it, as well as the infeéts, which were upon it. Nor am I certain that this will anfwer the purpofe from the obfervations I have heard from thofe, who have tried it. The effential oils are all deleterious to certain infects, and hence their ufe in the vegetable economy, being produced in flowers’ or leaves to protect them from the depredations of their voracious elle- mies. One of the effential oils, that of turpentine, is recommended by M. de Thoffle for the purpofe of deftroying infeéts, which infect both vegetables and animals. Having obferved that the trees were attacked by multitudes of {mall infects of different colours (pucins ou pucerons), which injured their young branches, he deftroyed them all entirely in the following manner. He put into a bowla few handfuls of earth, on which he poured a fmall quantity of oil of turpentine ; he then beat the whole together with a {patula, pouring on it water, till it became of the confiftence of foup ; with this mixture he moiftened the ends of the branches, and both the infects and their eggs were deftroyed, and other infects kept aloof by the fcent of the turpentine. He adds, that be deftroyed the fleas of his puppies by once bathing them in warm water impregnated with oil of turpentine. Mem. d’ Agriculture, An. 1787, Printemp. p. 109. I {prinkled fome oil of turpentine by means of a brufh on fome LZ branches 354 DISEASES Sect. XIV. 3. 2, branches of a ne€tarine-tree, which was covered with the aphis; but it killed both the infeét and the branches. A folution of arfenic much diluted did the fame. Might not the fcent of turpentine, or of tar, ” fmeared.on a fruit-wall deter the flies from approaching the trees to depofit their eggs? or might not arfenic mixed with honey be fmeared. on the wall, to.which the trees are nailed, be likely to at- tract the aphis as well as other kinds of flying infects. But none af thefe fhould be fmeared on the branches, left it injure or deftroy the tree. Perhaps if a few twigs {meared with turpentine, mixed with a little oil of turpentine to make it more fluid, and.to increafe its odour, were fixed in quince-trees, or in apple-trees, the flowers of which are liable to be deftroyed by the eggs depofited in them by a {mall fly; they might be deterred. from approaching the tree, as the great ufe of effential oils, which caufe the fragrance of. flowers, feems to be to deter infects from infefting their leaves, op preying upon their honey. ) | . Itis probable, that if infufions were made in hot water, or perhaps for a longer time in cold water, of thofe leaves which no infeéts de- vour; as of the walnut, juglans; lauro-cerafus, laurel; foxglove, digitalis; hen-bane, hyofcyamus;. haunds-tongue,. cynogloffum ; rag-wort, fenecio jacobea;-.or of tobacco, nicotiana; and many others; and: were fprinkled .on the curled leaves of wall-trees, or on. the buds before they open, by a pump, or by a bruth, or {ponge.; they might deftroy the infeéts. without injuring the trees, which might be determined by.a few experiments. The duft of tobacco is frequently fpread on affeéted leaves, but not E-believe with very: encouraging fuccefs, owing perhaps to the powder not being very fine,.or not foon enough applied. Some kinds of lime {trewed on in powder might:probably be too cauftic, and deftroy the leaf along with the infeéts; which alfo might be fubjeGted to experir ment. ‘I'he powder of fulphur, or of tobacco, or of any of the poi- fonous leaves above mentioned, might be injected upon aftected trees ‘by 4 Imall : Qe creat leems to on their + perhaps fects de foxglove, oloflums yd many eS, OF on {ponges Ss which 55 but net e power! 1s of ]ime o{troy ie ro espe ¢ the P™ ated yee i Suct. XIV. 3.2. OF PLANTS. ... by a powder-puff, fuch as hair-dreflers ufe, or the fmoke of tobacco, or of any other of the poifonous leaves above mentioned, might be forcibly blown on them by an adapted pair of bellows, as the {moke of many of them may poffefs as porfonous a quality as that of to- bacco; and even the fteam of a decoétion. of others, as of lauro-cera- fus, and walnut; the poifon of the former of which is known to rife in diftillation, might probably be ufed with effect; but this muft de- pend on the greater or lefs fixity of their effential oils. The {moke or fteam might be applied to wall-trees by previoufly fufpending over them a large fheet of matting, or of linen, or of paper, or an old carpet; but may however be ufed with greater advantage in. hot- houfes, than in the open air. Since the above was written I direéted in the early fpring of this year one neétarine-tree to be moiftened: with tar-water, and parts of the wall to be fmeared with tar ; another to be moiftened with lime and pot-afh diffolved in water; a third with foap-fuds and lime added to them; and many both netarine and peach-trees with foap-fuds alone. . This was done by means of a brufth before any flowers ap- peared, and was repeated thrice on different days; but to my great difappointment, when the leaves appeared, they became affected with the aphis as on former years. I alfo afterwards dipped many nut- leaves crowded with the aphis in {trong infufion of tobacco, for a few minutes, as the leaves hung on the trees without, as I believed, de- ftroying the infeéts ; though fome of them appeared for a time to be ‘renderedmtorpid. Nevertielefs on covering a low nut-tree with fome fheets of brown paper fewed together, and throwing the fmoke of tobacco. under it from a proper pair of bellows, great numbers of aphifes were killed, many of which dropped from the upper leaves on thofe below them, and many adhered motionlefs to the under furfaces of the leaves. The fine powder of tobacco called Scotch fnuff fprinkled on the aphifes by turning up fome of the leaves quickly deftroyed them. | fie ee As ans DISEASES Sect XUV. dap. As walnut-leaves may be had in great quantity in the autumn, and the whole plant of fenecio jacobzea, rag-wort, at any time, both which are probably deleterious to infects, as they feem never to be injured by them, thefe might be procured at {mall expence, and might pro- bably, when dried and burnt, produce a {moke equally deftruGive to them. Fifthly. The moft ingenious manner of deftroying the aphis would be effected by the propagation of its greateft enemy, the larva of the aphidivorous fly ; of which I have given a print, and which is faid by Reaumeur, Tom. III. Mem. g. to depofit its eggs, where the aphis abounds; and that, as foon as the larva are produced, they devour hundreds around them with the neceffity of no other movements but by turning to the right or left, arrefting the aphis and fucking its juices, If thefe eggs could be collected and carefully preferved dnring the. winter, and properly difpofed on neCtarine and peach-trees in the early {pring, or protected from injury in hot-houfes; it is probable, that this plague of the aphis might be counteraéted by the natural means of devouring one infect by another; as the ferpent of Mofes devour- ed thofe of the magicians. Mr. Horrocks of Derby fhewed me this larva of the aphidivorous fly, which I faw devour two or three aphifes, and Mr. Swanwick of this town at my requeft made an accurate drawing both of the larva and fly, which he kindly favoured me with, accompanied with the following note. “On Auguft the 4th Mr. Horrocks obligingly fent me an aphidi- vorous larva in a box on a leaf of a plum-tree, on which were a number of aphifes ; and I had almoft immediately the pleafure of fee- ing it eat one. “*"T’he method of taking his prey is thus: he is like the floth in his difpofition, for he does not ramble about, while he has food around him. He only lifts up his head, and ftrikes it down again, extending it in various directions, as if he was blind, and repeating the above ac- 8 tion. 2 ’ AD, ay i | Which Dut. | nM Dt. TUCtive * Would a Of the Laid by 1 aphi devon; ents but IS juices, ‘ing the he early dle, that iL means devour divorous ywick of +he larva with the 2] aphid h wera re of See floth 10 4 arcu! xtendiNé shove af tio Sect. XIV. 3. 2. OF PLANTS. 357 tion. If by fo doing he happens to feel an aphis, he immediately feizes: it by the back, lifts it up and poifes it in the air, as if to prevent it from liberating itfelf by its ftruggles againft the furface of the leaf, or that it may fall more eafily into the cavity of his mouth. In this po- fition he holds it, while he pierces it, and fucks the juice out of the body ; which having done, he drops the fkin, licks his lips round with his little black tongue, contracts his head, and drops it down ; thus refting in perfec repofe for fome time, after which he repeats the fame aGtions. But if he is in the midft of plenty, he feldom gives: himfelf this trouble, but waits till an aphis touches him, when he immediately turns his head round,.and with fatal certainty feizes him,, poizing him as before. «For the purpofe of feeing what fly was produced from this caters pillar, I procured him food for about ten days. During this time he eat a great number of aphifes, and grew to about an inch in length s$: when he left off eating, contracted himfelf to about half his former length, fixed himfelf to the box by a little gluten, which he difcharg- ed from his mouth, and without cafting a fkin changed to a chry-_ falis. ‘¢In this ftate he lay about ten or eleven days, at the end of which: time he burft his cell, and came out a beautiful fly, of which the ficure is a good reprefentation.”” | No. 1.. The caterpillar with an aphis in his mouth.. No. 2. The chryfalis open at one end. No. 3. The fly. Another enemy to the aphis is faid to be a beautiful fmall {potted beetle, called a lady-bird by the people. Several of thefe were feen on the nut-leaves, and are believed firft to appear there in their larva ftate, and to feed on the aphis; they then change toa chryfalis, and laftly to a {mall wing-fheathed beetie ; and finally, 1 fuppofe, they bore holes into the earth, as would appear from their poffefling fheaths to their wings, and that they there depofit their eggs to be 7 hatched; 358 DISEASES Sect. XIV. 3, z. hatched, and to climb the trees infefted with the aphis in the enfuing {pring. Thus from the exertions of a few aphidivorous larvae or caterpil- lars, from the poifonous juices of fome plants, and from the briftly armour on the young twigs and leaves of others, the vegetable world is fo far protected from the deftrudion, with which it has been, and is threatened, by the fine probofcis of this multit udinous infed, which in its manner of attack refembles that of the large bat of Afia, vef- pertilio-vampyris; which is afferted by Linneus to drink the blood by night of fervants, who fleep in the open air, Syft. Natur. p. 46; and is faid by others to be fo {kilful an operator as net to wake the patient by the puncture, which it inflicts, as it agreeably fans them with its wings. 3. Many of the orchards of apple-trees in this country are liable to: lofe all their leaves by the depredations of caterpillars ; the fame oc- curs to goofeberry-trees.in fome gardens, and to cabbages in the latter part of the fummer. A few years agoI obferved, that the bloffoms of the quince-tree, before they were quite expended, were perforated by a fly; as the wound could be eafily difcerned like that on young nuts, when wounded by the curculio ;. and all the bloffoms of a large tree were thus deftroyed by a {mall caterpillar. And in this late fummer of 1799 the apple-blofloms in this country are much injured by a cater- pillar, which eats the feed in the pericarp of each bloffom either be- fore or at the time of its impregnation, the petals of the flower clof- ing again over it and dying, The leaves of many trees are renewed after having been totally de- ftroyed in the early part of the feafon ; as thofe of the apple-tree above _ mentioned, which had loft its leaves entirely by lightning; as the mulberry-trees in Italy, which are thus robbed of their firft leaves to feed filk-worms, as the tea-tree in China, which is thus robbed fora fafhionable potation. And laftly, as the euonymus, or {pindle-tree, which | ar hich fia, vel. he blood * P46, vake the QS them + liable to {ame oc- he latter ice-free, sas the ts, when tree were immer of y a caters either be ywver clo! Sect. XIV.363. OF PLANT 3. 359 which in this country: has its firft crop of leaves almoft perpetuaily deftroyed by caterpillars. But though the leaves are reftored after the depredation of this infect, yet there follows an.irremediable injury to the fruit. See Sect. IX. 2. 6. As the eggs of butterflies are in the autumn wifely depofited in fituations, where the young can find proper food, when they are hatched by the warmth of the {pring -thofe ,on apple-trees, and on goofeberry-trees, are frequently. depofited on the leaves, as well as on other parts of the.tree; and.as thefe leaves fall on the ground, the eggs are thus covered and protected from the frofts, and the young caterpillars are believed to climb.the trees in fearch of their food. If this. be true, it would bean advantageous practice to rake together the leaves in orchards, and to burn them ; which fome have done from an. idea, that the {moke thus produced was. noxious. to: the eggs of infects depofited on.the branches. Some gardeners for this purpofe rear their goofeberry*trees on one ftem only; and believe, that by tying a fringe round this ftem the infeats, which are hatched in the foil, if fuch there be, can not climb: up the tree thus {urrounded with.a fringe; and as thofe caterpillars, which are already on the tree, let themfelves down by a thread, when the tree is fhaken, from the fear of being hurt by the vibrating twigs 5. if this thread. be then broken, by moving.a flick. round under the tree,. thefe infeéts cannot reafcend. A paper recently tarred on the outfide might be wrapped round the ftem.of the tree inftead of the fringe: with perhaps more certain fuccefs ;, but the tar fhould.not be fmeared: on the bark of-the tree,-left.it- fhould.injure or deftroy it. It may be obferved in the choice of apple-trees, that thofe kinds, . which flower. early, are lefs liable-to:the depredation of infe&ts ; and: thofe, which flower late, are lefs liable-to the injuries of froft. In-ap-- ple-trees perhaps the former is-in fome.fituation the greater evil, but: in pears I fhould fufpeéct the latter, the bloffoms of which are fo of ten totally, deftroyed by one night’s froft. The 360 DISEASES Sect. XIV, 3. 4, The white butterflies, which depofit their eggs on cabbage plants, are {een flying about awkwardly in fummer, and fhould be caught, and deftroyed by the gardener. Or they perhaps might be invited and poifoned by a mixture of honey, and water, and arfenic; asa wealthy man in Italy was faid to have poifoned his neighbour’s bees, See Sect. VI. 6. 3. Thefe cabbage-caterpillars would increafe in de- ftructive numbers, but are half of them annually deftroyed by a {mall ichneumon fly ; which depofits its own eges in their backs, which are there hatched by the warmth of the animal, and live on the filk there fecreted for its future neft; and eroding their way out fpin {mall cacoons of their own; ten or twelve of which hang on each caterpillar; which thus perifhes inftead of changing into a butterfly, This I faw happen to a great many of them, which were put into a box on bran with a few cabbage leaves, and covered with gauze, a few days before they were ready to change into chryfolifts.” This ichneuman fly fhould therefore be encouraged, if his winter habita- tion could be difcovered. 4. The variety of infects, which infett hot-houfes, as the acarus, thrips, aphis, and cocci; and the means commonly ufed to deftroy them by the fmoke of tobacco, or by the powder of {ulphur and to- bacco, or by folutions of lime and fulphur, are defcribed in Speechly’s ‘books on the Vine and Pine; but require fome caution in their ap-= plication. A friend of mine, by fubjecting a wall-tree to the fmoke of fulphur by hanging a matt before it during the fumigation, killed both the infects and the tree. 5. Other kinds of infeés are produced beneath the foil, or occa- fionally retire into terreftrial habitations. Of thefe are the various families of fnails; with and without fhells, and other infeéts with fheaths over their wings, with which they are furnifhed to prevent any injury from the friction of the fides of the holes they make or defcend into. It has been lately fuppofed, that the great deftruétion of the crops of rs bees find Ya {nal *» Which 1 the fijk Out fin > ON each Duttertly, Ut into 4 Sauze, a S$. This ar habite- 1 acarus, o deftroy ir and to- peechlys their @p- he {moke op, killed or occas feéts wit? 0 preve , make . he or, o Sect. XIV. 3. 5. OF PLANTS. 361 of turnips, which occafionally occurs, 1s owing to the depredation of a white flug, or {nail, which comes out of the foil before fun-rife in dewy mornings; and that by rolling the young turnips with a heavy roller before fun-rife for a few mornings, thefe pernicious infects may be deftroyed, and add manure to the rifing plants they have injured. The white flugs in gardens are very deftru€tive to many flower= fiems, as they rife out of the ground, as to diétamnus fraxinella, apocynum androfemifolium, to phafeolus, kidney-bean, to cinara, artichoke, and many other plants. 1 well remember in one feafon favourable to their produétion in a garden by the fide of the Derwent obferving, that many artichoke {tems above a foot high were eaten by them near the moift earth till they fell down, like trees felled by the ax. It has lately been afferted, that watering the ground with tar-water will deftroy them ; which may be made by adding a few pounds of tar to a hogfhead of water, and well ftirring it, without perceptible injury to the tar. A circle of lime round the flower- ftems, or of falt, or even of bran in dry weather, are means of pre- venting the approach of flugss and fome gardeners lay a board lightly on the ground between the alleys, under which the flugs hide them- felves when the fun rifes, and are hence eafily caught and deftroyed. The leaves of the young turnip are alfo believed to be deftroyed by a fly; which, ‘fit be of the fcarabzeus, or beetle kind, which arifes out of the earth, may likewife be deftroyed by rolling. The Chi- nefe are faid by fir G. Staunton to fteep all their feeds in liquid ma- nure until they fwell, and their germination begins to appear 5 which they believe not only haftens the crowth of the plants, but alfo de- fends them againft infects beneath the foil; and that ta this fir George that the Chinefe turnips efcape the fly fo obferves it. may be owing, Embafly to China, Svo edit. injurious to them in this country. Vol. II. p. 310. An obfervation of Mr. Guillet in the Bath Agri- confirm this idea. He afferts, that culture, Vol. II. Art. 44, feems to ing rain, or has rain immediately after- ye wards, when turnip {eed is fown dur wards, that the firft leaves-are {o vigorous that the fly never attacks them ; or that the rain itfelf is fo inconvenient to the fly, as to pre- vent its appearance. It is alfo aflerted by Mr. Exeter in the Tran- factions of the London Society for Arts, Vol. XVI. P- 191, that the fowing turnips in drills deeper than by broad caft, accelerates the growth of the plant by giving it more moifture; whence it fooner puts forth its rough leaves, and efcapes the depredations of the fly. He {peaks highly of the ufe of the drill, advifes the rows to be pas foot diftant, ufes three quarters of a pound of feed to an acre, and fows them from one inch and a half to two inches deep. 6. The great numbers and varieties of animated beings, which live under the foil, and fleep in winter, defcending beneath the reach of froft, is truly aftonifhing. I once obferved fuch immenfe num- bers of {mall wing-fheathed infects, which I believed to be the {ca- rabzeus folftitialis, or fern-chaffer, as they were not one fixth part of the fize of a May-chaffer, {carabzeus melolontha, though much of the fame form and colour; which arofe out of the ground near the cold - bath at Lichfield, that I guefled, that one or two emerged from every fquare inch of many acres of land. The grubs or maggots, from which thefe wing-fheathed flies arofe, I fufpeé&t in fome feafons and fituations favourable to their produ@tion to be very deftru@tive to the wheat in {pring, or the early part of {ummer, devouring the ftem near the furface of the ground at the joint, which is {weet, till it falls down or withers, by which many crops were nearly deftroyed this year, 1797, and that, I was inform- ed, on fome lands, which had been previoufly well limed, Mr. Tulkin his hufbandry, {peaking of wheat, advifes not to fow it deeper than an inch, fince the thread or caudex, which conneéts the lower or feminal root with the upper or corenal root, he believes to be then not fo readily found by worms in the winter, as one three inches long might be, both on account of the greater length of the 9 latter, Sect. XIV. 3. 6. OF PLANTS. 363 latter, and becaufe infects do not rife fo near the furface in the win- ter months. Where this peftilential grub occurs, perhaps rolling the land early in the mornings in the fpring might cru(h them. And when the fly ‘s feen to come out in fuch abundance in the fummer evenings on erafs Jand or fallows, it is probable, that rolling the ground in the evening might prevent the return into the earth both of thefe and of the May-chaffers to depofit their eggs, and thus prevent their future progeny; or during their erub ftate, when they exift at the roots of wheat above or juft beneath the furface of the foil, perhaps flaked lime might be {fprinkled over the crop in powder, or fea-falt in pow- der, which might be wafhed down the {tems of the’corn in a wet dav, and deflroy the infet without injuring the vegetable ; or laftly, by tar-water ; all which might be firft tried on a fmall part of a field; for as lime is not all of equal purity, it is not all of the fame ftrength — or caufticity. Another infec is faid to injure wheat when in flower, and is fup- pofed to be the thrips phyfapus of Linnevs, as mentioned in the tranfations of the Linnean Society, Vol. III. But as it only attacks the late flowering ftems, it may pollibly be prevented by fowing the wheat early, if it fhould ever become a ferious evil. Some time ago an infec called a corn-butterfly committed great ravages in France while in its vermicular ftate, fo as to ruin two hun- dred parifhes. A cure for it was at length difcovered, which con- fitted in drying the wheat in an oven before fowing it, and thus ex- pofing it to fuch a degree of heat as would deftroy the eggs of the infe&t without injuring the feed; or perhaps which hatched them without fufficient moifture to foften the grain for their fupport. See Encycl. Britan. Agricult. Between Chefterfield and Plaifly in Derbyfhire I well remember above forty years ago to have feen for two or three miles together every leaf of the hedges devoured by the May-chaffers, {carabaeus 3A2 melolontha, 264 DISEASES Sect. XIV. 3. 6, melolontha, which hung on each other, where the foliage was de- {troyed, like bees ina fwarm. And to have found in the fame year, as it lay dead in a field near Chefterfield, a true locuft, like a very = large grafs-hopper with very long and broad wings; which I pre- ferved in fpirits, and was informed, that many of them were found in other parts of England about the fame time. All thefe noxious animals might be deftroyed or diminithed by encouraging the breed of {mall hedge-birds, and perhaps of larks, and of rooks, by not taking their nefts. I have obferved, that houte {par- rows deftroy the May-chafter, eating out the central part of it; and am told that turkeys and rooks do the fame; which I thence con- clude might be as grateful food, if properly cooked, as the locufts or termites of the eaft. And probably the large grub, or larva of it, which the rooks pick up in following the plow, 1s as delicious as the grub called groogroo, and a large caterpillar, which feeds on the palm; both of which are roafted and eaten in the Weft Indies. The various fpecies of linnets carry {mall caterpillars to their gaping young; and hedgehogs are faid to devour fnails, and on that account to be profit- ably kept in gardens. When a fevere froft occurs, before the ground is covered with fnow, thofe infects, which do not penetrate deeply into the earth dur- ing their hybernation, as the fhell-lefs {nails or flugs, are liable to be deftroyed, and probably many of the larvee of the fern-chaffer and May-chaffer, as is feen by their diminifhed numbers in the enfuing feafon. In China the aurelia of the filk-worm, after the filk is wound off, and the white earth-grub, and the larva of the {phinx moth, farnifh articles at the table, and are faid to be delicious. Embafly to China.. Neverthelefs all the caterpillar tribes may not be equally innocuous ; as in this climate the hairy caterpillars, if laid between the fingers, where the {kin is tender, I have obferved to produce an itching, and leave fome of their pointed briftles in the fkin. And M. Vaillant, in Ce Con: utts of a of it, s as the e palm; various 1g and rofit. C pl ed with rth dur- able to iffer and en {ulng und of fyrnilh 9 Chine oc uous fnge™ ing) af V ajllasts ip kernels, as well as to the foliage of plants, by any ¢ Sacr. XIV. 3. 7- OF PLANTS... 365 in his travels in Africa from the Cape, afferts, that both a black anda white hairy caterpillar becomes fo poifonous, when it feeds on a large euphorhbia, that the natives put them in bags, bruife them, and after a few days poifon their arrows with them. Bot that they are lefs peifonons if they feed on le(s acrid vegetables. There mufi be great difficulty in deftroying the larve, or grubs, or caterpillars, of many infects, which are injurious to the fruits and hemical mix- as in this ftate, I fuppofe, fome of them are uncommonly ¢ life. Mr. Gouch affirms, that he kept the cur- hardy or tenacious Of culio nucum, or worm found in nuts, in brandy for feventeen hours, and I remember putting a worm, which came ed it an afcaris, though it was above an inch long, and nearly as thick asa thin crow-quill, into a faturated folu- tion of fugar of lead in water 3 which lived many hours without apparent injury. See Nicholfon’s Journal, No. 21, for November 1798. | 7. A great number of bees, as well as of moths, and butterflies, muft be very injurious to flowers, and confequently to the produc- | of them plunder the netaries of their honey, thers and ftigmas of their adapted nourifh- This would be more deftruc- but that many of them poflefs tures ; which recovered ; from a perfon, who call tion of fruits, as al and thence deprive the an ent, as mentioned in Sect. VI. 6. 3. tive to the feminal products of plants, of defending their refervoirs of honey, and yet of expofing it. uence of the air, fome of them by long winding canals, as ‘n the bottom of the tubes of the honey-fuckles, trefoils, and lark- fpurs, lonicera, trifolium, delphinium ; others by covering it with a hood, as 10 monk {hood, aconitum ; others bya gluten, as in catchfly, filene, and in fun-dew, drofera; others by contracting fome part of deftroying the hoftile infect, as in dionoea means to the infl their leaves or flowers, and mufcipula, and in apocynum androfemifolium ; and finally, many other flowers have probably acquired the habit of fecreting more ho- ney 366 DISEASES Secr. XIV. 3 a 7: ney than is neceffary for their own confumption, as cacalia fuaveolens, alpine colts-foot, and polygonum fagopyrum, buck-wheat. From all thefe contrivances the flowers of plants probably receive lefg in- jury fromthe depredations of bees, moths, and butterflies, in this country, and from the humming bird in tropical climates, than they otherwife would be {ubjec to. But befides the lofs of much of their honey an abundance of bees mutt likewife injure the feminal products of vevctables by plunder ing the ftamina of flowers of their anther-dutt for bee-bread, as Mr. Hunter believes; and alfo of the wax. which covers the authers for their defence againft rain. Nevertheleis, as mankind convert to their own purpofes the honey thus colle@ed by bees, and the wax, with which they fabricate their combs; and as the feeds of plants and their fruits are neverthelefs in fufficient abundance; the depredations of bees are not counteracted like thofe of other inieéts, but on the con- trary encouraged. The following obfervations, which I made this fummer, may be of fervice to thofe who keep bees, and which | fhall therefore here relate. The bees of one fociety frequently attack thote of another fociety, plunder them of their honey, and deftroy moft of them, perhaps all of them, in battle; in this re{pect refembling the focieties of man- kind! This war for plunder occurs more frequently than is com- monly fufpeéted. Laft year I had one hive of bees totally deftroyed, and the year before another, which I did not take means to prevent, though I faw the conteft, and the number deftroyed in the latter ; but not early enough in the commencement of hoftilities. Laft week, June 16, I happened to fee a great number of bees on the wing near the mouth of my only hive, and fuppofed that they were about to fwarm. In an hour or two, on again attending to them I diftinétly faw it was a violent battle; and at night obferved about a hundred dead bees on the ground, and on the bench befcre the hive. I then dire€ted a board: about am inch thick to be laid on the ‘0 their Ky With ions of of man- i$ coms ftroved, prevent, . Jatters bees on sat they nding spierved b before Jaid op the Secr .X1V. 4. 1. OF PLANTS. 367 the bee-bench, and fet the hive on this board with its mouth ex- actly on the edge of this board, the mouth of the hive was alfo con- traéted to about an inch in length, anda femicircular hollow was made in the board immediately under the mouth of the hive. By this means the affailing bees were obliged to alight on the bee-bench, and then to climb perpendicularly up the edge of the board, on which” the hive was now placed; and thus appeared to a& with great dif- advantage; and a much lefs number of bees appeared to be {lain in this day’s battle; whence it would be advantageous always to place bee-hives in this manner. Neverthelefs, as the war did not ceafe, I direted early on the next morning to remove the bee-hive to a diftant part of the garden, and to a more eafterly afpeét, and found to my great fatisfaction, that the hofts of the enemy did not follow ; and that in a few hours the un- aflailed bees refumed their work, as appeared by their going into the hive with loaded thighs; and though a few of them were feen on the following two nights refting on their old habitation, thefe were carried early on the eniuing morning in their torpid ftate to their new fituation, and the war ended without extermination of either fo- e1ety. IV. DESTRUCTION BY VERMIN. 1. The deftru€tion of grain, after it is fown, by the field-mice, which mine their way very quickly under newly ploughed lands near the furface, is faid by Mr. Wagftaff, in the papers of the Bath So- ciety, Vol. VI. to be effefted in fome feafons to a very great extent. He adds, that the tuflocks of wheat, feen to arife in many fields, are owing to the ‘granaries of thefe diminutive animals; which he has often found to contain nearly a hatful of corn, which grows into a tuft, if the owner becomes accidentally deftroyed. Mr. Wagftaff alfo afferts, that they feed much on the young plants, as 368 DISEAS5S Ed Sect. XIV. 4,2, as they arife from the feed, and multiply at that time very faft. He deteéts their habitations by fmall mounds of earth being thrown up on or near the apertures of their dwellings, or of the paflages, which lead to their nefts or granaries; and by following the courfe of thefe paflages he found and deftroyed the parents and the progeny. Mr.Wagftaff recommends the taking up and dividing the tuffocks of wheat, thus fown in the autumn by the field-mice, and tranf- planting them in the {pring ; and alfo to thin other parts of a young crop, as they appear too thickly fown, which he efteems an advanta- geous practice. Acorns when fown, and garden beans, and peas, are liable to be dug up or devoured by thefe voracious little animals, which may be deftroyed by traps baited with cheefe; or beft of all by the encou- ragement of the breed of owls, fo ative in the purfuit of nocturnal vermin, and thence {o ufeful to the gardener and farmer, who ftill permit their fervants and children to deftroy both their eggs and cal- low young. 2. This country was infefted with two kinds of rats, the houfe-rat and the water-rat; but it is believed, that within the laft half cen- tury the water-rat has deftroyed the houfe-rat. The water rats pof- fefs fome kinds of ingenuity fimilar to the beaver in the conftruction of their houfes near the brinks of rivers and pools; which have two apertures, one above ground amoneft the grafs, and the other beneath the furface of the water; and unlefs they can hide their upper open- ing amid weeds or grafs, they forfake the fituation. Thus if a rim, three or four feet in breadth, round a fith-pond be kept fo low as to rife only two, or three, or four inches above the level of the water; and if this be kept clean from high grafs, or weeds, the rats will de- fert the pond. J have feen a young water-rat devour a large leaf of water-plantain, alifma plantago, and therefore fuppofe that they occafionally prey on the foliage, as well as on the feeds and fruits of vegetables, and on young animals, as ducklings and rabbits. As thele animals, like the dog, 0 Wh Wp »\ hich Oj thefe UCKS Cutloct, ] ble to be D may be 1€ ECOL nocturnal r rats pol nftruction have two er beneall nel|< ub pper Op Secr. XIV. 4.2 OF PLANTS. 369 dog, are of a-lafcivious nature, and as fome materials have a ftrong fcent, refembling perhaps that of their venereal orgafm, they are liable to be attracted by fuch {mells, as dogs are, on the fame account, I fuppofe, inclined to roll themfelves on putrid carrion ; and male cats to eat marum, valerian, and cat-mint. On this account it is ufual for rat-catchers to avail themfelves of this propenfity, and to mix effential oil of rhodium, or mufk, with the poifonous powders of ftrychnos nux vomica, or of delphinium ftavifagria, or perhaps of arfenic. The great injury to vegetation effected by thefe rats confifts in their making innumerable burrows beneath the foil, and feeding on the roots of a great variety of vegetables. Some new planted apple- trees | remember to have feen taken out of the ground with nearly the whole of their fmaller roots eaten, and the larger ones peeled by ‘thefe reptiles. They will alfo deftroy young ducks, young rabbits, and young chickens; and devour with great avidity every kind of food, with which poultry and {wine are ufually fed; and are hence in many ways injurious in fituations near water. The fubfequent receipts for poifoning this mifchievous vermin are printed in the papers of the Bath Agricultural Society, and faid to have been attended with great fuccefs. Firft, to a quart of oatmeal add fix drops of oil of rhodium, one grain of mufk, and two or three of the nuts of nux vomica finely powdered ; make it into pellets, and put them into the rat-holes. ‘This was at firft greedily.eaten, and did ereat execution, but the wife animals after a time ceafed to eat it. The fecond confifted of three parts of oatmeal, and one of ftavifa- gria, ftave’s-acre, mixed well into a pafte with honey. Pieces of this pafte were laid in their holes, and again did great execution. A third method of deftroying them there recommended is by laying a large box down on its front fide with the lid fupported open by a ftring over a pully ; and by trailing toafted cheefe, and a red herring, from their holes to this box ; and placing oatmeal and other food in this 38 box, 37° | DISEASES Sect. XIV. gig. box, which they are for a few nights permitted to eat unmolefted ; and finally to watch them by moonlight, the infide of the box being painted white; and, when many of them are feen, to let down the lid; by which contrivance fixty of them were taken at once. 3. Moles, as well as rats, have occafionally increafed fo greatly in numbers as to much injure the agricultor; they perforate the earth near its furface, and are faid never to drink, but to feed on the roots of vegetable, as well as on fubterraneous infects; and though they are believed never to drink, yet they have been feen occafionally to {wim over lakes of water to the iflands which they furround, of which an ocular proof is related in the tranfactions of the Linnean Society, Vol. III. 1797. Some have recommended to injeé& the fmoke of burning fulphur, or of tobacco, into their fubterraneous manfions; but asthe earth frequently falls in behind them, as they pafs, or is accumulated behind them by their hindermoft feet, as they perforate the foil with their foremoft fect or hands, this method of attack can feldom fucceed, unlefs the neft of the animal be near the fumigated aperture. Others have advifed to pour water into their holes, which is equally inefficacious in general, though it may have effet in particular fituations. Some alfo have baited traps with worms, and others have advifed to put poifon into their holes; but they are not to be attracted together like rats from their not appear- ing above ground. The following method was related to me by Francis Paget of El- fton near Newark, a very popular and fuccefsful mole-catcher, whom I once attended in his occupation to witnefs his operations. ‘The moles have cities under ground, which confift of houfes, or netts, where they breed and nurfe their young ; communicating with thefe are wider and more frequented ftreets, made by the perpetual jour- neys of the male ‘and female parents ; as well as many other lefs fre- quented allies or bye roads, with many diverging branches, which they daily extend to collect food for themfelves or their progeny. This - 4 defted, 5 being Wy ) Catly in he earth ON the thowoh afionally und, Af oe alnean ‘oto their may have raps with oles; but Sect. XIV. 4: 3 OF PLANTS.. | 371 This animal is more active ‘n the vernal months, during the time of the courtfhip of the males ; and many more burrows are at this time made in the earth for their meeting with each other. And though thefe animals are commonly efteemed to be blind, yet they appear to have fome perception of light even in their fubterrancous habitations; becaufe they begin their work as foon as it is light, and confequently before the warmth of the fun,can be fuppofed to affect ‘them. Hence his method of deftroying them confifted firft in at- tending their fituation early before fun-rife; and at that time he fre- quently could fee the earth move over them, or the grafs upon it: and by a {mall light fpade he frequently cut off their retreat, by ftriking it ito the ground behind them, and then dug them up. He added, that by laying the ear ona newly raifed mole-hill, the found of the feratching mole might fometimes be heard at a dif- tance, and direct where to find it; as the folid earth conveys {mall vibrations better, or to a greater diftance, than the light air. And that a terrier dog, after having been accuftomed to the bufinefs, was frequently of fervice in detecting by his nofe the place of the mole beneath the foil, and by endeavouring to {cratch the earth over it. The mole he faid generally fuckles four or five, and fometimes fix, young ones; which are placed confiderably deeper in the ground than their common runs 5 and as thefe nefts are funk much deeper into the ground than their ftreets or bye-roads, and the mole-hills confequently larger, the earth on the fummit of thofe mole-hills 18 generally of a different colour, and is raifed higher than that of the other ones. ‘Thefe nefts are to be dug up, having) firft intercepted the canal between them and the mole-hills in their vicinity, to cut off the retreat of the inhabitants. The next important circumftance is to difcover, which are the fre- quented ftreets, and which the bye-roads, for the purpofe of fetting fubterraneous traps. This is effected by making a mark on every new mole-hill by a light preffure of your foot; and on the next morning 2B2 3B2 by 352 DISEASES, &c, Sect. X1V. 4, ea by obferving whether a mole has again paffed that way, and obliterat- ed the foot mark ; and this is to be done two or three fucceflive mornings. ‘I’hefe foot-marks fhould not be deeply impreffed, left it fhould alarm the animal on his return, and he fhould form a new branch of road, rather than open the obftruéted one. : The traps are then to be fet-in the frequented ftreets, fo as nicely to fit the divided canal. They confift of a hollow femicylinder of wood with grooved rings at each end of it, in which are placed two noofes of horfehair, one at each end, faitened loofely by a peg in the center, and ftretched above ground by a bent ftick. When the mole tras pafled half way through one of the noofes, and removes the cen- tral peg in his progrefhion, the bent ftick rifes by its elafticity, and itrangulates the animal. He added, that where the foil was too moift or tenacious, that the moles in pafling the old runs fometimes puthed a little of it before them, and thus loofened the central peg before they were in the noofe ; in which cafe he fixed the peg a little fafter in the trap. By thefe means Francis Paget cleared many of the neighbouring parithes of this kind of vermin in a few days, or a week or two, and laid them under an annual tax for the defence of their territories from thefe invaders.. And added, that fome other mole-catchers had carried moles into thofe farms, whofe occupiers refufed ‘to pay them an annual {tipend, a pra@iice which he {corned to ufe. I have de-. tailed this method to prevent this impofition, and to enable every farmer to be his own mole-catcher, or to teach the art to his fer- Vants. PHY TOLOGIA. “4, ; litera Ccefiyg ed, leq 1a hey S Nicely Inder of ed two ‘2 In the he mole the cen. "ty, and Was too Metimes ntral peg 2g a little abouring or two, erritories hers hed yay them have de ble ever 5 his PLATE IX PLA &. i Exhibits the aphis, puceron, or vine-fretter, and the infects which deftroy it. Fig. 1. reprefents the aphis of the rofe-tree without wings very much magnified, copied from M. Bonnet, with its antennz before, and its two horns behind, which are not half the length of the antennz, are immoveable, and faid by Bonnet to be hollow canals from. which the {weet juice called honey-dew is evacuated ; laftly, with the trunk under its head in the pofitiort in which it penetrates the leaves. In fome the horns behind are want- ing, and little knobs fupply their place, which Reaumur thinks fupply the fame fweet juice. That fome pofleffing wings, and others not, does not diftinguifh the fexes is agreed by all obfervers. Fig. 2. reprefents a magnified aphis of a pear-tree, from which a young one is ful- pended for fome time after it is otherwife born. Fig. 3. reprefents the aphidivorous larva, with an aphis in its mouth, and the chryfalis of the fame infeét, before it is transformed into the fly at fig. 4. All thefe were drawn from nature, and exactly refemble fimilar reprefentations in the work of Bonnet. Fig. 5. reprefents an infe&t from Bonnet, which he terms an aphis lion, as it fo greedily devours the aphifes. ‘This infect is transformed into the fly at fig. 6. Fig. 7. reprefents a {potted hemifpheric fcarabeus, called by fome a lady-bird, into: which the infect at fig. 8. is transformed, which is alfo faid to be a great aphis-eater. Oeuvres de C. Bonnet, T. 1. Sect. XIV. Plate IX. 7: 2 Lig. 1 e YY it, mal nl CU; CODied pid re not half Nas trom - . . F Wrdae ‘+ ™ ULC) IS - : re wurant Al? Want: fame tureer aMAhaL ’ IWC 2 7 } . ) 4 Sheufalic nf chryiails 0: J ~ | nN n L) Vis =~ 2800, by dJolnseor SPauls Crch Yard. FHY FOLOGHA. PART THE THIRD. AGRICULTURE AND HORTICULTURES S$ BoCer. -a¥ THE PRODUCTION OF FRUITS. Buds immediately from feeds never produce feeds. Neither in annuals nor trees. As in wheat, tulip, apple-tree. Buds from the broad caudex of a tulip, and the long caudex of trees, are of different maturity. Leaf-buds changed into flower-buds at Midfummer, or flower-buds into leaf-buds by art. 1. To produce fruit-bearing trees, 1. Seedling-trees. Their puberty... Ingraft walnut and mulberry trees. If unpruned young trees or efpalliers bear fruit fooner than other ftandards? Buds on bended branches earlier and larger. An apple four on one fide. How to pro- duce fine feedling-trees or flowers. Leaves of feedling-trees. 2. Root -fuckers from apples, vines, briers, figs, are like ingrafted fcions. 3. Scions from branches planted in the earth. A quick-bhedge thus raifed. Chinefe method. Vines bow raifed by Mr. Michel. 4. An ingrafted /cion Sometimes affects the flock. Acquires vigour from a vigorous frock. On trees of the fame genus. On trees of different genus. Subjelt to hereditary difeafes, not to old age, like the parent tree, Sum- mits die frft. Talicotius’s ingrafted nofes. Sour apple on one fide. _ Apply rind to rind in grafting. Flower-bud not proper for inoculation. Sweeter apples have whiter bloffoms. Colour of black cherry and purple grape known by their red leaves in autumn. Lines from Virgil’s Georgics. 11. To inereafe the number of fruit- buds. Leaf-buds are furnifbed with new caudexes down the trunk. Flower buds not fo. Retard the produétion of new caudexes. Viviparous and oviparous progeny. Produétion of new caudexes, or bark filaments, are compound in in- grafted trees, and fuddenly generated. 1, Bend down the viviparous br anchesy. ana v4 | PRODUCTION Seor. XV. and they become oviparous, and receive more nutriment. _ ceflive, though neceflary, ufe of the pruning knife. I have always _ by Mr, Lawrence, who took up trees which were too vigorous ; Sect. XV. 2. 4 OF FRUITS. 403 forth leaves, and the apples remained on and ripened; and both the branches bore fo plentifully, that one broke with its load, and it: was neceflary to prop the other. The theory of the fuccefs of thefe curious experiments confirms that delivered above concerning the fcars made by the junétion of ingrafted {cions with the ftocks; and it is prebable, that three or four circular incifions through the bark on viviparous pear or apple trees, or a fpiral incifion, as defcribed in Sect. 1X. 2.8. might anfwer the purpofe without detracting and replacing the bark; as {cars or callous circles would be thus produced, which might render it more difficult for the new caudexes of the embryon leaf-buds to be gene- rated, or their parts united, and confequently increafe the number of flower-buds. Mr. Fitzgerald further obferves, that he changed cylinders of the bark with equal fuccefs of neCtarine and peach trees; and that the branches thus operated upon were retarded in their general growth ; which coincides with the idea of repeatedly grafting one {cion above another on the apple-trees defigned for dwarfs to be fet in garden pots, as defcribed in No. 2. 2. of this Section. 4. The tranfplanting a viviparous fruit-tree, or deflroying fome of its roots before Midfummer, or the confining its roots in a garden pot, or on a floor of bricks beneath the foil, will induce it to become oviparous. Mr. Knight, in his treatife on the Culture of the Apple and Pear, p. 93, has the following paflage. ‘* In the garden culture of the apple, where the trees are retained as dwarfs or efpaliers, the more vigoroufly growing kinds are often rendered unproductive by the ex- fucceeded in making trees of this kind fruitful by digging them up, and replacing them with fome frefh mould in the fame fituation. The too great luxuriance of growth is checked, and a difpofition to bear is in confequence brought on.”? The fame obfervation was made gF2 =$har 404 PRODUCTION Sect. XV. 204. that is, which produced viviparous buds inftead: of oviparous- ones, and replanted them to render them fruitful, Art of Gardening. Lond, 1723. In tranfplanting trees for any purpofe it may be obferved, that they fhould not be replanted deep in the foil, fince the moft nutri- tive or falubrious parts of the earth are thofe within the reach of the. fun’s warmth, of the defcending moifture, and of the oxygen of the — atmofphere. And as the root-fibres of trees, like thofe of feeds, al- “ways grow towards the moifteft part of the foil, as the young fhoots and leaves grow towards the pureft air and brighteft light; it fol lows, that the root-fibres feldom rife higher in the ground than they were originally fet, and feldom elongate themfelves even perfeatly horizontally ; fo that when a fruit-tree is planted too deep in the earth, it feldom grows with healthy vigour, either in refpect to its Jeaf-buds or its flower-buds. ae This curious effeét cannot be produced by generally debilitating the tree from its want of due nourifhment 3; becaufe it is faid to fuc= ceed beft in very good foil, or by the addition of new garden mould, as before directed ; but by rendering more. difficult the production of radicles from the caudexes of the embryon leaf-buds ; which de- {cend to the fineft ramifications of the old roots, and elongate them- {elves beyond the extremities of their ultimate fibrils; a great num- ber of which roots being torn off by tran{plantation, or comprefled in a garden pot, the produ€tion or progrefs of many of the new radi- cles muft be impeded or prevented; and the numerous caudexes of new. leaf-buds be in confequence formed. with greater difficulty, whence an increafed tendency to generate flower-buds, For the fame reafon if beans, vicia faba, which are but a. few inches high, be tranfplanted ; they do not become fo tall, but they flower and ripen their feeds fooner ; becaufe they can not fo eafily generate new leaf-buds. The fame occurs in frequently tran{fplant- ing brocoli, braflica; the plant does not grow fo tall, but has earlier flowers, Secr. XV. 2. 4. OF FR UES: O's flowers, 9nd in greater aA bEE: ; and it is hence Better to pluck them up, than to dig ehh up, for the purpofe of replanting them; as by that means more of the root-fibres are torn off, and the plants be- come almoft totally oviparous. It is well known, that the veffels of animal bodies are e lefs liable to bleed, when they are torn.afunder, than when they are cut with a fharp inftrument ; as their diameters are contracted, or their internal furfaces brought into contaé& with each other, in the act of extend- ing them, till they break. Thus if the navel-ftrings of new born ani- mals are cut inftead of torn, they are liable to bleed to death; and there is a remarkable cafe of a miller’s fervant, who had his arm and: fhoulder bone, or fcapula, torn off in a. windmill without much lofs: of blood. This is mentioned to fhew, that it may alfo be better to tear’ up roots, which are tranfplanted for this purpofe, than to dig them up; as they may thence effufe lefs vegetable blood, and’ in “confe- quence be lefs weakened by the operation. ‘Tn tranfplanting ftrawberries many of the roots being torn off, fewer leaf-buds, and confequent wires, are produced from the difficulty, which their embryon caudexes find in producing new radicles over the old ones to fupply nutriment to the wires, till they bend down. and protrude roots into the ground at their other extremities, whence a greater number of flower-buds are generated’; on this account the roots of ftrawberries fhould generally be tran{planted, or new ones. from the wires fhould be cultivated, every third or fourth year, to pre vent the too luxuriant growth of ‘Heir wires; or a fimilar difficulty of producing wires or leaf-buds may be effected’ by crowding the roots of ftrawberries together, as fome gardeners recommend; but: I fuppofe by thefe means the fruit may become {maller from {fearcity. of nutriment, though more numerous. A floor: of bricks, or of ftone, extended’ about two: feet decp be- neath the roots of wall trees, has been practifed in fome gardens-ftom an. idea, that the roots fhot themfelyes too deep into fome unwhole- fome 406 PRODUCTION _ Secr.XV.av5 fome ftratum of earth ; and it has been obferved, that the trees be- came better fruit-bearers. In fome fituations it is pofhble, this might be the caufe of the new prolific property of the trees ; but I fufpe& it has occurred generally from the difficulty oppofed to the number and elongation of the root-fibres, and confequently to the generation of the new caudexes of the embryon leaf-buds; whence a greater produétion of flower-buds enfued. In fimilar manner it is,afferted by one of the Linnean {chool in the Ameoenitates Academicz, that fome bulbous rooted plants, which {eldom produce feeds in Sweden, will produce prolific feeds, if their roots be confined in a garden pot, till they crowd each other; as thofe of the lily of the valley, convallaria. And that the orchis will bear prolific feeds, if the new root early in the feafon be fevered from the old one, which has put up the flower-ftem. . This muft occur in the former cafe from the difficulty, which the plants find to ge- nerate new offsets at their roots, which are their viviparous progeny; and in the latter cafe from the new offset being deftroyed ; whence in both fituations more nutriment is expended on the flower. On the fame account it is probable, that confining the roots of cu- cumbers and melons in {mall garden pots would fon the too lux- uriant growth of their leat bade and render them fooner oviparous, if care was taken to fupply them with water more frequently, and with fufficient nutriment by mixing with the water fome of the car- ‘bonic black fluid, which has drained from a manure heap. 5. If the central viviparous branches of a plant be cut away or fbort- ened, the lateral ones will fooner or more completely become oviparous, 1. There are many very fmall buds on the lower parts of large branches, which do not feem to grow to maturity, and in confequence produce neither new leaf-buds nor new flower-buds. There are other lateral fhoots on many trees, which only puth out a few inches, and are called {purs, and which bear fruit the fucceeding fummer at their extremities. In many other plants the lateral branches are Oviparousy, except , f i ~ new Jeaf-buds along the trunk ; which ts already occupied by thofe Sect. KV. 2. 5. OF FRUITS. 407 except at the extremity, which is terminated with a viviparous bud; while the central branches continue long to getrerate only a vivipar- ous progeny, as in vines and melons. : The firft of thefe, or the unprolific exiftence of the buds at the bottom of large branches, may be owing in part to their feebler ef- forts of pullulation from the want of fufficient funfhine and venti- Jation ; and alfo in part, like the fpurs, and other lateral branches, to the difficulty they encounter in producing the embryon caudexes of ; of the more vigorous vegetation of the central branches, which pof- fefs a greater fhare of funfhine and ventilation. But the principal caufe, which renders the fpurs and lateral branches oviparous, refults from the refiftance the embryon caudexes of leaf buds experience by the curvature of the lateral branch, where it joins” - the trunk, and the confequent coarctation of its veffels, addéd to the’ difficulty every lateral bud has to encounter from its own curvature at its exit from the parent twig; on which laft account the central bud at the extremity of an oviparous branch is generally viviparous, becaufe it has not any curvature at its exit. All this correfponds with the fat above deferibed, that when the viviparous arms of wall-trees: are bent down tothe horizon, they become oviparous. See No. 2. I of this Section. | 2. What then:happens:in all thefe fituations when the central parts are cut away or fhortened? Firft the dwarf buds at the bottom of thefe large viviparous branches, which are in part cut away, will find: more room to-pufh down the embryon caudexes of new leaf=buds ; and: will produce a viviparous progeny’; and thofe at the bottom of oviparous branches, which are fhortened by cutting off their vivipars ous extremities, will alfo:now: pullulate, and produce: flower-buds for the fucceeding year, owing to the derivation of fome of that nourifh- ment to them, which would otherwife have been expended on the {ummit-bud,. Secondly, the fpurs will generate an oviparous pro- geny, 408 PRODUCTION SEcT. XV, 2.56, geny, but will acquire more nutriment, becaufe all the veffels of plants inofculate, as mentioned in Seé&. IX. 2. 10. and will thence produce larget fruit, and more certainly ripen it. Thirdly, the other Jateral branches will receive more nourifhment, and become more vertical, and will thence find lefs oppofition to the production of the’ caudexes, both of their flower-buds and leaf-buds ; eithet of which may become ftronger or more numerous according to the greater or lefs inclination of the branches to the horizon; and both of them may be more vigorous properly {peaking ;.that is, they may become Jarger leaf-buds, or larger flower-buds, than others of the fame tree, 3. Thus in the management of MELoNs, which would grow into branches much too extenfive for the artificial glafs-frames of our climate, and would not have time to ripen their later fruit in our fhort fummers ; it is neceflary firft to check the vigour, properly fo {peak- ing, of the whole plant. This is done by wafhing the feed from the ripe fruit, which fhould naturally contribute to nourith it; and by keeping the feed four or five years, that the mucilaginous. nutriment depofited in the cotyledons may alfo be in ome degree impaired ; it is alfo probable, that confining the roots of melons and cucumbers in garden-pots, if they were well {upplied with nutriment, warmth, and water, might be advantageous for this purpofe. Secondly, as foon as the leaf appears an inch in diameter, experienc- ed gardeners pick out the central bud, which caufes an Oviparous, though a more vigorous, lateral fhoot ; which theréfore fooner bears fruit, and that of a larger kind; as it acquires more nourifhment: from the deftruction of the central one. And as thefe lateral branches are liable to produce other. viviparous fhoots at their extremities, after they have generated lateral flower- buds, it again becomes necefflary to pinch off the viviparous, extre- mities of them, not only to accommodate them to the fize of the gilafs-frame, but alfo to fupply them with: more nutriment, which would otherwife have been expended on the viviparous fummit. The | I cmos | OROERULTS. 35 The central bud, or fummit, of the lateral branches, is generally viviparous, as well as of the central branches ; becaufe the embryon caudexes of its new offspring are oppofed in the production along the bark by only one curvature at the infertion of the branch into the trunk; whereas the lateral buds of the lateral branches have the pro- eref{s of the embryon caudexes of their new buds oppofed by two cur- vatures, one of the bud to the branch, and another from the branch to the trunk. : | There is another reafon, why the lateral buds of many plants pro- duce flowers fooner than the fummit; which is, that the lateral buds ‘of thofe plants, where the pith of the upright central fhoot is not divided, are propagated from the central fhoot, and are therefore one generation older ; and have thus acquired the maturity neceflary for amatorial reprodu€tion. In other plants, where the pith of the ftem is divided at every joint, the fummit bud has been preceded by more generations, and is therefore more mature for the purpofe of produc- ing flowers, than the lateral ones, as in a ftem of wheat ; and pro- bably in the artichoke, and on the fpurs of fome fruit trees, as of pears. 4. It was obferved in Se@. IX. 3.1. that in the ftems of wheat three or four joints are formed above each other previous to that, which bears the ear; and that in many other annual or biennial plants two or three viviparous lateral fhoots occur, as in artichoke, cinara; and falfafi, tragopogon, before the central one flowers. The fame happens to the vine-fhoots; two or three joints witha leaf and a viviparous bud at each are always firft produced ; and as each of thefe have a diyifion of the pith between every joint, as remarked in Se&. 1.8. 1 fuppofe, that thefe joints are feparate plants growing on each other like the joints of the {tem of wheat; and that hence in vine-fhoots three or four fucceflive eenerations of leaf-fhoots muft exift, before the new fhoot can attain fufficient maturity to form a flower; as the amatorial generation of feeds was fhewn to require 3G higher 410 PRODUCTION SECT. XV. 2. 5, higher animation, if it may be fo called, than the lateral generation. of leaf-buds. The fame mode of growth occurs in the young fhoots of oaks, and which is thus curioufly accounted for. The lateral branches of many mature trees, though they bear flower-buds on their fides, are generally terminated with a leaf-bud, as above explained; but it happens in fome of them, and particularly to vines, that after two or three flower-buds are produced on a lateral. branch, that it thall proceed to grow in length, and to produce leaf- buds at every joint above the flower-buds, as well as at the fummit ; which may be thus perhaps fatisfaétorily explained. After the third, and fourth, and fifth joints of a new lateral fhoot have generated flowers, which require few or no more caudexes; room enough is left on the bark of the fhoot for thofe above them to acquire the numer- ous new miniature caudexes of embryon leaf-buds, and where the new caudexes of embryon buds can eafily be produced along the bark, and fufficient nutriment is fupplied ; all vegetables are more liable to pro- pagate themfelves by buds than by feeds. Hence in the management of vines, as well as of MELONS, it is ufeful at two or three joints above the laft bunch of fruit to pinch off the viviparous end of the new branch, not fo much to accommo- date the length of it to the houfe, as to fupply the growing fruit with more nourifhment from the inofculations of the veflels of the cau- dexes of thefe viviparous buds, which are now cut off, with thofe of the oviparous ones, which remain. A curious vegetable fat, which appears in the culture of vrngs in hot-houfes here prefents itfelf to our notice. Whena vigorous fhoot advances without producing fruit-buds at the third or fourth joint, it is frequently permitted to grow in length to above twenty feet; but at every joint the new or fecondary bud is pinched off, either foon after its appearance, or after it has thot out one or two joints. By this management of permitting the central fummit of the thoot to grow till Auguft or September, the eyes, whofe buds have been 9 pinched Sect. XV. 2.5. OF FRUITS. 4ii pinched off, do not put out a freth during that fummer ; but new buds are formed at each eye, which germinate the next fummer, and almoft-all of them produce fruit. = : If however fome of the fhoots in the bofom of thefe leaves are pinched off too foon after their appearance, they are occafionally lia- ble to generate new leaf-buds, which fhoot out afrefh from the fame eye; and it is faid, that thefe eyes, which have thus produced two leaf-buds in fucceflion in one fummer, will not generally produce buds of any kind in the fucceeding fummer ; for as feveral of thefe joints in vigorous vines bear two or three buds from the fame eye at the fame time, fo others bear them in fucceffion. The theory of thefe important facts may not be eafy to invefii- gate ; it is commonly fuppofed, that pinching off the lateral fhoots at every bud of anew vine-branch ftrengthens the next year s expect- ed bud, by not expending {o much nutritive juice and that giving the vines a fortnight’s artificial heat, after the fummer heat lefflens, ripens the wood for the prodution of the next year’s fruit ; but thefe are words, I imagine, without accurate ideas. I {uppofe, when each lateral fhoot of this year’s branch of a vine is pinched off, that its caudexes, which had already formed a part of the bark, coalefce ; and may thus render it more difficult for the caudexes of the fucceeding embryon bud in the fame eye, which is to be expanded next {pring, to be produced along the bark, by having previoufly occupied the Gituation which thofe new caudexes would require ; and that thus the fecondary buds of thefe eyes become flower-buds, which might otherwife have been leaf-buds. : The continued heat a week or two above the ufual time of fum- mer, which is faid to ripen the wood, may contribute to dry and ee s 1 harden it, as well as to forwara the growth of the buds; and thus both to render the protrufion of embrvon roots more difficult, and confequently to produce flower-buds, and thofe of a larger kind. foe | Whether a fimilar method to this practiled on vines could be ap- < i gas 3 G2 plied 412 PRODUCTION _ Sscr.XV.2¢. plied with advantage in the management of other fruit-trees is a cir- cumftance of great importance, and can only be determined by ex- periment. Butas the firft foliage of euonymus is generally deftroyed by infects in this country, and yet a fecond growth of foliage is pro- duced; and as I witneffed laft year, that the whole firft leaves of an apple-tree were deftroyed, as was believed, by lightning, and which yet put forth an entire new fet of leaves in a few weeks; is there not reafon to conclude, that if the leaf-buds were picked out early in the feafon from a {trong fhoot of peach or apricot, either new leaf-buds might be produced in that fummer, or flower-buds in the fucceed- ing one, as happens to the vine-fhoots above defcribed ; and that our wall-trees might be thus rendered more certainly prolific. And laftly, might not the clipping out with fine {ciflars the extremities of young vine-fhoots, which would otherwife be barren ones, convert fome of their tendrils. into bunches by thus fupplying them with additional nutriment, by preventing its expenditure in the elongation of the viviparous branch? ‘This experiment might be the more readily tried, as fome affert,' that the barren buds may be diftinguifhed from the prolific ones by their form before they expand. 6. Arts of producing flower-buds. The following quotation, partly from the Botanic Garden, Vol. I. Canto 4. 1. 465, may amufe the reader, and conclude the fecond part of this Section. If prouder branches with exuberance rude Point their green germs, their barren fhoots protrude ; Lop with fharp fteel the central erowth, or bind A wiry ringlet round the {welling rind ; Bifect with chifel fharp the root below, Or bend to earth the inhofpitable bough. & So, while oppofed, no embryon leaf-bud fhoots. Down the reluctant bark its. fibre-roots ; New Sect. XV. 3. 1. OF FRUTEPFS. 412 New germs fhall {well with amatorial power, And fexual beauties deck the glowing flower ; While the clos’d petals from noéturnal cold With filken veil the virgin figma fold, Shake into viewlefs air the‘morning dews, And wave in light their iridefcent hues; With graceful bend the anther by her fide Shall watch the bluthes of his waking bride, Give to her hand the honey’d cup, or fip | Celeftial nectar from her fweeter lip, Hang in wild raptures o’er the yielding fair, : Love out his hour, and leave his life in air. III. TO PERFECT AND ENLARGE THE FRUIT. It is believed by fome of the Linnean {chool, that flower-buds or leaf-buds may be converted into each other in the early ftate of their exiftence, as mentioned in Sceé&. IX. 2.8. It is indeed probable, that either a flower-bud or leaf-bud may be generated inftead of each other reciprocally, before either of them exifts; but after either of them has obtained a certain degree of maturity, fo as to be diftin- cuifhed by its form being more pointed or more {pherical; I fufpec no addition or detraction of nutriment, or of the facility of the pro- duGtion of its embryon caudexes down the bark and radicles beneath can change its deftination. 1. Shorten the oviparous branches, when the leaves fall off, by prun- ing their viviparous fummits, and cut away the root-fuckers. “Lhe fammits of the lateral branches, as. well as the erect ones, are fur- nifhed generally with viviparous buds; which in many wall-trees fhould be cut off, after the leaves fall in autumn 3 that more nutri- ment may be derived to the fruit-buds, which may occafionally be- come fomewhat enlarged during the milder days of winter; as they are now certainly too far advanced to be changed into leaf-buds; and if 414 PRODUCTION .- Sgcr.XV. 3,9 if this pruning be deferred till late in the winter months, the flower- ubds will not be quite fo forward, as if it be performed earlier. For the fame reafon the root-fuckers alfo. fhould be cut away in the au- tumn, that all the nutriment, which they would otherwife expend, may be derived to the flower-buds, and induce them early to en- large themfelves. 2. Pinch or rub off all ufele{s viviparous buds in the Ipring or fum- ner, as they occur. In thofe trees where the fruit-buds arife on the new leaf-fhoots along with the leaf-buds, and cannot therefore be fooner diftinguifhed or approached, as in figs and vines, the fum- mit leaf-buds fhould be pinched off two joints above the fruit-buds, as foon as they appear, that more nutriment may be conveyed to the fruit-buds. See No. 3. 4. of this Seétion. And in the hardier wall-trees the new leaf-buds, which appear during the {pring and f{ummer months in wrong places, where they cannot be trained properly againft the wall, or where they are too numerous, fhould be rubbed.or pinched off, as they occur; whence more nourifhment will be derived to the ripening fruit, and to thofe new leaf-buds which are to remain to produce future flower-buds, And if the new buds, which are feen in their young ftate in the axilla of the leaves of the new fhoots, were picked out by the point of a knife, or pinched off, where they grow long enough for that pur- pofe, as the fecondary fhoots of vines in grape houfes are pinched ; it might probably induce thofe eyes to produce flowers in the fucceed- ing year, as fpoken of in No. 2. 5. of this Se€tion, as well as con- tribute to enlarge the prefent fruit by the expenditure of lefs nutri- ment on the leaf-buds, an idea well deferving the teft of experi- ment. In the fame manner in the cultivation of melons and cucumbers af= ter the central bud is pinched off, as mentioned above, No. 2. 5. the viviparous extremities of the lateral branches fhould be alfo deftroy- ed, as foon as a fufficient number of female flowers are impregnated ; : that iow 34. OF FRUITS! 415 that a greater fhare of nutriment may be derived to them, inftead of crowding the frame with new branches, whofe fruit-buds would be too late to ripen in our {hort fummers, 3. Thin all thofe fruits, which are too numerous; pluck off apricots, peaches, goofeberries; and cut out many grapes from each bunch with Jciffars. By the inofcvlation of the veflels of vegetables mentioned in Se&t. I. 3, when any parts of a tree are deftroyed, thofe in their vi- cinity become more vigorous. On this account when part of the fruit is taken away as early as may be, the remaining part acquires more nutriment. Add to this, that, where fruit is crowded, fome of it becomes precluded from the fun and air, and in confequence does not perfectly ripen, and is liable to become mouldy; for mucor is a vegetable production, which like other fungi does not require either much light or air, as appears from the growth of fome funguffes in dark cellars, and of common mufhrooms beneath beds of ftraw, as mentioned in Seét. XIII. 1. 4. 4. Prevent the production of new leaf-buds. In fome pear trees the whole of the bloffoms become fterile, and fall off without any apparent injury from cold, and this for many fucceflive years. The fame occurs fometimes to chefnut trees, zef- culus pavia, after the flower the fructification entirely falls off ; fome of thefe might be male flowers, as Miller obferves, but the whole could not be fuch. ‘The fame happens very frequently to the fig- trees of this climate, fometimes the whole crop falls off, when they are about the fize of filberts ; that is, while they are ftill in flower, which though concealed within the fig, muft precede the {welling of the feeds, whether thefe be impregnated or not. A correfpondent faét occurred to me a few years ago. I had fix young trees of the Ifchia fig with fruit on them in pots in a {tove. On removing them into larger boxes the figs fell off, which I afcrib- ed to the increafed vigour of the plants; as they protruded very vigor- ous fhoots occafioned by the accumiulation of new foil round their roots. 4.16 PRODUCTION SECT. XV.-3, 4. roots. Perhaps thefe plants might rather be faid to have been in flower than in fruit, and perhaps thefe flowers were all male ones only, or accompanied only with imperfect female ones ? Whence I conclude, that about the feafon when the corals of thefe flowers with their ftamens and {tigmas die, the trees generate and nourifh too many new leaf-buds, owing to the facility with which they can produce the new caudexes of thefe young buds down the bark ; and that by the whole of the vegetable fap-juice being derived to the new buds for their prefent growth, or to form refervoirs for their future growth, the pericarp and feeds, whether impregnated or not, are deprived of their due nutriment and fall off. See Se. XVI. 1.4. Hence I propofe to tie waxed thread or fine wire round the twigs of pear-trees, which have ufually mifcarried, as foon as they are in flower, fo as to comprefs, but not fo as to ftrangulate them; or to wound the bark by a circular or femicircular incifion, which might counteract their facility of procreating new leaf-buds; which I ie pect would be more effectual in preventing the flowers from falling off, than pinching off the new leaf-buds, as they appear; which is recommended by Dr. Bradley in the management of fig-trees, and is done to vines in hot-houfes ; but which I a to be ineieeet on many fig-branches both in the natural ground and in pots, and afcrib- ed its failure to the continuance of the efforts of the fig-tree to pro- duce new leaf-buds; whereas in vines, I fuppofe, the grapes would ripen, whether the new leaf-buds remain or are deftroyed. See No. 3. 2. of this Section. Pontedera obferved, that in the iflands of the Arce fome fig- trees bear in the fpring many male flowers, and few female ones, the former of which fall off; and that they bear a fecond crop chiefly of female flowers in the autumn, which ripen in the enfuing fpring. Anthologia. Can this occur in the fig-trees of this country? Other figs are faid not to ripen but to fall off before their maturity, unlefs Suet. XV. 3. 5. OF FRUITS. 417 unlefs they be wounded by infects in their caprification, or punctur- ed by a ftraw. A further inveftigation of this fubjeé& is much wanted to propagate figs with fuccefs in this climate. See Botanic Garden, Vol. II. note on caprificus. See alfo Milne’s Botan. Diction. Article caprification. : 5. Give additional moifiure, manure, and warmth, during the early part of the growth of fruit. By additional moifture the fruit becomes larger; in hot-houfes this may be effected two ways, one by water- ing the earth on which the vegetables grow, and another by produc- ing fteam by watering the warm flues or floors; which will after- wards in the colder hours be again condenfed, and fettle in the form of dew on the fruit and leaves. By fupplying vegetables as well as animals with an abundancy of fluid, they are liable to increafe in bulk, both becaufe the external cuticle, which confines the growth of both of them, becomes relax- ed, as is feen in the hands of thofe women, who have many hours been employed in wafhing ; and alfo becaufe the cutaneous abforbent veffels will thus imbibe more fluid from the external furface ; and the cellular abforbents will therefore imbibe lefs from the internal cells, and confequently more mucus or fat will remain in them. Thus in Lancathire, where premiums are given for large goofe- berries, I am told, that fome of thofe, whoare folicitous for the prizes, not only thin the fruit of a goofeberry-tree, fo as to leave but two or three goofeberries on a branch, but then by fupporting a tea-faucer under each of thefe goofeberries, bathe it for fome weeks in fo much water as to cover about a fourth part of it, which they call fuckling the goofeberry. In fome parts of the Carnatic, where rice is cultivated, they are faid- not to derive the water on it, till it is in flower; becaufe that would induce the ftem to fhoot too luxuriantly, like our wheat-crops — in wet-feafons; but, as foon as it is in flower, they find it expedient - to flood it with water for the purpofe of filling and enlarging the 3H ears, 418 PRODUCTION Sect. XV. 3. 6; ears, (Communications to Board of Agriculture, Vol. L p. 355,) which it may effet both by relaxing the cuticle of the grain, and preventing the too great. internal abforption of the mucus or ftarch depofited in the cells of it; and laftly by fupplying it with more nu-. triment. There are two circumftances to be attended to in giving water to plants; which are, not to water them during the hot part of the day in fummer, nor in the evenings of fpring, when a froft may be ex- pected ;. in both thefe circumftances we may be faid to copy nature, as rain is generally preceded by a cloudy fky, and is never accom- panied by froft; though that fometimes follows it, and is then very. injurious to vegetation. When plants have been long ftimulated by a hot. funfhine into violent action, if this ftimulus of heat be too greatly and too fud: denly diminifhed by the affufion of cold water, or by its fudden eva- poration, their veffels ceafe to act, and death enfues; exaétly as has too frequen he nappened to thofe, who have bathed. in a cold {pring of water after having been heated by violent and continued exercife on a hot da og Ww hen fevere froft follows the watering of plants, they dered torpid, and die by the too great and fudden diminution f heat ; which is equally neceffary to the activity of vegetable as to animal fibres; and in fome inftances the circulation of their Aids may be {topped by the congelation of them; and in_ others their veflels may be burft by the expanfion attending the con- verfion of water into ice; or laftly, by the feparation of t hide different fluids by congelation. mce OCCT. A Va de ts When an addition of manure can be procured, as where the Blacks carbonic juice from a dunghill mixed with water,-or foap-fuds, °, can be employed inftead of water which have been ufed in wafhing alone; it muft Ge dunes lS dd to the nutriment, and confequently rp i O r enlarge a. ‘ Sect. XV. 3. 5- OF FRUITS. 419 enlarge the fize of the fruit by that means alfo, as well a3 by the ad ditional water. Where too much moifture is given without at the fame time an addition of warmth, fome ‘nconveniences are liable to occur, as a lefsaromatic and faccharine favour of the fruit. When therefore fruits become nearly ripe, lefs water fhould be given them, unlefs it is convenient at the fame time to increafe the heat, in which they are smmerfed, as may be done ‘1 fome hot-houfes ; and then the flavour, of the fruit may be heightened, as well as its fize increafed, as fhewn by Mr. Baftard in the Philofophical Tranfaét. who planted pine- apple plants in vefiels of water, and placed thefe veflels near the top of the hot-houfe, or on the fire-flues, for the purpofe of fupplying them with a greater heat ; and produced by thefe means both larger, as he afferts, and better flayoured pine apples. On this important fubje& I fhall tranfcribe his words, and fhall only add, that fteam from boiling water is now fuccefsfully ufed in fome hot-houfes for the growth both of vines and of pines, but muft require fome attention in the application of it; as it is occafionally conveyed through {mall apertures, which perforate a brick arch, which is conttructed fomewhat like the floor of a malt-kiln, where the water boils beneath the beds of bark or of foil; and is occafionally admitted into the room above, and thus fupplies moifture and heat both to the ground and to the air of the hot-houfe. | “My hot-houfe is covered with the beft crown glafs, which I ap- prehend gives more heat than the common fort of green olafs gene- rally ufed for hot houfes. In the front part of the houfe, and indeed any where in the loweft parts of it, the pine-apple plants will not thrive well in water. The way in which I treat them is as fol- lows. I place a fhelf near the higheft part of the back wall, fo that the pine-plants may ftand without abfolutely touching the glafs, but as near it.as can be. On this fhelf I place pans full of water, about feven or eight inches deep ; and in thefe pans I put the pine-apple 7 3Ha plants, 420 PRODUCTION SECT. XV, 3, 9, plants, growing in the fame pots of earth, as they are generally planted in to be plunged into the bark-bed in the common way; that . is, I put the pot of earth with.the pine-plant in it in the pan full of water; and as the water decreafes, I conitantly fill up the pan. I place either plants in fruit, or young plants as foon as they are well rooted, in thefe pans of water, and find they thrive equally well; the fruit reared this way is always much larger, as well as better fla- voured, than when ripened in the bark-bed. I have more than once put-only the plants themfelves without any earth, I mean after they had roots, into thefe pans of water, with only water fufficient to keep the roots always covered, and found them flourith beyond expecta- tion. A neighbour of mine has placed a Jeaden ciftern upon the top of the back flue, (in which, as it is in conta&t with the flue, the wa- ter is always warm, when there is fire in the houfe,) and finds his fruit excellent and large. : ‘¢ The way I account for this fuccefs is, that the warm air al- ways afcending to the part, where this fhelf is placed, as being the higheft part of the houfe, keeps it much hotter than in any. other part. The temperature at that place is, I believe, feldom lefs than what is indicated by the 73d degree of Fahrenheit’s thermometer; and when the fun fhines, it is often at above roo0°; the water the plants grow in feems to enable them to bear the greateft heat, if fuf- ficient air be alowed ; and I often fee the roots of the plants growing out of the holes in the bottom of the pot of earth, and fhooting vi- goroufly in the’ water. : | ** It is not foreign to this purpofe to mention, that, as a perfon was moving a large pine-plant from the hot-bed in my houfe laft fum- mer, which plant was juft fhewing fruit, by fome accident he broke off the plant juft above the earth in which it grew, and there was no root whatever left to it; by way of experiment I took the plant, and fixed it upright in a pan of water (without any earth whatever) on ‘the ‘Sect. XV. 3.6 OF FRUITS. 4O8 the fhelf;: it there foon threw out roots, and bore a:pine-apple that: weighed upwards of two pounds.” Philof. Tranfa&t. Vol. LXVI. é: Protect the early flowers and the late fruits from froft: The vernal fro{ts are very pernicious to the early bloffoms of apples and pears, and of all the tender wall-trees; various contrivances have been ufed to- fheiter them, as mats fufpended before wall-trees; which in Den=- mark are faid to be ufed to fhelter them from the mid-day fun, as well as from the night-frofts ; both to prevent them from flowering too early, and being thence expofed to feverer frofts; and becaufe. ve- getables fuffer more from great cold, as well as animals, after having been-expofed to great heat, as explained in Sect. XIV. 2.2. Thofe parts of vegetables, which are moft fucculent, fuffer moft from froft, as the young tops of tender trees, as of the afh, fraxinus, and weeping willow, falix babylonica; and alfo all other vegetables after having been. expofed to much: moifture, as to rain or dews; which probably may occur in part from the greater fenfibility of the tender juicy fummits of the prefent year’s growth, and partly from the expanfion of their frozen juices, which may burft the cons. taining veffels. ; An important-queftion here occurs, is a low fituation to be chofen fora garden? ‘The greater warmth of low fituations, and their be- ing seencraily better fheltered from the cold north-eaft winds, and the pumiernits fouth-weft winds, are agreeable circumftances ; as-the N.E. winds in this climate are the freezing winds; and S.W. winds being more violent, are liable much to injure flandard fruit-trees in fummer by dafhing their branches againft each other, and thence:bruifing, or beating off the fruit ;but in low fituations the fogs in-vernal evenings, , by bifideins the young fhoots of trees, and their early flowers, . render them much more liable to the injuries: of ‘the: frofty nights, which fucceed them, which they efcape in higher fituations.. Thefe fogs, which are feen by the fides of rivers, and on damp plains or val- leys after fun-{et, are converted into rime during the night. And as at: 422 PRODUCTION SECT. XV, 3 3.°6. at the time of thefe fogs there is generally no wind, the dew falls pers peedioulatly: and the rime is fond moft frequently on the upper furface of objects, which may then therefore be more readily fhelter- ed from it-than at hee times, when the freezing fog is blown for- wards by the wind, and the rime.is formed on one Sie i“ the branches of trees. In fome ci cumftances the rime is believed to defend the vegetables on which it is formed, by the heat it gives out at the inftant of its freezing, and by covering them from the. cold like fnow upon the © ground; and thence the black frofts, which are not attended with rime, are faid to be more prejudicial. But where dew or mift de- feends on vegetable leaves before the a&t of freezing commences, and is in part Ho nee by them.; they.become more fucculent, and hence are deftroyed by their fluids being converted into ice, and burfting the vellels already diNended with more water, than they would otherwife poffefs. See Seét. XIII. 2. 2. Mr. Bradley gives a decifive fact in regard to this fubject. A friend of his had two gardens, one not many feet below the other, but fo different, that the low garden often appeared flooded with the even- ing mifts, when none appeared in-the upper one; and in a letter to Mr. Bradley he complains that his lower garden is -much injured by the vernal froft, and not his upper one. A fimilar fa& is mentioned by Mr. Lawrence, who obferves, that he has often feen the leaves and tender fhoots of tall afh-trees in blafting mifts to be frozen, and as it were finged, in all the lower parts and middle of the tree; while the upper part, which was above the mift, has been uninjured. Art of Gardening. In confirmation of this idea I well remember many years ago to have travelled fixty miles; partly in the valley of the Trent, and partly over adjacent hills, on the fixth of May; and to have obferved that the new fhoots of all the afh-trees in the val- lies had their young extremities entirely turned black by the froft of the preceding night; but that on the hills they had efcaped, which | I at ; ; Sor. XV. 3. 60 OF FRUITS= Tat firft afcribed to the trees being lefs forward on the hills, but be- lieve it was more probably owing to the greater fucculence of thofe- inthe valleys, and to their having been previoufly expofed to. the: moifture of the evening mitt. : The precipitation or adhefion of moifture to vegetables, when mifty- air is blown againft them, is well defcribed by Mr. White in his hif- tory of Shelborne ; who obferved on a fogey day with fome wind, that fo much moifture was depofited on’a tree, that it ran down upon the ground, and Elled the ruts of a lane beneath it, which was dry elfewhere. On the fame account in the early {pring the grafs is feen to become green fooner under the {preading branches of.trees than in their vicinity. See Botanic Garden, Vol. I. note 2 It is hence evident, that very low and damp fituations are not to be> preferred for gardens and orchards in this climate; and that it is in all gardens an object worthy attention to protect in the early {pring the bloffoms and the young fhoots from being moiftened by the de- fcending night dews ; for this purpofe fome have put coping {tones at the top of the fruit-walls, fo as to project fix or eight inches over the trees. By the fhelter of thefe coping {tones the defcending dews, which would moiften the young leaves and flowers, are pre- vented from falling on them, and in confequence no rime is feen in the morning on thefe trees. I had once an opportunity of obferving fome trees beneath a projecting coping to be much fafer in refpeéct both to their fruit and foliage, than thofe in their vicinity, and in the fame afpec, where there were no coping {tones over them. But Iam informed, that after the vernal frofts have ceafed, this kind of fhelter is certainly injurious to the crowth and perfection of the fruit; which may arife from the fame caufe, namely, the want of the fummer' night-dews to moiften the fruit, and alfo the perpendicular fun-beams to ripen it. . On thefe accounts I have pro- pofed to make. temporary fheds of boards to project eight inches from the walls, to be held on by iron hooks, which might eafily be re-- moved, 424 PRODUCTION Sutr. XV. 3.6, moved, as foon as the vernal frofts fhould ceafe; and in one experi- ament on a fingle apricot tree it appeared to {ucceed well. > From fome experiments in a late volume in the Philofophical | TranfaCtions, it appears, that very much more rain was caught in glatles placed on the ground near a high church, than was caught in fimilar glaffes on the roof of it ; which evinces, that a much greater quantity of moifture exifts in the lower parts of the atmofphere, and is precipitated from it, than from the higher parts ; whence to pro- tect the blofloms more effectually from the defcending dews coping boards might be placed at every two feet or lefs above each other, with their front edges pointing upwards to the meridian fun in March, and ledges nailed on the back edges to convey the rain or dews towards the central part of the tree, where by another crofs ledge at the end of each board it might be carried from the wall. A fimilar inconvenience from autumnal frofts affe&ts fome of the late fruits, as figs and grapes, which might alfo réceive advantage from replacing the coping boards in the autumn. Another method of effetually guarding againft the vernal frofts, and alfo the autumnal ones, is by building the garden-walls with fire- flues in them, which is now frequently praétifed. There is one fecret neceflary to be known, and well attended to, in the management of fire-flues ; and that is in the firft place to plant trees, which will open their flowers about the fame time, againft the fame flue, and then diligently to obferve not to put fire into this flue, till the trees, it is de- figned to affift, are in flower; fince if the fire be applied fooner, the flowers are forwarded, and in confequence expofed to more danger from the feverer frofts. One friend of mine, who diligently attends to this circumftance, aflures me, that he never fails of producing a plentiful crop of excellent fruit. And it 1s poffible that one ufe of covering apricot trees, before they flower, from the mid-day fun, which is {aid to be praétifed in Den- snark, may be to protraét their time of flowering, and thus expofe them \ f . Sect. XV. 3.7. OF FR UETS: : 428 them to-Jefs danger from froft, as well as'to prevent their irritability ‘from being Saad by the heat, and-thus ca aufing ‘the ni igh it air to ‘be more injurious to them. 7. Fruits may be fooner ripened by wounding Seem or by gathering them. The wounds inflicted by infeéts‘on many fruits promotes their more fpeedy Spal ts as well as thofe inflicted by caprification, men- tioned in Se&. XIV. 3. 3. and in No. 3. 4. of this Settion. It is faid that cutting the {talk OE a bunch of grapes half through, which has acquired its due fize, will expedite che ripening of it 3 bedehite it will then be fupplied with a lefs quantity of new juices, and the change of its acerb juices into faccharine ones, which is partly a chemical, and partly a vegetable procefs, proceeds more rapidly. See Sect. X. 8.1. On the fame account the pears on a branch, which ‘has had a circle of its bark cut away, will ripen its fruit fooner; and thofe an- nual plants, which are fupplied with lefs water than ufual, ‘both flower fooner, and ripen their feed fooner. ~ To which may be added, that gathering pears from the tree’ before they are ripe, and laying them on heaps covered with blankets, is ‘known confiderably to forward their ripening, ‘by fomething like.a chemical fermentation added to the living action of the fruit;-which advances the faccharine procefs with greater rapidity. | I have feen apricots at table, which I was informed were plucked from the tree, and kept fome days in a hot-houfe, and thus became delicioufly ripe; in the fame manner as harfh pears ripen almoft.into a fyrup during twelve or twenty hours baking in a flow oven; which occafioned the jeft of a French traveller, who on being afked on ‘his return, what good fruit they had in England, anfwered, that the only ripe fruit he ‘happened to tafte was the baked pear. iv. THE ARTS OF PRESERVING FRUIT, as they depend on ‘the prevention of the chemical proceffes, which produce their diflolution, ought to. be here mentioned. 31 1. As 426 PRODUCTION Sects XV. 4.1 1. As life whether animal or vegetable prevents. putrefaction, and as many fruits exift long, after they. are gathered from the tree, before they become ripe and die {pontaneoufly, and in confequence putrefy, as crabs, floes, medlars, and auftere pears. The art of preferving thefe confifts in ftoring them, where the heat 1s neither much above or below 48 degrees, which is the temperature of the interior parts of the earth; that is, in a dry cellar, or beneath the foil, or well covered’ with ftraw or mats in a dry chamber. Ass greater heat might make them ripen fooner, than they are wanted, by the increafed activity of their vegetable life; and froft by deftroying that life would fubjec& them to putrefy, when they become thawed ;. as perpetually happens to apples and potatoes, which are not well defended from froft. And: laftly, the moifture would injure them many ways;. firft. by its con= tributing to deftroy their vegetable life; fecondly in promoting the chemical procefs of putrefaétion ;. and thirdly by its encouraging the growth of mucor, or mould, which will grow in moift fituations. without much light or air. 3 Too great warmth deftroys both animal and vegetable life by. fti-- mulating their vefiels iuto too great a€tivity for a time, whence a {ubfequent torpor from the too great previous expenditure of the liv- ing power, which terminates in death. After the death of the organi-- zation a boiling heat coagulates the mucilaginous fluids, and if con- tinued would I believe prevent the chemical fermentation of them: and that thus both vegetable and animal. fubftances might be preferv- ed. The experiment is difficult to try, and could not therefore be of much praétical utility if it fhould fucceed. 7 Great cold on the contrary deftroys both animals and vegetables by: the torpor occafioned by the defe& of ftiraulus, and a confequent temporary death. ‘Afterwards if a great degree of cold be continued, in fome cafes the expanfion of their freezing juices may-burft the ve- getable vefiels, and thus render the hfe of them irrecoverable. _ But there is another curious thing happens to many aqueous folutions, or I diffufions, - N Sect AV OE OF RUITS. 423 diffufions, which is, that at the time of congelation the diffolved or diffufed particles are pufhed from the ice, either to the centre, if the cold be applied equally on all fides, or into various cells, as mentioned in-Se&t. XIII. 2. 2. | This exclufion of falt is feen in freezing any faline folution in wa- ter; as common falt or blue vitriol expofed to fevere froft in a two- ounce phial are driven to the center of it. Wine, vinegar, and even milk, may be thus deprived of much of their water. Very moift clay, when expofed 'to frofty ait, fhrinks and becomes much more folid ac- cording to the affertion of Mr. Kirwan. Mineralog. Vol. I. p. g, the freezing water covering its furface with ice, and driving the mole-~ cules of clay nearer the centre. And laftly, the mucilage produced by boiling wheat flour in water, like book-binders pafte, if not too thick, lofes its cohefion by being frozen, the water driving, as it freezes, the ftarch from its cryftallization; and from this circum- ftance probably is occafioned the change of flavour of apples, potatoes, and other vegetables, on being thawed after they have been frozen. It is neverthelefs affirmed, I think, by Monf. Reaumeur, that if frozen apples be dipped in cold water repeatedly, and the ice thus formed on their furface be wiped off, or if they be left in a large pail full of very cold water, fo that they may not thaw too haftily, they will not lofe their flavour. If this be true, and the apples will keep found fome time afterwards, it would feem that the vegetable life was not deftroyed; but that, like fleeping infects, they were reani- mated by the warmth; otherwife, if the flavour be not deftroyed, and they could be immediately eaten or ufed in cookery, it is ftill a valuable difcovery if true, and might lead us to preferve variety of fruits in ice-houfes, as ftrawberries, Currants, grapes, and pines, to the great advantage of fociety. See Se. XVII. 2. 4. As the procefs of fermentation will tot commence or continue, I believe, in the heat of boiling water, or 212; and as this degree of heat can be eafily preferved by fteam, or by the vicinity of veffels pe Be containing 428 PRODUCTION SECT. XV. ae 23 containing boiling water; it 1s probable, that fruits for the ufe of cookery might be thus preferved throughout the. year, as: the pulp> of boiled-apples, goofeberries, &c. put into bottles, amd placed fo as. to be expofed to the wafted fteam of fteam-engines,. or immerfed in. the hot. water, which flows from the condenfing of it; or near'the boilers fixed behind fome kitchen fires.s as.} fufpedt, that if fuch a dem. gree of heat could be applied once a.day, it would countera@the ten- dency to fermentation, 2. Another method of preferving fome fruits is by. gathering them. during their acid ftate, before that acid juice is converted into fugar, as lemons, oranges, goofeberries, pears, aud fome apples; and if-a part of the water be evaporated. by a boiling heat fo, as to leave the acidity more concentrated, it is lefs liable to: ferment, and in confequence will be longer preferved.. For this purpofe the fruit fhould be kept in a-cellar, and, corked in bottles, fo-as to be preclud- ed from the changes of.air, and variations of heat ;. goofeberries, and rhubarb-ftalks, are thus fuccefsfully preferved, for winter ufe; and if- a tea-{poonful of brandy be put into each quart bottle, it will prevent the growth.of mucor or mould upon them. 3. As fugar wall not pafs. into fermentation unlefs:diluted with: nuch water, and lefs foin low degrees of heat, many fruits may be thus preferved by impregnatjng them with fugar, and the better if they are kept. in a dry cellar, Dr. Hales. found that by inverting the end of a.branch of a tree into a bottle of brandy for a few hours, that the whole branch died ; hence it is ufual.and ufeful to cover prer ferved fruits with a paper moiftened with vinous fpirit, which pres vents the growth of mucor or mould upon their furfaces, which is.a vegetable thus.eafily killed by. the intoxicating ftimulus. If {weet fruits be dried by heat, not. only the {uperfluous. water becomes exhaled, but the faccharine procefs is alfo. promoted; ‘and ° much of the mucilaginous or acid particles are converted into fugar, as in baking pears, or in drying figs, dates, raifins, apricots; fo that by E ' t 3 i F Seer. XV.44. OF- FRUITS, 7; -by gradually drying them many fruits may be well preferved, and re- quire afterwards fimply to be kept. dry. 4. Some fruits, as the olive, are preferved in their unripe ftate in falt and water; the unripe pods of kidney-beans, and the. hats of mufhrooms, may be thus alfo-kept for months in weak brine in a> cool cellar enclofed in bottles without much change. But the oily kernels of nuts are well'preferved in cellars beneath the foil to pre- clude the variations of heat, and covered’in jars to prevent their eva- poration. Other fruits are converted into pickles and‘ preferved in» vinegar, but lofe their flavour; and others by being immerfed in vinous fpirit are preferved, as cherries, and thus tranfmuted from ood to poifon. And when-the kernels of apricots, cherries, or bitter almonds, are preferved in brandy, which is called ratafia, we poftets a mixture of two of the moft poifonous productions of. the vegetable kingdom ; except perhaps.the leaves of lauro-cerafus diftilled in al- cohol, which was fold as ratafia in Dublin,;,and produced many fudden deathsin the gin-fhops.. v. The following lines are inferted to amufe the reader, and to: imprint fome of the, foregoing: doftrine on-his memory. ART OF PRUNING .WALL-TREES. Beueap new-grafted trees in fpring, Fre the firft cuckoo tries to fing ; But leave four {welling buds-to grow With wide-diverging arms below; Or fix one central trunk erect, And on each fide its boughs deflect. In fummerhours from fertile ftems Rub off the fupernumerous gems ; But where unfruitful branches rife In proud luxuriance to the fkies, Exfe& Qo PRODUCTION Exfeét the exuberant growths, or bind A wiry ringlet round the rind; Or feize with fhreds the leafy birth, And bend it parallel to earth. When from their winter-lodge efcape “The {welling fig, or cluftering grape; Pinch off the fummit-fhoots, that rife, Two joints above the fertile-eyes 5 But when with branches wide and tall The vine fhall crowd your trellis’d wall ; Or when from ftrong external roots Each rafter owns three vigorous fhoots ; Watch, and as grows the afcending wood, Lop at two joints each lateral bud. So fhall each eye a clufter bear To charm the next fucceeding year ; And, as the fpiral tendrils cling, Deck with feftoons the brow of {pring. But when the wintry cold prevails, Attend with chifel, knife, and nails ; Of pears, plums, cherries, apples, figs, Stretch at full length the tender twigs ; Vine, neétarine, apricot, and peach, Cut off one third or half of each; And, as each widening branch extends, Leave a full fpan between the ends. Where crowded growths lefs {pace allow, Clofe lop them from the parent bough ; But when they rife too weak or few, Prune out old wood, and train in new. So, as each tree your wall receives, Fair fruits fhall bluth amid the leaves. Sect: K¥e se: ART Sect. XV. 5. OF FRUITS. ART OF PRUNING MELONS AND CUCUMEERS. WueEn melon, cucumber, and gourd, Their two firft rougher leaves afford, Ere yet thefe fecond leaves advance Wide as your nail their green expanfe; Arm’d with fine knife, or {ciffars good, Bifeét or clip the central bud;. Whence many a lateral branch inftead Shall rife like hydra’s fabled head. When the fair belles in gaudy rows Salute their vegetable beaux ; And, as they lofe their virgin bloom, Shew, ere it fwells, the pregnant womb; Lop, as each crowded branch extends, The barren flowers, and leafy: ends. So with fharp ftings the bee-{warm drives Their ufelefs drones from autumn hives. But if in frames your flowers confin’d Feel not one breezy breath of wind, Seek the tall males,.and bend in air Their diftant lovers to the fair ; Or pluck with fingers nice, and fhed The genial pollen o’ér their bed. So fhall each happier plant unfold Prolific germs, and fruits of gold. SECT. rR ODUCTION Sect. XVI, — THE PRODUCTION QF SEEDS. I. To produce feeds ous . Sow before winter, or in warm fituations. 2. Tranf- plant the roots. 3. Cut f /uperfluous fs sf Give le/s water. II. To pro- duce feeds in ee quantity. 1. Sow early, or when the feed ripens. 2. Tranf- plant the roots deeper, or earth them up. Horf- -hee and hand-hoe. Improved drill bufbandry. Dibbling. Corn lands laid level. Egyptian wheat with branch- ing ears. 3. Deftroy the central fooot. Eat down wheat and.roll it. This is Jometimes tyurious. 4. Pinch off ufelefs fummits of beans. Eat down too vigour- ous wheat. 5. Roll it to leffen the fraw. 6. Give lefs water. U1. To ripen feeds. 1. Warmth and drynefs. 2. Frofly nights. 3. Lime forwards the ripen- ing of feeds. 4. Cut off bulbs and root-fuckers of orchis. Helianthus tuberofus. Rheum palmatum. \V.-'To generate beft kinds of feeds.” Choo/e early plants infulated from others. Impregnate the fligmas of fome with the anther-duft of others. Whence peas. may be produced of different colours. V. 'To-collect good feeds. Change of feeds is ufelefs, unle[s for better kinds. — Choofe the earlieft feeds. Pick out the largeft potatoes for planting, and the beft radifbes for feed, and the earlicft ears of wheat. V1. To determine the goodnefs of feeds. Weigh a meafure of them. Caft them. into falt water. Beans more economical than oats as provender. Seeds continue to improve during the water-months. VII, To preferve feeds. 1. ue» before they fhed naturally. Dry them before they are Stacked. Gluten of wheat de; ae ed by fermentation. Make the corn-flack higheft in the middle. The great durability of feeds. Keep them dry. Not in contatt with walls. Convenient oat- es ves for frables. Wheat dried on a.malt-kiln to pre- Jerve it. 2. Ventilation ees events mould. 3. Seclude them from heat, beneath the foil. Inice-houfes. 4. J Aagaz ines of grain Juffered to vegetate at top. ' Covetous farmers. 5. New al ald feeds. 6. Preferve feeds in fugar, or in charcoal, for long voyages, nd fle cfo-meat i in treacle. VIII. To fow feeds advantageoufly. . Native Zigh 4 n oats |, To ey Git Lf } off hight) F onlaw to prt yf the jelous val, f i oully: Nati! Sher RVI 12h OF SEEDS. . 439 Native feeds, foreign ones. Sow Joon after the ground is turned over, and early in the pring, in the autumn. 2. Economy of fowing three kinds of grafs-feeds, and two kinds of wheat. Kinds of foil. 3. Mix fand or foil with fome feeds. Soak them in water, falt and water, lime. Steep barley in dungbill water. W vod-afbes. Sow wet as well as dry. 4. Bury the fruit with the feed. 5. Wafb the feeds of too luxuriant plants. Sow them early, IX. Queftion concerning general en- clofure. Cain and Abel. | Many of the circumftances above related concerning the produc- tion and enlargement of fruit are applicable to the produétion of the feeds, which are included in them ; but thofe feeds, which con-: tribute moft to the nourifhment of mankind, many of which are the progeny of annual or biennial plants, require other modes of culti- vation. As an introduétion to this fection it may be obferved, how much more ingenuity was required in the difcovery of nourifhing mankind by the fmall feeds of the graffes, which have probably been fince much enlarged by perpetual cultivation, than by the large roots of potatoes. The Ifis or Ofiris of Egypt feems to have invented the procefs of cultivating wheat, as well as flax, on the banks of the Nile; and afterwards Ceres and Triptolemus to have taught the former of thefe important difcoveries all over the known world. While in later ages the Incas or Motezumas of Peru and Mexico feem to have deftroyed the cannibals, or men-eaters, of that continent, and to have difcovered and taught their people to fupport themfelves by the cultivation of potatoes. I. 1. To produce feeds early in the feafon. Thofe plants, which are required to yield a forward crop, as the peas and beans of our gardens, and thofe which our cold and fhort fummers will not otherwife perfeétly ripen, as wheat, fhould be fowed before the commencement of winter, either in natural ground, as in the 3K cultivation ee PRODUCTION Sect. XVI 1.2 cultivation of wheat, or in fituations fheltered from the north-eatt, as in the garden cultivation of peas and beans; or they may be fowed very thick in hot-houfes, or under hot-bed frames, or under warm walls, and be tranfplantedy when they are one or two inches high, into the natural ground at due diftances, when the weather is milder, and the plants are become hardier or lefs liable to be deftroyed from their having longer acquired the habits of life. When young plants of any kind are tranfplanted, the ground fhould be recently dug, as their expeditious growth depends fo much on the atmofpheric air being buried in the pores or interftices of the earth by the production of carbonic and nitrous acids, and ammonia, and heat. The fame advantage occurs by foaking feeds in water, or in the drainage from manure heaps, till they are ready to fprout, and then fowing them in a foil lately turned over ; as their roots will then im- mediately put out by the newly generated heat, and newly produced carbonic acid in its fluid not its gafleous ftate. | 2. The tranfplanting of young roots, if they be fet no deeper than before, does not, I fuppofe, multiply the number of ftems, as occurs when wheat is tranfplanted fo deep as to cover the fecond joint ; but by tearing off feveral {mall extremities of the roots, the new produc- tion of many viviparous buds is prevented, and that of oviparous buds increafed in confequence, for reafons mentioned in No. 2. 4. of the preceding Section. When the roots of wheat are tranfplanted and divided, not only a great increafe of the crop is produced, but I believe the feed is like- wife ripened earlier, as is afferted by Mr. Bogle. Bath Society, Vol. III. 5 p- 494. And it is well known to gardeners, tht tranfplanting garden- _ beans forwards them in ref{peét to time, but fhortens the height of the ftem. Hence tranfplanted vegetables grow lefs in bighe as tranfplanted beans, and lefs branchy, as marialanial melons, but produce and ripen their feeds earlier ; which is a great advantage in the Seon. XVI. 1. 4. OF SEEDS. 435 the fhort fummers of this climate ; and if the roots can be divided, as in wheat, or new {cions can be produced by their being tranfplant- ed deeper, as alfo occurs in wheat, the quantity of the feed may alfo be wonderfully increafed by tranfplanting. See Se&. XII. 6. 3. Another mode of forwarding the production of feeds, and of — fooner ripening them, confifts in pruning off the viviparous tops or lateral fhoots, which will bear no feeds at all, or only fmall or im- perfeé ones, in our northern fammers. For this purpofe the cutting away the tops of beans and of peas, and the lateral branches of arti- chokes, after the fruit-buds are formed, both forwards and enlarges the flowers and feeds, which remain, as more nourifhment is derived to them. ‘ 4. As a fuperfluous fupply of water is more friendly to the produc- tion of leaf-buds than to the generation of flower-buds, to derive lefs water than ufual to the roots, forwards the production of feeds, a fact well known in the gardens of warmer climates, which are perpetually watered from refervoirs or wheel-engines. But when the bloffoms appear, an addition of water muft forward their growth by fupplying nourifhment, which fhould again be leffened when the fruit has ac- quired its full fize, both to expedite its ripening, and to increafe its flavour ; as the faccharine matter and effential oil will be lefs diluted with water. In the dry fummer of 1799 I had the opportunity of flooding fome rows of beans in my garden, which by being done too frequently, or too copioufly, occafioned them to grow to a much greater height than ufual, and in confequence to bring to perfection few feeds, and {ome of them none. As I fuppofe the new fhoots of fig-trees in the beginning of fummer occafions the firft produétion of young figs to fall off from the want of that nourifhment, which is now expended in the growth of new leaf-buds. See Sect. XV. 3. 4- Whence the facility of producing leaf-buds feems evidently to prevent the genera- 3K2 tion 438 ‘PRODUCTION SEcT. XVI. 2, r, tion oftflower-buds, and the ufe of cutting off the fummits of tal] beans is thus explained, as dire@ed above. II..1. Lo produce feeds in great quantity from annual or biennial plants they fhould be brought forward in refpect to the feafon in our northern fummers; that a greater quantity of viviparous buds may arrive early at their maturity for the purpofe of generating oviparous buds {oon enough in the fummer to ripen their feeds; on. ‘this ace count thofe fhould be fown in the autumn which will bear the fe- verity of the winter. , Neverthelefs the feeds of thofe plants, which are natives of this cli mate, fhould probably be fowed at the time they become perfeétly ripe, as occurs to them in their natural ftate; that is, either when the feed.is fhed upon the ground by the parent: plant, or when the fruit or hufk, which enclofes it, becomes naturally ripe after it has fallen on the ground. Thus I have feen crabs covered with leaves in hedge-bottoms, which have not decayed till the early {pring, Many pears do not become ripe in our ftore-rooms till March or April; and ivy berries and holly berries hang on their refpetive trees till- the vernal months, and are not till that time eaten by the thruthes. Hence it is probable, that the feeds in thefe durable fruits or berries continue to ripen, or to. become more.mature, and prepared for their future growth during the winter months. 2. It was thewn in Se&. IX. 3. 7. that when wheat was tranf- planted fo deep as to immerfe the firtt joint above. the root into the foil, many new ftems would thoot up and ftrike their roots into the earth ; and that thus four or fix new plants, or more, would be ge- nerated by the caudex of the leaf-bud, which conttitutes that joint. This mode of tranfplantation therefore will much increafe the quan- tity of the crop of feed, if it can be done foon enough for thefe ad- ditional ftems to ripen their corn, before the fummer ends. There is another mode of increafing this produ of additional ftems Sect. XVI, 2.2. er SEEDS. « 437 ftems without tranfplantation, which confifts in fowing the wheat in rows by what is called a drill-plough according to Mr T ull’s method ; and when the firft ftems rife a few inches high, a horfe-hoe, made like a very {mall plough, isto be brought fo near each row, as to turn up fome earth againft the ftems, fo as to cover the firft joint above the root with Gale whence new ftems will be generated, and fhoot up round the old one; and thus increafe the crop in the fame manner as by deep tranfplantation. The theory of Mr.Tull’s drill hufbandry is explained in Se&, 1X. 3.7. and in XII. 5. which is of late years fuppofed to have been im- eee by introducing the hand-hoe in place of the horfe-hoe, and thus giving an opportunity of fowing the rows or drills.nearer toge- ther, as will be feen by the following method, now introduced into almoft general ufe in Norfolk by Mr. Coke; though Mr.Tull him- felf much prefers the horfe-hoe as turning over the earth much deeper than the hand-hoe, and thus rendering that part of it more expofed to the air, which was before more deeply fecluded from it; and alfo rendering it more pervious to vegetable roots ; to which may be added, that both kinds of hoeing render the furface more perme~’ able to the rains and dews, and prevent the cracks in dry weather, which are very injurious to the roots of plants; both which advan- tages depend on the porofity of the foil, which muft extend deeper by the ufe of the horfe-hoe than the hand-hoe. Mr.Tull makes other ingenious remarks on the ufe of horfe-hoe- ing. In the beginning of winter, when the wheat has obtained one blade like grafs, or two or three leaves, the horfe-hoe is brought near the rows and deep, and the earth turned from them fo as to form a ridge between them. By this ridge in level grounds he thinks the rows are fhaded from the cold winds in fome fituations, and that the roots of the wheat are kept drier, and thence lefs injured by frofts. In the {pring this ridge in the intervals between the rows is divided by the horfe-hoe, and turned back againft the rows of corn after it has. 438 PRODUCTION Sect. XVI. 2.2, has been fertilized by the air and rains, and dews of winter. See Tull’s Hufbandry, Ch. TX. and Seét. XII. 5. of this work. Mr. Coke of Holkham in Norfolk affured me, that in thirteen years experience on a farm of 3000 acres he had found the drill hufbandry in that country greatly fuperior to fowing feeds of all forts by the hand in what is termed the broad-caft method, but differs in the number and arrangement of his rows from the method of Mr. Tull in the following circumftances. Mr. Tull drilled two rows of feed a few inches from each other, and then left a {pace of two or three feet, and then drilled two more rows near each other, for the purpofe of paffing a hoe between each double row drawn by a horfe, which was therefore termed a horfe- hoe ; but Mr. Coke drills all his rows of wheat and of peas nine inches from each other, and thofe of barley fix inches and three quarters from. each other; this is performed by a drill plough made by the Rev. Mr. Cook, which drills fix rows at a time, and thus fows an acre of land in an hour, and is drawn by a fingle horfe; and the quantity of feed confumed is about fix or feven pecks to an acre, which is about half what i is ufed in the fowing by the hand in the _ broad-caft method. Early in March Mr. Coke ufes the hand-hoe, which for hoeing the rows of wheat and of peas is about fix inches wide, and for hoe- ing thofe of barley about four inches wide. By this hoe the furface is not only turned over, and the weeds between the rows rooted up, but it is alfo accumulated about the roots of the growing corn, and covers and confequently deftroys the low growth of poppies amongft them; which are a very frequent weed in that part of the country. A fecond hoeing is performed about the middle of May, and the foil is again not only cleared from weeds but accumulated againft the ‘rifing corn, each of which hoeings coft about twenty-pence an acre. Neverthelefs lam informed, that fome attentive agricultors ufe the horfe-hoe belonging to Mr, Cook’s drill-machine, couse the rows © 4 of ‘Sect. XVI. 2. 2. OF -S E-E:DS. 42g of corn are but nine inches from each other; and affert, that this occafional trampling of the horfe on the young plants is of no very ill confequence, a circumftance well worth obferving, as it removes the principal difadvantage of the horfeshoe, which confifts in the too great diftance of the alternate rows of the corn-plants. By the earth being thus accumulated againft the roots of the corn *t is faid to tiller or tellure much; that is, to throw out four or fix ftems, or more, around the original ftem, and thus to increafe the number of ears like tranfplanting the roots, infomuch that Mr.Coke obtains by this method between four and five quarters of wheat on every acre, which in the broad-caft method of fowing did-not yield more than three quarters on an acre, befide faving a ftrike and half of the feed corn, unneceflarily confumed in the broad-caft method of fowing. To this fhould be added another advantage, that as the land is thus kept clear from weeds, and has its furface twice turned over, and thus expofed to the air, it is found to fave one ploughing for the purpofe of a fucceeding crop of turnips. Itis probable, that one hand-hoeing in the beginning of winter, fo managed as to turn the foil from the roots of the corn, and to leave it rather elevated between the rows, as Mr. Tull recommends to be performed by his horfe-hoe, might give a fimilar advantage to this mode of cultivation ; and alfo if another hand-hoeing was applied, as foon as the wheat is out of bloffom, to fupply more nourifhment to the young feed might increafe its plumpnefs and weight, as mentioned in No. 2. 3. of this Section. The lands thus managed by Mr. Coke are laid level, and not in ridges and furrows, and can thus be ploughed cro{fswife ; and the crop is equally good throughout the whole ; whereas in the furrows of fome lands it is lefs forward or lefs prolific than on the ridges ; whence much light corn is mixed with the good, which is obliged to be feparated from that, which is marketable, and ufed for hogs or poultry. Add to this, that in this mode of hufbandry the {traw 1s be- lieved 146 PRODUCTION Sect. XVI. 3.9. lieved to be larger and in greater quantity as well as the grain, and the land to be lefs impoverifhed, as no weeds ate fuffered to grow on it, and as its furface is fo frequently turned over, and expofed to the air. In China the corn lands are laid on a level, not in ridges and fur- rows; which is fuppofed to be the moft advantageous plan in almoft every fituation, which is proper for the’cultivation of corn, as by being thus rendered capable of being divided by crofs-ploughing, almoft any kind of foil may be rendered more proper for the ufe of the drill huf bandry, by which it is feen in the above account of the Norfolk ma- nagement, that twelve {trikes more of wheat are raifed on an acre, ~ and one ftrike and a half faved in the confumption of feed-wheat, which at fix fhillings a ftrike arifes to a confiderable {um on a large farm. Neverthelefs there feem to be many advantages attending the ‘forming the furface of land into ridges and furrows; in wet lands with a fubftratum of clay the furrows are convenient channels to carry off the water, where there is a fufficient declivity, as treated of by Mr.’Tull in his Horfe-hoeing Hufbandry, Ch. XVI. Add to this, that in fome fituations a deeper ftratum of the foil, where it is valu- able, may be occafionally turned up, and expofed to the air, and to the roots of vegetables, by gradually changing the locality of the ridges; and laftly, in every fituation a greater {urface both of the foil, and of the fummits of the ftems, or ears, are expofed to the influence of the air by means of ridges and furrows; for as the plants of wheat are but three or four feet high, the furface of a crop of wheat is increafed as well as the furface of the ground it grows upon, and not as the bafe on which the declivities or hills reft, as fome have erroneoufly fuppofed. See Seat. X. 3. 8. There is another method of fowing wheat in rows ufed in fome counties, which is termed dibbling in the language of agricultors, and confifts in making perpendicular holes one inch and half or two inches Sror. XVI. 2 2 OF i SPEDS. : 441 inches deep, as is commonly done in planting potato-roots ; thefe holes are made by a man, who has a proper ftaff fhod with iron in each hand, and as he walks backwards is able by looking at the part of the row already made to keep nearly in a ftraight line, and to make two holes at once at about nine inches diftant from each other every way. [wo or more children attend the man, and drop two, or three, or four feeds into each perpendicular hole, which are af- terwards covered by drawing over them what is called a bufh-har- row. This method by fowing the wheat in rows adapts it for the ufe of the hand-hoe, as by fowing it bya drill machine, but muft be attend- ed with greater expence, and I fufpeét with lefs accuracy of the dif- tribution of the feed, owing’ to the hurry or fatigue of the children employed; and I alfo fufpeét that fowing in drills is preferable, be- caufe a greater quantity of earth is turned over, and much air in con- fequence ‘ncluded in its interftices; whereas in making perpendicular holes the fides of the holes are comprefled, and rendered more folid ; whence potato-roots alfo might probably be more advantageoufly planted by making drills inftead of perpendicular holes. : A correfpondent of the board.of agriculture afferts, that on looking over a field of potatoes near Leicefter, which had all been planted at the fame time, and on land equally manured, he obferved a great difference of the growth of one part of the field, which on inquiry he found to have been owing to the roots having been planted in drills, where the plants were fo much ftronger; and by a fetting flick in holes, where they were fo muchlefs vigorous ; Englith En- clyclopedia, Art. Hufbandry, p. 483: which difference of growth I fuppofe to have been owing to the circumftances above mentioned. A few ears of wheat were lately given me, which were branched, having four or five lefs ears growing out of each fide of the principal ear; it was procured at Liverpool, and was called Egyptian wheat, or Smyrna wheat. It is defcribed in the Supplem. Plantarum of the 3L younger \ 442 PRODUCTION Sect. XVI. 2, 3, younger Linneus, as well as in the fpecies Plantarum of the elder ; and is faid to be a native of Egypt, and to be cultivated at Naples ; it is called ‘¢ triticum compofitum, or wheat with a compound ear, crowded with lefs ears; awned; and is faid to be related to triticum eftivum, fummer wheat; but the {pike is four times larger, a hand in length, compofed of lefs {pikes, two faced, alternate, approximat- ed, from nine to twelve, the lower ones being fhorter, and the top one folitary.”” Suppl. Plant. p. 115. The plant, which was given me, had five tall and thick ftems from one root, but feemed to have been plucked up before it was quite ripe, whence I cannot judge of the fize of the grain, but fhould imagine, that it is a fpecies well worthy of attention. The few ears, which I poffefied, were fown in the fpring of this year, 1799, not having obtained them foon enough to fow in the autumn. When they were an-inch or two high, they were tranfplanted into a moiftith part of my garden ; and though the year has been uncommonly cold and wet, and a great part of the autumn-fown wheat of this country is blown down upon the ground, and is not yet ripe, yet almoft every root of the Egyptian wheat has from ten to twelve ftems, and ftands upright on ftrong ftraw about three and a half, or four feet high. ‘The beft ftems have one principal ear about five inches long, with five or fix fhorter ones branching out on each fide of it. They begin to appear brown, and I hope will ripen. I have fince found that this {pecies of wheat is mentioned in Tull’s Hufbandry under the. name of Smyrna wheat. He adds that it is highly produ@ive, but on that account requires a good foil. 3. Another method of promoting the growth of lateral ftems con- fifts in deftroying the central {hoot ; when this is done, other new {tems arife from the joint immediately above the root, which in wheat is in conta¢t with the earth. On this account, when wheat plants are fufficiently forward in refpeét to the feafon, it is thought to be advantageous to eat the firft ftem down by fheep to increafe the quantity on new 1 in heat yght , the tity Sect. XVI. 2. 3. OF SEEDS. 443 quantity of the fubfequent crop. See Sect. IX. 3. 7. It fhould be neverthelefs obferved here, that the trampling of the fheep on lands, — which are not too adhefive, will prefs down the firft or fecond joint into the earth, and thus affift the production of many fide fhoots. But in very adhefive foils this trampling of the ftems into the ground may be injurious. See a paper in Bath Agriculture, Vol. I. Art. XV. In foils which are not too adhefive, when the crop appears thin, it is probable, that a roller drawn over it by preffing the firft or fecond joint into the foil, might promote the production of fide fhoots, or make them tiller, or tellure, in the language of agricultors. And when grafs or clover feeds are defigned to be fown on the wheat-~ land, it might Gr{t be -harrowed, and then either rolled or trampled by the fheep, which eat it; either or both of which might prefs down the root-ftems of the corn, and cover the newly fown clover- {feeds with foil. : This mode of eating down forward wheat with fheep is analogous to cutting off the central buds of melons and cucumbers to make them produce earlier fruit, and in this climate perhaps in greater quantity; as thofe produced after the great extent and elongation of the central branches would be too late to ripen in this climate : and by their-exuberant generation of a viviparous progeny would re~ tard the fucceffion of lateral fhoots, and a confequent quicker pro- duction of flowers. Neverthelefs where the crop is not too luxuriant or too forward, the eating down the firft {tem by fheep may be an injurious practice ; as Mr. Tull thinks, that by thus deftroying the firft ftem, the ears of the later ones have not time to ripen, and thence become light in re- fpe& to the fize or plumpnefs of the grain ; and that thefe fecondary ftems become weak, and are liable to fall down, both which he fays commonly occur where the crops are eaten by fheep. Mr. Tull, whofe work is throughout a great effort of human-genius, adds a very wife axiom, ‘* that it is moft advantageous to haften, 32 what 444 PRODUCTION Sect. XVI. 2.4, what we can, the time of bloffomine ; and to protract the time of ripening.”’ Horfe-hoeing Hufbandry, Ch. XI. p..147 3 for it is the farinaceous refervoir of nutriment laid up in the cotyledon of the new {eed for the future growth of the corculum or new embryon, for which we cultivate the plant ; and this refervoir is formed between the blofloming and ripening of the grain, either before or after the impregnation of the pericarp, or feed-veffels, and thus renders the grain plump and heavy. Mr. Tull in another part of his work re- commends an additional horfe-hoeing immediately after the bloffom is over, to fupply more nutriment to the ripening grain. Ch. IX, p- 120. Mr.’Tull efteems the eating down of wheat by fheep to be generally a very injurious practice in this climate, by rendering the ears light and the {traw weak ; by retarding the time of bioffoming, as well as the growth of the ftems. 4.In the moift fprings of this climate many annual or biennial plants are liable to fhoot out too many or too ftrong viviparous branches, which can not generate flower-buds foon enough to ripen their feeds in our cold and fhort fummers. This always happens to cucumbers and melons, which were brought from warmer countries, and to the peas and beans of our gardens, and fometimes to corn- plants, which are liable in wet feafons to produce too ftrong ftems and foliage, which have not time to generate the flower-bud at their fummit foon enough to perfeé&t and to ripen the feed. Melons and cucumbers have been mentioned in Sect. XV. 2. 5. and in refpect to garden beans their viviparous tops fhould be pinched off, which if not too old may be eaten as an agreeable vegetable, when well boiled ; and thus more nutriment is derived to the oviparous buds’ beneath, which renders them larger, and perhaps more numerous. To pre- vent field peas from running into ftraw in moitt foils lefs manure fhould be ufed; and field beans may have their tops cut off by a -{cythe fixed into a ftraight fhaft. Annual cotton plants are much cultivated in fome colder parts of the 3 to 1€S, ems t to not ed 5 thy pre- qure by 4 ts of thé Ger KVLaes OR SPEDS. ‘a9 the Chinefe empire, and the cultivators lop off the tops to increafe the number of pods, and to haften their production ; and in the Welt Indies the flowers of the rofe tree are believed to be accelerated and increafed by topping the branches. Embafly to China by fir G. Staun- ton, Vol. III. p. 202. 8vo. edit. : When the ftems and foliage of wheat are thus too vigorous, it may be advantageous to eat it down by fheep as above mentioned ; which may not only deftroy the too vigorous viviparous central {tems, but alfo produce a greater number of lateral ones; which may fooner terminate in oviparous ones, fo as to produce more grain with lefs ftraw. 5. It is alfo probable, that rolling them as mentioned above, if it be done in a morning before the dew is off, might fo far bruife the ftems and roots, as to ftop their too great propenfity to nourifh the viviparous buds, and in confequence to favour the growth of theovi- parous buds on their fummits ; which might forward the harveit fea- fon, as well as increafe the product of grain in proportion to the quan- tity of ftraw. From rolling wheat in {pring on fields where the fur- face remains uneven or cloddy, another advantage may be derived, by breaking the clods or eminences, and thus earthing up many of the ftems above the fecond joint,.and thus inducing a new fet of root- {cions to put forth, or tiller. See Sect. werk. 6. The garden plants, which are too vigorous, in fituations where there is a command of water, as in the gardens of warm climates, fhould have lefs water derived to them, till the bloffoms appear ;_be- caufe a greater quantity of moifture facilitates the production of vivi- parous buds fo much as to retard that of oviparous ones, and thus diminifhes the quantity as well as retards the ripening of the crop. But in. thefe fituations, as foon as the bloffoms appear, a greater fup-. ply of water fhould be allowed, which will contribute to nourifh and enlarge them, as mentioned above ; as is practifed in fome countries of the eaft, where they do not flood their rice-grounds, till they are in flower. 446 PRODUCTION SECT. XVI. 2 Pri Joe rT. flower. See Se&. XV. 3- 4. But lefs water is again required,. when the feed has arrived at its full fize, as before {poken of, Hil. 1. To forward the ripening of feeds. A due degree of warmth and of drynefs feems to include the circumftances principally requir- ed. The warmth not only accelerates the various fecretions of vege- tables by increafing their irritability and confequent aétivity, but, af- ter the mucilaginous, ftarchy, faccharine, and oily matters are fecret- ed into proper refervoirs, may contribute perhaps chemically to their change into each other, or to their greater perfeCtion. - And. the drynefs of the air, whether hot or cold, is neceflary to give perfect ripenefs to feeds; as otherwife the due exhalation of the aqueous parts of the fecreted fluids, which form the nutritive parts of feeds, does not properly proceed ; and the feed gathered in this condition is liable to mildew in the barn.or granary, or to become fhrivelled and wrinkled, as it dries. 2. It is believed in Scotland, that even the frofty nights of au- tumn contribute to ripen the late crops in that inclement climate,, which fome have afcribed to the moonlight, but, which I have in- deed fufpected, that the froft may in fome meafure effect by convert- ing the mucilage of the grain fooner into ftarch. This I was induc- ed to imagine by having obferved that bookbinder’s pafte, made by . boiling wheat-flour in water, loft its adhefion after having been frozen ; and alfo froma culinary obfervation, that when ice or {now is mingled with flour inftead of water in making pancakes, that it much improves them; the truth of which I have heard boldly af- ferted, but never witneffed the experiment. See Seét. VI. Cre There is neverthelefs an experiment related by Dr. Roebuck in the Edinburgh Tranfa@tions, Vol. I. which feems to fhew, that the " grains of oats continue to fill and to become Heavier even during the autumnal frofts ; which may probably occur during the funfhine of the middle part of the day, as occurs in the vernal frofts of this. part of the country. In 1780 near Borrowftonefs the oats were green even SECT. XVI.°3. 3, OF SEEDS. 449 even in: O@ober, when the ice was three fourths of an inch thick. He {elected feveral ftalks of oats of nearly equal fulnefs, cut half of them, and marked the remainder, which continued fourteen days. longer in the field; after being dry, the grains of each parcel were weighed; and eleven of thofe grains, which had remained in the field, weighed thirty of thofe which had been cut a fortnight fooner. This important experiment fhould teach our farmers not to cut their peas and beans too early in inclement autumns; which are fo frequently feen to become fhrunk and fhrivelled in the barn or gra- nary, and inclined to rot from deficient ripenefs, and confequent foftnefs or moifture ; and thus contain much lefs flour in proportion to the hufk or bran. 3. The wheat produced after land has been much limed, is believ- ed to be thinner fkinned, and to yield more good meal, than other wheat, and to make better bread. See Se@. X. 6. 7. On this ac- count I fuppofe one ufe of lime is to forward the ripening of feeds by converting their mucilage fooner into ftarch or oil; as according to the experiments of M. Parmentier the goodnefs of bread depends much on the quantity of ftarch contained in it; who found, that if the ftarch taken from eight pounds of raw potatoes, by grating them into cold water, was mixed with eight pounds of boiled pota- toes, as good bread might ‘be produced as from wheat flour. See sect. VI. 3. , 4. The feeds of fome plants, which alfo propagate themfelves by bulbs at their roots, will not ripen in this climate naturally, as the orchis ; but are faid to ripen, if the new bulb be cut off early in the feafon; or if the propagation by their roots be retarded or prevented by confining them in garden-pots, as the lily of the valley ; and it is probable, that the feeds of potatoes might be rendered more perfetly ripe, and in contequence better for the’ cultivation of new varieties ; if the young roots were taken away early in the feafon from that, which is to bear feed; or if they were confined in garden pots. 7 If 448 PRODUCTION © Sger. XVI 41. If the orchis could by thefe means be cultivated from feed on moift meadows or moraffes, it might become a profitable article of ‘hufbandry ; as when it is fcalded in boiling water, and the peel rub- bed off, it is fold by the name of falep, and might become.a nutri- tive article. of diet, like fago and vermicelli, if it could be propagated at lefs expence. It is alfo probable, that Jerufalem, or ground artichokes, helian- thus tuberofus, might be induced to ripen its feeds in this country, if the new roots from a few of the forwardeft plants were taken away early in the feafon, or if they were confined in garden pots, And-if this plant could be propagated by feed, it might make an ufe- ful produé in agriculture; as horfes are very fond of the leaves, and {wine of the roots; both of which are produced in great quantity; and as the Jatter contain much fugar, they muft be very nutritive; and in refpeét to their culinary ufe are remarkably grateful to moift palates, as well as nutritive, when cut into flices, and baked in beef or mutton pies; but are {aid to be flatulent in the bowels of thofe whofe digeftion is not very powerful; a property which might be worthy attention, where the propenfity to fermentation is required, as in making bread with potatoes, or in the diftillery. It is alfo probable, that if the large new root-fuckers of other pe- rennial plants, which do not bear bulbous or tuberous roots, and which are late in ripening their feeds, or do not ripen them perfe@ly in this climate, were cut or torn off early in the feafon, as of the rheum palmatum, palmated rhubarb, or theum hybridum, mule rhubarb; or if their roots were confined in garden-pots, that they might be more liable completely to ripen their refpective feeds, See Sect. XV. 2.4, 1V.1. To generate the beft kinds of feeds the moft healthy plants muft be chofen, and thofe which are moft early in refpec&t to the fea- fon; thefe fhould be fo infulated, as to have no weak plants of the fame f{pecies, or even genus, in their vicinity, left the fecundating 4 duft lans mil ‘ken Dots, ufe- and ity Ve ; r0ift beef hofe it be ired, sr pee , and fedtly yf the mule - they ;, oe Jants r fear of the datiNs duit Sect, XVI. 4.17. OF SEEDsS. 449 duft of weaker plants’ fhould be blown by the: winds upon the ftig- mata of the ftronger, and thus produce a lefs. vigorous progeny. Where new. varieties are required, the male duft of one good va- riety, as of the nonpareil apple, fhould. be fhed upon the ftigmas of another good variety, as of the golden-pippin and it is probable fome new excellent variety might be thus generated. Mr. Knight has given a curious experiment of his impregnating the ftigmas of the pea-blofioms of one variety with the farina of ano= ther. He fays, Treatife of Apple and Pear, p. 42, ‘* Blofloms of a {mall white garden-pea, in which the males had previoufly been deftroyed, were impregnated with the farina of a large clay-coloured kind with purple blofloms. The produce of the feeds thus obtain- ed were of adark grey colour, but thefe having no fixed habits, were foon changed by cultivation into a numerous variety of very large and extremely luxuriant white ones ; which were not only much larger and more productive than the original white ones, but the number of feeds in each pod was increafed from feven or eight to eight. or nine, and not unfrequently to ten. The newly made grey kinds I found were eafily made white again by impregnating their bloffoms with the farina of another white kind, In this experiment the feeds, which grew towards the point of the pod, and were by pofition firft expofed to the action of the male, would fometimes produce feeds like it in colour, whilft thofe at the other end would follow the fe- male. ‘© In other inftances the whole produce of the pod would take the colour of one or other of the parents ; and I had once an inftance in which two peas at one end of a pod produced white feeds like the male, two at the other end grey ones like the female, and the central feeds took the intermediate fhade, a clay colour. Something very fimilar appears to take place in animals, which produce many young ones at a birth, when the male and female are of oppofite colours. From fome very i e€ ‘ re mi | e very imperfect experiments I have made, I am led to fuf- 3 3M pect 450 PRODUCTION Secr. XVI. 5. 1, pect that confiderable advantages would be found to arife from the ufe of new or regenerated varieties of wheat, and thefe are eafily ob- tained, as this plant readily {ports in varieties, whenever different kinds are fown together.” Sce Seét. VII. 2. 6. of this work. 2. ‘The white and blue peas fown in fields as well as in gardens fometimes poflefs the property of becoming foft by boiling, at other times not. This circumftance is faid to depend on the nature of the foil, but has not yet been fufficiently invefligated; perhaps the greater or lefs maturity of the peas at the time of reaping them may have more or lefs contributed to fill their fibrous cells or divifions with mucilage or ftarch. The greater or lefs mealinefs produced by boil- ing potatoes feems to be an analogous circumftance, and is thought by fome to arife from the nature of the foil rather than from the {pe- cles or variety of the planted root. | The mealinefs of fome boiled potatoes, and the foftnefs of fome boiled peas, may occafionally be affected by the acidity of the {pring water, in which they are boiled; but is generally I fuppofe ow- ing to the mucilage of fome of them being more or lefs coagulable by heat, than that of others, Something fimilar to which obtains in animal mucus, as the cryftalline humour of the eyes of fifth become hard and opake by boiling; while the {kins of animals, and the ten- dons of their feet, become'a foft mucus or jelly by boiling ; and fome of the liquids, which are found in the cells or cavities of the’ body in dropfies, are obferved to coagulate by heat, and others to become more fluid. The caufes of this difference merits further inquiry. | ViaeGs collect good feeds,according tq the obfervations of Mr. Cooper of Philadelphia, confits not in procuring new feeds from diftant places, as is generally fuppofed, but in feleGting the beft feeds and roots of his own ; which though he has continually fown or planted them in the fame foil, every article of his produce is greatly fuperior to thofe of any other perfon, who {upplies the market, and they feem ftill in a ftate of improvement. He believed that no kind of inceft would ow- alable ins in come = ten- | fome ody in scome rye ‘oope ii{tant ds and Janted perior y feem ncelt ould Seer. XVI. ert. "OF SEEDS, 451 would degenerate the breeds of vegetables, and therefore adopted the plan of Mr. Bakewell in England in refpect to quadrupeds, who con- tinued to improve his flocks and herds by the marriages of thofe, in which the properties he withed to produce were moft con{picuous without regard to confanguinity or inceft. Mr. Cooper was led to his prefent practice, which he began more than forty years ago, by obferving that vegetables of all kinds were very fubje& to change with refpect to their time of coming to matu- rity, and other properties, but that the beft feeds never failed to pro- duce the beft plants. Among a great number of experiments he par- ticularly mentions the following. ‘¢ About the year 1746 his father procured feeds of the long wa- tery {quath, and though they have been ufed on the farm ever fince that time without any change, they are at this time better than they were at the firft. ‘¢ His early peas were procured from London in the year 1756, and though they have been planted on the fame place every feafon, they have been fo far from degenerating, that they are preferable to what they were then. The feeds of his afparagus he had from New York in 1752, and though they have been planted in the fame manner, the plants are greatly improved. : _ «© It is more particularly complained of, that potatoes degenerate, when they are planted from the fame roots in the fame place. At this Mr. Cooper fays, he does not wonder, when it is cuftomary with farmers to fell or confume the beft, and to plant from the refufe; whereas having obferved that fome of his plants produced potatoes, that were larger, better fhaped, and in greater abundance than others, he took his roots from them only ; and the next feafon he found, that the produce was of a quality fuperior to any, that he had ever had be- fore. This practice he ftill continues, and finds that he is abundantly rewarded for his trouble. | ** Mr. Cooper is alfo careful to fow the plants, from which he raifes | 3M2 his ' 452 PR ODVLE1TTOS Sect. XVI, e 2. his feed, at a confiderable diftance from any others. Thus, when his radifhes are fit for ufe, he takes ten or twelve, that he moft ap- proves, and plants them at leaft one hundred yards from others, that blofflom at the fame time. In the fame manner he treats all his other plants, varying the circumftances according to their nature. ‘¢ About the year 1772 a friend of his fent him a few grains of a fmall kind of Indian corn, not larger than goofe fhot, which produc- ed from eight to ten ears ona ftalk. ‘They were alfo fmall, and he found, that few of them ripened before the froft. Some of the largeft and earlieft he faved, and planted them between rows of a larger and earlier kind, and the produce was much improved. He then planted from thofe that had produced the greateft number of the largeft ears, and that were the firft ripe, and the next feafon the produce with refpect to quality and quantity was preferable to any, that he had ever planted before. ‘* The common method of faving feed-corn by taking the ears from the heap is attended, he fays, with two difadvantages ; one is the taking the largeft ears, of which in general only one grows on a ftalk, which leflens the produce ; and the other is taking ears that ripen at different times. ‘¢ Many years ago Mr. Cooper renewed all the feed of his winter erain from a fingle plant, which he had obferved to be more produc- tive, and of a better quality than the reft; which he is fatisfied has | been of great ufe. And he is of opinion, that all kinds of garden vegetables may be improved by the methods defcribed above, par- ticular care being taken that different kinds of the fame vegetables do not bloom at the fame time near together ; fince by this means they injure one another.” Communications to the Board of Agriculture, Vol. I. part 3. Letter from Dr. Prieftley. } 2. As the varieties of plants are believed to be produced by different foils and climates, which varieties will afterwards continue through ~ many generations, even when the plants are removed to other foils So eae er 32, Vhen bas thar other S$ of a Oduc- > and f the ; of a , He ber of on the ) any, 1e ears one is son a rs that winter sroduc- ed has . garden re, pate bles 40 ns they cultures 5; (rere enrous! bet fails ; od SuceNhVE 6c. MOF! SWEMS 453 and climates, it muft be advantageous for the agricultor to infpect other crops as well as his own; and thus wherever he can find a fuperior vegetation to collect {eeds from it; which is more certain to improve his crops than an indiferiminate change of feed. But where feed-corn is purchafed without a previous obfervation of its fuperior excellence, perhaps it would be more advantageous to take that from better kinds of foil, and from fomewhat better cli- mates; as the good habits acquired by fuch feeds may be continued long after their removal to inferior fituations. And on the contrary, care fhould be taken not to collect a change of feeds from worfe cli- mates or inferior foils, unlefs the agricultor is-previoufly certain that they are of a fuperior kind. : VI. 1. Zo determine the goodne/s of feeds, the weighing a given mea- fare of them may generally be efteemed a criterion; as it is known, that when feeds are put into cold water, thofe which are lefs perfect are liable to {wim, and the found ones to fink ; thus the imperfect feeds of rye-grafs and of clover may be detected by throwing a fpoon- ful of them into water; but the feeds of rye-grafs are {aid to be fre- quently adulterated by a mixture of the feeds of twitch or dog’s grafs, which can only be difcovered by an experienced eye. This even is faid to be a teft of the goodnefs of malt; as thofe grains, which are not perfectly germinated, will {wim with one end upwards, I fuppofe the root end; and thofe which are perfectly germinated {wim on their fide, whilft the found ungerminated barley finks in water. It is therefore a proper criterion of good feed-wheat to caft it into {alt and water, juft fo faline as to float an egg; as the more falt is diffolved in the water, the heavier it becomes ; and hence. none but quite found. grains of wheat will fink in this brine; and that which {wims is properly rejected. This rejection of the light grains. by — {teeping wheat in brine 1s probably of greater confequence to the en- fing crop, than the adhefion of any falt to the erain, which has es Bc been 10 PRODUCTION — Sacv.XVL 6.5 been believed to deftroy the eggs of infes fuppofed to adhere to it, or to fertilize the foil. | 2. The weight of a given meafure of corn will alfo with confider- able certainty difcover the quantity of hufk or bran contained in it, compared to the quantity of flour; as that grain, which is cut too eatly, or which is otherwife not quite ripe, as happens in wet fea- fons, fhrinks in the barn or granary, and becomes wrinkled, and has thus a greater proportion of {kin or bran, than that which has been more perfectly ripened, and will hence weigh lighter in proportion, A teft of this kind may enable us to determine whether peas and beans, or oats, are preferable in refpeét to economy as provender for horfes. A ftrike or buthel of oats weighs perhaps forty pounds, and a {trike or bufhel of peas and beans perhaps fixty pounds ; and as the {kin of peas and beans is much lefs in quantity than that of oats, I fuppofe there may be at leaft fifteen pounds of flour more in a {trike of peas and beans than in a ftrike of oats. There is alfo reafon to be- lieve, that the flour of beans is more nutritive than that of oats, as appears in the fattening of hogs; whence according to the refpec- tive prices of thefe two articles I fufpeét, that peas and beans gene= rally fupply a cheaper provender for horfes than oats, as well as for other domeftic animals. But as the flour of peas and beans is more oily, I believe, than that of oats, it may in general be fomewhat more difficult of digeftion ; hence when a horfe has taken a ftomach full of peas and beans alone, he may be lefs ative for an hour or two, as his ftrength will be more employed in the digeftion of them, than when he has taken a {tomach full of oats. According to the experiment of a German phyfician, who gave to two dogs, which had been kept a day fafting, a large quantity of fleth food ; and then taking one of them into the fields - hunted him with great activity for three or four hours, and left the other by the fire. An emetic was then given to each of them, and the = J ; fea. d has been ‘10n, > and er for » and 1d as oats, trike > be- Sy as {pec- zene= as for 1 that tion } lone, more nach cially Sect. XVI. 6. 3. OF SEEDS. 455 the food of the fleeping dog was found perfetly digefted, whilft that of the hunted one had undergone but little alteration. Hence it may be found advifable to mix bran of wheat with the peas and beans, a food of lefs nutriment, but of eafier digeftion ; or to let the horfes eat before or after them the coarfe tuffocks of four grafs, which remain in moift paftures in the winter ; or laftly, to mix finely cut ftraw with them. 3. Another way of diftinguifhing light corn from heavy is by win- nowing ; as the furface of the light grains being greater in proportion to their folid contents, they will be carried further by the current, of air, which is produced by the van; though the heavy grains would roll further on the floor after rolling down a grate to feparate the duft; becaufe their vis inertiz would carry them further, after they are put in motion; and their furfaces would be refitted by the air no more than thofe of the lighter grains. 4. Finally, there is reafon to believe that a progreffrve improve- ment of many feeds exifts during the warmeér days of winter in our granaries, which probably confifts in the procefs of the converfion of mucilage into ftarch ; in the fame manner as the harth juices of crab- apples, and of auftere pears, are continually changing into fugar dur- ing the winter ; both which proceffes are probably in part chemical, . like the flow but perpetual change of fugar into vinous fpirit, when the juices of {weeter apples and pears, or grapes, are,put into bottles. in the manufacture of cyder, perry, and wine. This improvement of wheat, and of barley, and of oats, is welk known to the baker, the maltfter, and the horfe-dealer; as better bread is made from old wheat, and barley is converted into better malt in the vernal months; and horfes are believed to thrive better, and to poffefs more vigour, when they are fed with old than with new oats. VII. 1. The prefervation of feeds next demands our attention. Thofe feeds which are liable to lie upon the ground, as peas and corn, 456 PRODUCTION Sect. XVI. 9.1. corn, when thrown down by ftormy or wet feafons, fhould be ga- thered rather earlier ; left they fhould begin to germinate, as they lie upon the ground, and would hence become a kind of malt after dry- ing. Other feeds fhould be gathered, before they would fpontanes oufly fall from their pericarps, to prevent the lofs which muft other- wife enfue in the reaping, or mowing, barn, which often amounts to as much as is neceflary to fow the land, which produced it, as well as to fupply the depredations of birds, infects, and vermin. Monf. B..G. Sage accufes the farmers of fome parts of France of colleGting their wheat with many green weeds immediately after. reaping it, and prefling it clofe together in their barns; by which the ftack undergoes a fermentation with great heat like fome hay- ftacks ; and that the corn is by this fermentation killed, and will not grow when fown like hay-feeds from a fermented hay-ftack, men- tioned in Se&t. X. 11.73 and alfo that the gluten, or vegeto-animal matterofthecorn, is deftroyed ; and it on that account makes lefs agrees able and lefs wholefome bread ; and laftly, that the ftraw is much ins - jured by becoming mouldy. Journal de Phyfique, Sep. 1794. Monf. B. G. Sage adds, that the following procefs will diteole ‘ whether wheat ee been thus injured, which may be interefting both to the baker, and wheat-buyer, who wants it for feed-wheat.. Make a pafte with flour and water, then wath it with your hands under water, which mutft be frequently changed, till it no longer becomes difcoloured. ‘The fubftance remaining in the hands is the gluten; if the corn be good, this is elaftic, and will contraé&t when drawn out; if the corn has begun to heat, it is brittle ; if the corn ‘has fer- mented, none of the gluten will be obtained. In this country, where corn is feldom cut too early, or preffed to- gether on the ftack, the principal circumftance required is to keep _ it dry; as the ftraw is not liable to ferment like new hay made with young grafs, which contains fugar at every joint of the ftem. To preferve and carrying them to the Sect. XVI7.1 OF SEEDS. 487 preferve a ftack of wheat dry, a good cover of thatch may feem fuf- ficient ; but as this is liable to injury by vermin, it would be an ad- ditional fecurity, if at the time of making the ftack the fheaves were laid higheft in the middle, and lower on every fide, fo that if any wet fhould find its way into the ftack, it might drain onwards along the ftraw of the fheaves, which would thus aé like thatch through- out the whole ftack. © There are inftances of great durability of feeds, which have been’ preferved dry, and fecured from either fo great heat or fo great cold, as might deftroy their life or organifm. Thus there is an account of the feeds of Indian wheat, which grew well in a hot-houfe after having been kept thirty-four years, as was accurately afcertained. Bath So-~ ciety, Vol. V. p. 464. And it has been lately afferted, that many feeds of more than a hundred years old, which were found in fome old herbarium at Vienna, have been made to verminate by the ufe of oxygenated muriatic acid and water. Philof. Magaz. But if the or- ganic life of a feed be deftroyed by froft, or fire, or mechanic injury, _ putrefaction fucceeds, and decompofition ; as when the organic life of an egg is deftroyed by violently agitating it, it is Known foon to pu- trefy. To preferve feeds in barns or eranaries our principal attention fhould be firft to make them dry, and fecondly to keep them dry ; becaufe no feeds can vegetate without moifture. The art of drying moft feeds muft confift in duly ventilating them,. efpecially on dey days; which may be done by frequently turning over the heaps of them ; and to preferve them dry in this climate the door and windows of granaries fhould open to the fouth to receive the warmth of the fun, with apertures round the building for fufficient ventilation ; which muft be prevented from admitting rain or {now by fealtetiric boards.on the outfide. é The heaps of corn fhould be furrounded with boards to keep them from conta& with brick or ftone walls; which, when warm moift 3N fouth- 458 PRODUCTION | Szcr. XVI. 42, -fouth-weft winds fucceed cold north-eaft winds, are liable to precipi- tate the moifture from the atmofphere by their coldnefs, and to coms municate it to all bodies in contact with them. For a fimilar purpofe in {tables fome have put up a tall wooden trunk from the chamber to the room below, three or four feet {quare, and ten or twelve feet high, with a fliding valve to draw out the corn below, which is poured in at the top; in three or four places a tin or wooden pipe full of holes is made to pafs horizontally through the box to give air to the corn, the whole of which, when any of it is drawn out below, is moved in defcending; and new furfaces of corn are applied to the ait-holes of the horizontal tubes. The moft fecure way of preferving a great quantity of wheat, ac- cording to Mr. Tull, is by gently drying it on a hair-cloth ina malt- kiln, with no other fuel but clean ftraw, and no greater heat than that of the funfhine. In this fituation the wheat remained from four hours to twelve hours, according to the previous dampnefs of it. Mr. Tull knew a farmer in Oxfordfhire who purchafed wheat, when it was cheap, and kept it by thus drying it for many years, and made a large fortune by felling it again in dearer feafons. The life of the feed was not deftroyed by this procefs; as he aflerts, that fome of it grew, which had been kept in this manner feven years ; whereas in drying potatoes on a malt-kiln fo great heat was employed as to de- ftroy their life, and violent putrefaétion enfued, as mentioned in Se&. ay aes 2. A due ventilation alfo, where corn is kept in the common warmth of the atmofphere in this climate, is neceflary, except in feafons of froft, and alfo the admiffion of light ; as otherwife the ve- getable mucor, called mould, is liable to grow upon the corn, and in- jure it; as this mucor like fome other fungufes will grow, where there is little or no change of air, and without light, as in — if there be fufficient mpidure and warmth. 3. Another method of preferving feeds may confift in fochadings them eas if to de- \ Sect. pmo spt in 1€ ve" ad iit where lars, if judiPg them ~ Sect. XVI. 7. 4 OF SEEDS: ¢.. 459 them from heat, as in granaries beneath the foil ; which are fo deep or fo well covered with earth, as not to be affected by the difference of feafons. ‘Thus there have been inftances of muftard-feed produc- ing a crop on digging up earth, which had not been removed for many years, and, as was believed, even for ages. And in ice-houfes it is probable, that not only feeds might be long preferved, but perhaps fruits alfo ; if they were afterwards very gradually thawed by putting them into cold water, that they might not be deftroyed by the too great ftimulus of fadden heat, as mentioned in Se&t. XV. 4. 1. 4. Where it has been neceflary fuddenly to colleé& and to pre- ferve great heaps of corn without fhelter for the provifion of armies, fome have moderately moiftemed the upper furface of the heap daily,- which has occafioned the upper grains to grow, and thus to produce a {ward or turf over thofe below ; which, it 1s {aid, has thus pre- ferved the lower part of the magazine. But in refpeét to granaries for the purpofe of laying up very large quantities of grain to prevent fa- mines in fcarce years, I fuppofe the ftacks of covetous farmers, who keep their corn in cheap years, hoping to fell it at a better price in {carce ones, is a more certain method, and a cheaper one to the pub- lic, to keep up a fufficient {tock of corn, than by any other experi- ment that can be devifed. 5. Gardeners in general prefer new feeds to old for their principal crops, as they are believed to come up fooner, and with greater cer- tainty, and to grow more luxuriantly. “* But peas and beans of a year old,” Mr. Marfhall obferves, ‘* are by fome preferred to new, as not fo likely to run to ftraw. And cucumbers and melons are beft to be feveral years old, in order to their fhooting lefs vigoroufly, and thence becoming more fruitful. But this principle is carried too far by fome gardeners, who fay thefe feeds cannot be too old, and will allow ten years to be within bounds ; three for cucumbers, and four for melons, however is age enough. 66 As to the age of feeds, at which they may be fown, it is uncer- g3N2 tain, 460 PRODUCTION Sect. XVI. 4. 6, tain, and depends much upon how they are kept ; thofe of cucum- bers and melons are good a long time, becaufe very carefully pre- ferved. : ‘* Peas and beans will germinate very well at feven years of age ; but the feeds of lettuces and kidney-beans, and fome others, are not to be depended upon after a year or two; and generally {peaking the {maller feeds are of the leaft duration.” Marfhall on Gardening, 6. Where feeds of a perifhable nature are to be carried to, or brought from, diftant countries, I fufpe& that covering them in fugar would be the moft certain and falutary method of preferving them; and even, that flefh meat cut into thin flices, and covered with fugar, or fyrup, or treacle, would be better preferved than in brine, and afford a much more falutary nourifhment to our failors. Since I wrote the above I have feen a paper in the TranfaGtions of the Society of Arts, Vol. XVI. from Mr. Sneyde of Belmont in Staf- fordfhire, who having obferved fome feeds, which came accidentally amongft raifins, to grow readily, direéted many feeds to be fent from the Weft Indies covered with raifins, and others in fugar, and others in the ufual manner of fending them, and found, ‘that thofe im- merfed in fugar or covered with raifins both looked well, and grew readily ; whereas many of the others would not vegetate. Since the powder of freth burnt charcoal is known {o powerfully to abforb all putrid vapours, it is probable the feeds mixed with and covered with charcoal duft, which has been recently burnt, or not long expofed to the air, might be fuccefsfully employed for the pre- fervation of feeds either in long voyages, or in domeftic granaries. VUI.1. Lo fow feeds advantageou/ly it is probable, that thofe of our native plants might be fuffered to drop on the furface of the earth in the autumn, as they fall from their parent plants, covered only by their deciduous leaves ; in which fituation their fruit might contri- bute to nourifh them, as our crabs and floes; or defend them from infeéts, as the acrid hufk of the walnut; or from birds, as the bard ftones. Scet. XVI. 8.1. -OF SEEDS. 46% (tones or fhells of nuts and cherries, fince this is the procefs. of nature. : But when the feeds brought originally from other climates are to be fown, an attention is required to the circumftance of feafon and of foil. Thofe, which will ripen their feeds in the fame year, are to be fowed in the early fpring, and covered lightly with earth to preferve them from birds and infects ; and thould be buried thus beneath the foil, foon after it has been ploughed or dug, as its interitices are then replete with atmofpheric air ; which may be neceflary to ftimulate into elevation the plume of the embryon plant ; as the moifture of the earth is neceflary to ftimulate the root into its elongation down- wards. Thofe feeds neverthelefs, which will not perfect their vegetation in the fame year, muft be fown in the early autumn ; and though all feeds vegetate better, when placed but a little beneath the furface of the foil, as one inch, becaufe they have then a better fupply of at- mofpheric air, which may be neceflary for their firft growth, before they have acquired leaves above ground; yet as.many foreign feeds may not be fufficiently hardy to bear our inclement winters, it may be neceffary, as fome believe, to bury them an inch and a half, or two inches, deep in the foil, to prevent the frofts from doing them injury, as well as to preferve them from the depredation of birds. And the drill femination, or fowimg all kinds of feeds in rows, is the moft convenient method for fowing them at a determined depth, and alfo for the purpofe of keeping the young plants clear from weeds by the more eafy application of the hoe. To fow many feeds earlier than is ufually pradtifed is much: re- commended.. There is a paper by Lord Orford in Mr. Young’s An- nals of Agriculture, Vol. IX. p. 385, who feems to have found con- fiderable-advantage by fowing barley fo early as.the feventh of Fe- bruary, three and a half bufhels on an acre. But as much moifture with or without fubiequent froft is more liable to deftroy the em- bryon 462 PRODUCT LGN Sect: XVI. 8. 2, bryon in its very early ftate in the feed, than after it has fhot out roots and a fummit, and thus acquired fome habits of life; this early fowing muft fometimes be practifed with caution. Seeds may neverthelefs be fown ftill earlier in hot-houfes, or in warm fitua- tions, as peas, beans, wheat, and may be afterwards tranfplanted in the vernal months with fafety and advantage. “See Sect. X. 3. 6. The difficulty of determining the beft feafon for fowing feeds in the {pring, owing to the variation of the weather in the fame latitude, as well as in laying down the exact feafons for fowing in different latitudes, occafioned Linneus to conftruc&t, what he terms a calendar of Flora; which was afterwards adapted to this climate by Stilling- fleet; which confifted in obferving the firft appearance of the root- {cions, or flowers of the uncultivated native vegetables ; with direc- tions to fow the cerealia, or harveft feeds, when fuch plants or flowers became vifible. By attention to fuch obfervations on the un- cultivated native plants in many climates, it is probable, that ingeni- ous tables might be produced, which might direct the beft time of fowing the ufeful feeds in all latitudes, and in all fituations. Another table of the climates, where plants grow naturally, and of their native fituations in refpect to moifture or drynefs, hill or valley, with the kind of foil where they were originally found, might alfo contribute to their fuccefsful cultivation. 2. In the gardens near large towns, where the land is more va- luable and better manured, gardeners fometimes fow two or three kinds of feeds on the fame ground for the purpofe of economy. Thus Mr. Marthall obferves, that ‘* on the fame ground they fow radifhes, lettuces, and carrots ; the radifhes are drawn young for the table, the lettuces to plant out, anda fufficient crop of carrots is left; for car- rots, if you wifh them to be large, fhould not grow very near to each other.” In defence of this mode of culture it is faid, if one crop fails, the others may do well, and there is no lofs of ground or time; and if all 8. t out > this 3 May fitua. ted in 6. in the itude, ferent lendar illing- root- direc- | ats or 1e UN- ngeni- ime of and of valley, ht alfo ore Va- yp three _ Thus idifhess sle, the for cat” near the J ailSs . and ; Ait i t ' . t = Srot. XVI. 8. 2. OF SEEDS. 463 all fucceed, they do very well. Radithes and fpinach are commonly fown together by the common gardeners, and many manoeuvres of inter-cropping are made by them, as the fowing or planting between rows of vegetables that are wide afunder, or prefently to come off, or in the alleys of things cultivated on beds. <¢ Thus if a piece of horfe-radifh be new planted, it may be top- cropped with radifhes or fpinach, &c. ;. or if a piece of potatces be planted wide, a bean may be put in between each fet in every or every other row; a thin crop of onions upon new afparagus beds, is a common praétice, drawing them young from about the plants.” Introduc. to Gardening. Rivington. The farmer likewife, in the cultivation of grafles for feeding fheep, finds an advantage in fowing a mixture of feeds on the fame ground, as rye-grafs, trefoil, and clover, which are faid to fucceed each other in refpeét to the produétion or. maturity of their herbage, as in Sed. XVIII. 1. 1. And for the purpofe of preventing fmut it may be ufe- ful, as I have before obferved, to fow in the fame ground in feparate rows two kinds of wheat, one of a forwarder nature than the other ; whence if the farina of one kind fhould be injured by wet weather, that of the other may impregnate the ears of both. The two’kinds of wheat recommended are bearded wheat and {mooth-headed wheat, which are called by farmers cone wheat and Lammas wheat; of both of which there are many varieties, and it is aflerted that one third of cone wheat is frequently fowed with two thirds of Lammas wheat, and that the crops are much fuperior to either of them feparately. Hall’s Encyclop.' Art. Agriculture. In refpeé& to kinds of ioil thofe fhould be chofen, which have been found by obfervation to fuit particular feeds, both in regard to their nutritive properties, and the moifture and warmth of their fituations. And for thofe feeds, which produce tuberous roots within the earth previous to their flowering, as potatoes, parfnips, radifhes, a foil of lefs cohefion fhould be found or prepared. 3, Add me PRODUCTION _ Sscr.XVL8,3. 3. Add to this, that there are fome feeds, as thofe of carrots, that are fo difficult to-be difleminated in uniform quantities, that it has been cuftomary to mix them previoufly with fand or garden mould, for the purpofe of giving them weight, or bulk, or to detach chien from each other. And fome even fuffer them to begin to put forth their roots in fuch a mixture of moift fand or garden mould for the purpofe of more regularly difperfing them. In dry feafons the foaking feeds in water, a day or two before committing them to the ground, will forward their growth, as well as by artificially watering the ground before or after fowing them; and the foaking them in a {olution of falt and water may have ano« ther advantage of giving an opportunity of reje€ting the light feeds, which float, and perhaps of deftroying fome infe&ts which may adhere to them; the fprinkling fome kinds of feed with lime may alfo be of advantage for the purpofe of deftroying infetts, if fuch ad- here to them, and of attracting moifture from the air, or lower parts of the earth, or for its other ufeful properties; but where the feed, foil, and feafon, are adapted to each other, none of thefe condiments are required. © It may neverthelefs on other accounts be veryadvantageous to fteep many kinds of grain in the black liquor, which oozes from manure heaps. Mr. Chappel, in the papers of the Bath Society, found great benefit by fteeping barley in the fluid above mentioned for twenty- four hours, and fkimming off the light grains, On taking it out of the water he mixed wood-afhes fifted with the grain to make it fpread regularly, and obtained a much finer crop, than from the fame corn fown without preparation. To this we may add, that to fteep the feed in a folution of dung in water, as in the draining from a dung- hill, is believed in China both to forward the growth of the plant, and. to defend it from variety of infeéts, according to the information | given to fir G. Staunton. tae is an old proverb, ‘* fow dry and fet wet ;” but where the = 4 earth iments ‘0 fteep nanure d great wenty- - out of t fpread ne corn eep the 4 dung e plant, ir mation here the eart Sect. XVI. 3. 4. OF SEED. 465 earth has been lately turned over by the plough or fpade, there can be no bad confequence from fowing during rain in general; but in fome clay grounds much foftened by rain, if feed be put into holes, and a dry feafon fucceeds, an impenetrable cruft may fupervene by the exhalation of the water, and the fetting, as it is called, of the clay ; but even this could not frequently occur, when feeds are fown in the moift weather of the autumnal months; but generally in both cafes the growth of the feed would be forwarded by the moifture. 4. Where the fruit, which furrounds any kind of feeds, can be fowed along with them,:it may anfwer fome ufeful purpofe. Thus the fruit of crabs, quinces, and fome hard pears, will lie all the winter uninjured covered only with their autumnal leaves, and will contribute much to nourifh their germinating feeds in the {pring. So the holly-berry and the ivy-berry remain during the winter months uninjured by the rains or frofts, and undevoured by birds or infects, and contribute to nourifh their germinating feeds, when they fall on the ground in the fpring. The acrid hufk of walnuts fowed along with them preferves the {weet kernel from the attack of infeéts; the fame mutt be the ufe of the acrid oil of the cafhew-nut. The haw- thorn poffeffes both a nutritive covering and a hard fhell for the above purpofes; and the feeds of rofes are armed with {tiff pointed briftles, as well as furnifhed with a nutritious fruit, fo long known as an agreeable conferve in the fhops of medicine, conferva cynofbati; the former conftitutes a defence againft infects, and the latter fupplies a refervoir of nutriment for the germinating feeds. 5. To this fhould be added, that in our fhort and cold fummers the viviparous buds of fome vegetables are too luxuriant, and do not pro- duce oviparous buds foon enough to ripen their feeds, as melons and cucumbers, and many other plants, in thofe feafons which are moifter than common. It is believed, that by wafhing the feeds of melons and cucumbers from the faccharine and mucilaginous matter of their fruit, and by keeping the feed three or four years before it is ufed, 30 7 that \ 466. PRODUCTION _ Sgcr.XVI.9.2, that the viviparous buds become lefs vigorous, and the oviparous ones more numerous, and forwarder in their flowering ; and for the pro- duction of earlier as well as of larger crops all fuch luxuriant vegeta- bles fhould be fown early in the vernal feafon, or in the autumnal months, if they are not too tender to bear the winter frofts. IX. Queflion concerning general enclofure. The political advantage or difadvantage of the general enclofure of a country belongs to this place, as it more particularly affects the pro- duétion of the cerealia, or corn-agriculture. There can certainly be no objection to the enclofure of commons, or at leaft to the divifion of them into private property, as they are be- lieved to produce more than tenfold the quantity of fuftenance to mankind, if they are employed in agriculture, or even in pafturage, than by nourifhing a few geefe, fheep, or deer, in their uncultivated {tate covered with fern, heath, or gorfe. 2. The advantage of enclofing pafture-lands, or meadows, can not be doubted ; as the management of fattening cattle, of milch-cows, fheep, and horfes, becomes fo much eafier; as well as the more con- venient ufe of the aftermath, when the hay is carried away. 3- The lands alfo appropriated to the production of garden vegeta- bles and fruit, as well as to the production of other perennial plants, which are ufed in the arts, as hemp, flax, madder, woad, rhubarb; and of the efculent roots or herbage raifed for the confumption of eat- tle, as turnips, potatoes, carrots, cabbages, certainly require to be enclofed. 4. The political queftion therefore finally concerns only the arable lands, and afks fimply, whether a general enclofure of arable lands be favourable or unfavourable to the population, and confequent. pro- {perity of the country, which muft depend on the comparative quan- _ tity of nutritive provifion, which is likely to be produced from the different modes of its cultivation. Now of a pro~ 10s, e be- e€ to ‘age, mated n not “OWS, colie- egeta- | Jants, barb ; of cat- to be Sect. XVI. 9. 4- OF SEEDS. 469 Now as pafturage requires fewer hands in the management of it, and lefs art and attention to condué it, than agriculture ; and as its produéts in fleth, cheefe, butter, take a higher comparative price at market, and are articles of greater luxury, than the products of arable land in corn, we may conclude, that pafturage will prevail in all en- clofed provinces over agriculture. And as perhaps tenfold the num- bers of mankind can be fupported by the corn produced on an hun- dred acres of land, than on the animal food which can be raifed from it, it follows, that an enclofed province will afford fuftenance to a much {maller population 5 and as the number of inhabitants of a country depends on the eafe, with which parents can procure fufte- nance for their families, marriages will become fewer, and the people decreafe, when an arable country is converted into pafturage. This laft circumftance appears already to operate in thefe realms, fince about half a century ago much corn was exported annually, but for feveral years laft paft great quantities of it have been annually im- ported for our own fuftenance; and that even though potatoes are much cultivated, and muft therefore lefien the confumption of grain, and the ungraceful fafhion of covering the head with wheat-flour is much diminifhed. Is this to be folely afcribed to the numerous en- clofures of arable lands, or in part to the confumption of corn in the diftilleries ? ‘One very important confequence of any country ptoducing a greater quantity of corn, than it confumes, and of thence exporting it to foreign nations, even by means of a bounty, confifts in its cer- tainty of preventing famine, the moft dreadful of human calamities ; as in years of {carcity the ftream of exportation can be ftopped, and produce an ample fupply by its {tagnation at home. : adie. lence when a great part of any tract of country becomes employ- ed in pafturage inftead of agriculture, the inhabitants will become confumers of flefh inftead of confumers of grain, and will confe- quently decreafe in number from the want of {officient fuftenance, 402 Befides 468, PRODUCTION Sscr. XVI. 9.4. Befides which the people of agriculture are more aétive and robuftt than the people of pafturage, and more ingenious in the invention and ufe of machines neceflary for the more artful cultivation of the foil, as well as more numerous, and will confequently become {upe- rior to them in arms and arts, and may in procefs of time conquer them ; which reminds us of the Egyptian Dynafty of Shepherd kings, who were fubdued by their agricultural rivals; and alfo of the allegorical hiftory of Cain flaying Abel, which were probably the names of two political hieroglyphic figures reprefenting the ages of _ pafturage and of agriculture before the invention of letters, It muft hence certainly be an object of good policy to encourage agriculture in preference to pafturage, which in this country might be effected by preventing the enclofure of arable lands, and alfo of thofe parts of commons, which are beft adapted to the erowth. of corn; though the whole might be advantageoufly divided into pri= vate property. Unle{fs fome other means could be devifed of pre- venting a nation from becoming too carnivorous, or of duly promot- ing the cultivation of grain, the former of which was heretofore pro- duced by religious faft-days twice a week, and the latter by bounties on the exportation of corn. To which might be added a total pro- hibition of the deftru@tive manufactory of grain into {pirits, or into {trong ale, and thus converting the natural nutriment of mankind into a chemical poifon, and thus thinning the ranks of fociety both by leffening their quantity of food, and fhortening their lives by dif- eafe. : 3 In many villages, where much arable lands have been lately en- clofed, the numbers of labouring people have quickly been much di- minifhed both by the {carcity of food, and want of employment. Worfe fares the land, to haftening ills a prey, Where wealth accumulates, but men decay ; Princes or lords may flourith, or may fade, A breath can make them, as a breath has made; But Ser. RVI. gs 4. OF SEEDS. | 469 But a bold peafantry, their country’s fword, When once deftroy’d,. can never be reftor’d. Goxtpsmitu’s DEserTEeD VILLAGE.. Mankind neverthelefs feems by nature to be defigned to fubfift on: both vegetable and animal nutriment, which appears from the length of his inteftines, which like thofe of {wine are much longer than the: inteftines of carnivorous animals, and much fhorter than thofe of the vegetable eaters; and which alfo appears from the ftructure of his teeth, which partakes of the ftructure of thofe of the carnivorous and phytivorous animals ;. and laftly, becaufe thofe people, who live folely on vegetables, as the Gentoo tribes, and thofe: who fubfift folely on: animals, as the fifh-eaters of the northern latitudes, are undoubtedly a feebler generation than thofe of this country, who exift on a mix~ ture of both. A due proportion therefore of the two kinds of nou~ rifhment, fuch as perhaps at prefent exifts, or lately did exift, in this. nation, muft be decidedly the beft ; the prefervation of which, with. the prohibition of fpirits, or of {trong fermented liquors, except oc- cafionally as medicines, might probably render. thefe kingdoms more populous,. robuft, profperous, and happy, than any other nation in the world. But if the luxurious intemperance of confuming flefh-meat principally, and of drinking intoxicating liquors, fhould increafe amongft us, fo.as to thin the inferior orders of fociety by {carcity of food, and the higher ones by difeafe both of mind and body, it may’ hereafter be faid of Great Britain, amid her foreign conquetts, as for- merly of ancient Rome; iebeeashiel Szevior armis Luxuria incubuit, victumque ulcifcitur orbem. SECT, 479 PRODUCTION OF Secr. XVII. ss ig Seas Rea S's PRODUCTION OF ROOTS AND BARKS. Barks of trees are fimilar to their roots. All roots now known were originally from feeds. 1. 1. Tuberous or bulbous roots of turnip, carrot, parfnip, beet, are re- “Servoirs of nutriment for the future fiem. Not fo in graffes. Sugar vifible in beet roots. Small beer from parfnip roots. Alcobol from carrots. The knobby root and flower-ftem are fuccefive plants. Selec forward feeds from vigorous plants, and a foil not cobefive. Radifbes on bat-beds. 2. Tuberous roots from fub- terraneous wires, as potatoes. Pinch off the flowers. Make a cellular foil. Aerial potatoes. Curled leaf of potatoes. Sow the feed. Plant large roots and whole ones. Early potatoes. 3. Improve ground artichoke and pignut by feed. 4, Onions, method to improve them. 5. Orchis, ripen the feeds of it. Snow drops. Hyacinths. Crocus. Martagon lily. 11.1. Palmated, or branching roots, “ot immediately from feed. Perennial roots, like barks of trees, continue to increase in fixe. Should remain four or five years in the ground, not longer, as rhubarb. 2. Pinch off the flowers, as in rhubarb. 3. Roots of aquatic plants. Nymphaea, butomus, cultivated for nutriment, wine, or vinegar. 4. Art to pre- ferve roots. Keep them alive, between 32 and 48% degrees of beat, covered with pounded charcoal, faw-duft, and thatch, or dry them by ventilation and beat. 5. Of mrforcoms. Their gills are their lungs. Are animate beings without locomo- tion. Are of animal origin. Condudi galvanifm. Mufbroom ftone, truffles, mo- rels, muforooms with acrid juice. Ear-fungus. IIl.1. Barks contain fugar and mucilage, and other ingredients. They foould be taken off before the buds expand. 2. Oaks, why barked in fpring. 3. Barks of elm and maple might make fall beer. Of holly efculent. Bird-lime like caoutchouc. 4. Bitter, aromatic. Acrid barks. £. Reftringent and.colouring barks for tanning and dying. 6. Fibrous barks of flax, papyrus, mulberry, and birch. 7. To increafe the bark pinch off the flowers. XV EL ally from > Fe Te- nfible in 1 knobby Vigorous rom fub- ular foil. roots and it by feed, t. Snow ranching continue 0 Jonger » 4 tic plants. Art to pre- yered with and beds put boccine gf af f fi Sect. XVII. | ROOTS AND BARKS. 4“ flowers: %. Rub off the mo/s. Sprinkle with water. 9. Wounds of the bark. Paint the naked alburnum.. 10. Canker. Bind om a new bark. Plant the. branch in a divided garden-pot. As the barks of trees are compofed of a congeries of the long cau- dexes of the individual buds, which confift of the abforbent veflels, which imbibe nutriment from the earth, and of the arteries.and veins, which fupply nutriment to the growing vegetable; of the glands, which fecrete from the vegetable Seed the various acrid, aftringent, or narcotic, juices to defeuid them from the depredation of infeds ; and the various mucilaginous, oily, or faccharine, materials. for the nourifhment of their embryon buds; and laftly, of the organs of re+ produétion.. There exifts the ftrongeft analogy between the barks of the trunks of trees, and of their roots, in every refpec&t ; except that the former poffeffes a cuticle adapted to the contact of: the dry atmofphere, and the latter a cuticle adapted to the contact of the moift: earth, which differ from each other like the external fkin, and the mucous membranes of animals. And finally, as thefe long caudexes of the buds of trees, which form the filaments of the bark, termi-- nate in radicles beneath the foil, and in. leaves in the air,. like the broad caudexes with the radicles.and afcending ftems, or foliage, of herbaceous plants, they exa¢tly refemble each other, We hall therefore divide roots-for the purpofe of treating of their production into bulbous or tuberous roots, into palmated or branch=- ing roots, and into barks; obferving. that though roots and buds. might poffibly have exifted before feeds, and though a great: number of the roots ufed for nutriment, or for the purpofes of medicine, or: for the arts of dying and tanning, are immediately produced by buds, or bulbs ; yet are they all, which we now poffefs, originally derived,. I fuppofe, from feeds; becaufe thofe varieties, which have been pro- pagated from buds or bulbs for many centuries, are believed to acz- quire hereditary difeafes, and gradually to perifh. : 1. Off 472 PRODUCTION OF — Sect. XVID. 11, 3, Of tuberous and bulbous roots. t. Some tuberous roots, as the turnip, braflica rapa, are immedi- ately produced from feeds, but differ from the other plants, which are called annual or biennial, in this circumftance ; that, as they are generally fowed fo late in the feafon as not to have time to produce flowers and feeds in the fame year, they produce a knobby root, which confifts of a refervoir of nutritious matter for the fature flower-ftem, which is to rife and flourifh in the fucceeding fpring and fummer; whereas the common annual grafles, as oats and bar- ey, do not previoufly lay up a magazine of nutriment in their roots, but in their joints, which are {weet ; and therefore their roots are not ufed for culinary purpofes, or for provender. Other tuberous roots are raifed in the fame manner from feeds, but are generally fown alfo fo late in the feafon as not to form their flower-ftems in the fame year; as the carrot, daucus carota; the parfnip, paftinaca fativa ; and the beet, beta vulgaris ; thefe alfo lay up a ftore of mucilaginous and faccharine matter in their roots for the erowth of the future flowers. In the beet-root the cryftals of fugar are fometimes vifible by a microfcope ; and I was well informed, that a labourer in Lincolnfhire made fmall beer from a decoétion of parf- nip roots, which was fpirituous enough, and not of difagreeable fla- vour; and Mr. Hornby of York, by boiling carrots, and fermenting the juice exprefled from them, produced two hundred gallons of proof {pirits from twenty tons of carrots. Edinb. Tranfaét. Vol. I. p- 28. Now as all vinous fpirit has been fugar, there is foundation to hope that a method may be difcovered of producing and feparating fugar from thefe plants of our own climate in fufficient quantity for our demeftic confumption, or even for exportation. Other tuberous roots are propagated from feeds in the fame man- ner.; and though they are fowed early, and produce their flower-{ftem and feeds in the fame year, yet they form a knobby root, which con- fifts Medi. Which cy are rOduce y toot, fature {pring 1d bar- roots, Mts are feeds, a their a; the alfo lay for the of fugar ed, that of parf- ble fla- menting Hons of Vol. I. Sect. XVII. 1.2. ROOTS AND BARKS. 473 fifts of a magazine of nutritious matter, previous to the elevation of the flower-ftem, as the radifh, rhaphanus fativus, and carrot, and beet, when fown early. -I neverthelefs fufpe& that thefe, as well as the preceding, confift in reality of two fucceflive plants ; that which forms the knobby root, and that which 1s formed from it, as {poken of in Sect. IX. 3. 6. For the produétion of roots of thefe kinds, which are immediately ot fecondarily propagated from feeds, our attention muft be applied to colleét the forwardeft feeds, and from the beft plants of the kind ; and to fow them at the proper feafon of the early {pring, or early au- tumn ; and in a foil which contains fufficient vegetable nourifhment, obferving, neverthelefs, that as carrots, parfnips, beets, and radifhes confift of knobs formed in the ground, a lefs adhefive foil is to be felected ; as one abounding with filiceous or calcareous fand, as well as with carbonic earth. But as the turnips are formed chiefly above eround, this attention to the cohefion of the foil becomes lefs necef- . fary, fo that it is fufficiently penetrable by the fibres of their ra- dicles. There is another art of producing larger roots from feed, and at an earlier feafon, as of radifhes; which is by fowing them in hot- beds in the early fpring, and expofing the tops to the cold air during the day, as this prevents the luxuriant growth of the fummit, and - ncreafes that of the root. 2. Other tuberous roots are generally propagated by fubterraneous wires, or root-buds, from the tuberous roots of their parents through a long generation, and not either primarily or fecondarily from feeds ; as the potato, folanum tuberofum ; and the ground artichoke, or tuberous fun-flower, helianthus tuberofus ; and perhaps the pig- nut, bunium bulbocaftanum. As the tuberous roots of the potato planted in the {pring not only produces many other fimilar tuberous roots, but flowers alfo during the fummer ; I was led to fufpect, that pinching off the flowers, as 3 P they 474, PRODUCTION OF — Sgcr, XVII. 4, 2, they appeared, would contribute to increafe the number or enlarge the fize of the new roots; which experiment has been madé on a {mall {cale by one, who believed it to fucceed in a degree decifive of its utility, See Seat. XIX. 3, 1. and Seé&, VII. 1,.3, where it is faid, that pinching off the flower-ftems of bulbous-rooted flowers, when — they firft appear on young bulbs only a few years from the feed, is believed to render the flower duplicate, As the roots of potatoes are formed beneath ses earth, the foil, in which they are planted, fhould be laid hollow and full of cells, or fhould poffefs lefs cohefion than ufual, to facilitate the protrufion of their wires, and the enlargement of their roots. This fhould be done by burying fome long litter of ftraw and ftable dung under the foil; for as potatoes are believed to require more carbonaceous earth than carrots, a mixture of fand is lefs advantageous to them. I was this day fhewn by my friend Major Trowel of Derby a new variety of the potato in his excellent new-made garden, the foil of which confifts of marl mixed with lime and ftable-manure. From one root there appeared to iffue fix or eight {tems three or four feet long, at every joint of which were produced new potatoes; at the Jower joints there were three of thefe aerial potatoes, one large one the fize of a pullet’s egg, and a fmaller one on each fide of it. At the upper joints only one new aerial potato adhered, and thefe be- came f{maller the further they were removed from the root; and finally, at the fummit there had been'a flower-as there was now a feed-veflel, called a potato-apple. All thefe new potatoes at the joints of the ftems were green, becaufe they had not been etiolated by be- ing fecluded from the light, but the terreftrial roots were white. The larger new tuberous roots had eyes on them like a common potato, but the fmaller ones had begun to fhoot out a new. ftem or leaves from their upper part. This variety, which may be termed an aerial potato, is analogous to the magical onion, and other fpecies of al- BU: which bear cloves, or roots on their fummits inftead of feeds, I and On a ve of faid, Vhen d, is > foil, is, or ion of done - foil; than otato, iT Jeaves ap 20r! og of #° feedss of apd Sect XVII. 1.2. ROOTS AND BARKS. 475 and like the viviparous polygonum 5 but differs in this circumftance, that in all thofe, I believe, the flowers are barren in ref{pect to bear- ing feeds, as thofe are on the fummit of the fpike of polygonum vi- viparum ; but in the aerial potato there was alfo a feed-bearing flower at the fummit of the ftem, and the new roots only at the la+ teral joints. I fhould hope this proliferous variety by cultivation may become permanent, and give rife to a new fpecies, which may pro- duce both aerial potatoes and fubterraneous ones, a twofold viviparous progeny. The curling of the leaves of potatoes, which is attended with fo great a diminution of the quantity and fize of the new roots, is fup- pofed to be owing to their continued propagation by fubterraneous buds or root-wires, inftead of by feed; that hence they acquire he- reditary difeafes, like the canker or gangrene of apple trees, which have for one or two centuries been propagated by grafting the fcions, as mentioned in Seat. FX. 3. 4. and XV. 1. 4. Hence by fowing the feeds of potatoes, and cultivating the roots thus produced, new var rieties may probably be foon acquired, exempt from the difeafe of the curled leaf, and which may be as good in other refpects as thofe which have been too long propagated by their roots. Some have neverthelefs affirmed, that they have feen curled potato-plants in the fecond year from the feed ; and others, that they have feen numer- ous infeéts, on thefe curled leaves ; and others, that the potate-root, the leaves of which are curled, remains hard, and lefs diffoluble in the foil, which I have myfelf witneffed. More obfervations are, wanted to elucidate this fubje@t. st Another caufe of the degeneracy of potatoes has arifen, I $elieve, "from planting the leaft inftead of the largeft roots, fee Sect. XVI. 5. and which confequently poflefs lefs vigorous vegetation, as buds and bulbs fo exactly refemble the parent plant. ‘hus the {mall bulbs, which arife from tulip-roots, will produce a rather larger bulb an- nually for three.or four years, as 1am informed; but it is the large 3P2 new 476 PRODUCTION OF Sect. XVII'1, a: “new central bulb only, which will produce a flower the next fum- mer, and another large‘central bulb like itfelf. See Se&. IX. 33, Another caufe of the degeneracy of potatoes may arife from dividing _ the larger roots into too many fets, which muft deprive the embryon. plant.of much of its appropriated nutriment; as the umbilical part of the root is generally thrown afide by thofe idly-ingenious diffeGers of it ; for though the part, where the umbilical veflels were inferted, — may not after the mature growth of the bulb appear to poflefs new veflels from the embryon plants, fuch as are feen on the lobes of a growing garden-bean’; yet, as it becomes decompofed, it muft fup- ply mucilaginous or faccharine nutriment to the roots of the new plants. As the potatoes raifed from feeds do not flower on the fecond or third year, refembling in this circumftance the bulbs of tulips and hyacinths ; thefe new roots, I am told, are fold as early potatoes, and that they are forwarder in their growth from their being generally planted without being divided; and that they form their new roots. fooner, as they do not flower. To improve the feeds of potatoes fee Sect. XVI. 3. 4, The following method of planting whole potatoes is recommended: in Mr. Adam’s Effays on Agriculture, and has a promifing appear alice. : | ** The idea,” fays he, “ which I mentioned before; refpecting the. culture of the Scotch and Anjou cabbages, might ‘be fuccefsfully ap= Plied to that of potatoes. Let us {fuppofe the ground, in which they are to be fet, is properly prepared: by plowing : let. then the furrows be drawn in it at four feet: diftance all over the field, and.croffed by other furrows.at an equal. diftance. Where thefe interfe@ each other lay in fome dung from a wheelbarrow, extending from the point of interfection fourteen. or fifteen inches each way :. let a man, follow ing fpread a little of the mould from the furrow. over the dung ;- let a third hand put one whole found potato at the point of interfec- 4 ton, es fee ended ppear> 1g tha. ly ape 1 they irrows fed by other oint of ollow" dung» terfer toby ; Sect. XVII. 1.3, - ROOTS AND BARKS. . 479 tion, and one in each furrow, at a foot diftance from the centre, which will make five in all: a fourth hand fhould now follow with a barrow full of leaves, and lay them over the plants; fhould then {prinkle fome mould lightly over them, and leave them fo till the - plants fhoot. : *¢. Thus the plants. will occupy a fpace of two feet each way, out of the four feet between the furrows; and the remaining intervals | between the plants on each fide will alfo be two feet, which intervals 1 would horfe-hoe at the proper periods, firft one way of the field, and then acrofs, laying the mould upon the plants at each hoeing, fo that the fpaces which the plants occupied would. by thefe means become little fquare hills filled with roots; and the intervals. be=. tween being thus hoed and. crofs hoed, would have the ufual. good effects of pulverizing the foil, deftroying the weeds, and preparing the land in the beft manner poffible for a crop of wheat.” 3. The ground. artichoke, helianthus. tuberofus, feldom. ripens its: feeds in this country, aud might probably be much improved by ufing methods to ripen the feed, which are mentioned in Se&. XVI. 3-43 aud by thus producing new varieties.; and the pignut, bunium bulbocaftanum, might probably by cultivation from the feed {upply an agreeable and falutary root to be eaten like chefnuts either raw or roa{ted.. 4. The feeds of the common onion, allium cepa, generally. pro- duce no flower-ftems the firft year; but each feed produces concen= tric leaves, which gradually forma large bulb below them. with one- or two, and fometimes three, lefs internal bulbs,, included. within three or four general. concentric coats, befides the three or four coats. appropriated to the individual bulbs, as. defcribed. in See, | 3, Oe eS On the next year fome fpecies of this genus.produce bulbs after. their flowers inftead of feeds, as allium fativum.and:ma duce not only flowers but alfo bulbs, as allium moly, phalum. If the bulbs of thefe leaft kinds of allium gicum 3.others proe and {pheroce- -were planted: with 478 PRODUCTION OF Secr. XVII. 5. with defign to produce other bulbs, and not to produce feeds 3 it is probable, that pinching off the flowers might enlarge the new bulbs, ' as the pinching off the flowers of potatoes 5 and that by fuch means a larger kind of bulbs of fome of this genus might be procured, 5. Another bulbous root, which might be well worthy cultivation in moift ground, is the orchis-morio ; which is fold under the name - of falep, after it has been prepared by firft {calding it in hot water to detra& the fkin, and afterwards by drying it in an oven ; and which then affords a nourithing mucilage, which will long keep uninjured. And, if it was cheaper, might probably be brought into more exten- five ufe as a culinary vegetable, as mentioned in Sect. XVI. 3. 4, The orchis morio produces one large new root annually, and proba- bly fome {maller offsets, as otherwife I do not perceive, how it could sncreafe in our meadows, as it does not ripen its feeds in this coun- try. aa | If the new root be taken away from the old one early in the year, +t is affirmed, that the feeds will ripen in Sweden; which are other- wife in that country,,as in this, always unprolific ; this experiment might therefore be very advantageous to the cultivator. Another method of inducing orchis to bear prolific feeds may be by confining the roots in garden pots, which might be immerfed in a moift foil, and would probably bear ripe feeds ; as the lily of the valley, con- vallaria, is faid to do by crowding its roots fo much as to prevent the produétion of more ofthem, Amenet. Academ. Vol. VI.p. 120. A third method of procuring feed from orchis might be by cultivating a few of them in a hot-houfe for that purpofe. The root of the fnow-drop, galanthus, if dug up in winter, and prepared in the fame manner, might poffibly fupply a nutritious mu= cilage fimilar to that of the orchis ; as I once boiled a few of them, and found on tafting them, that they had no difagreeable flavour. If prolific feeds could be procured from this plant, it might be worth cultivation for the fame purpofes as the orchis ; and the roots of the hyacinth : ee ate 3 It is ; bulbs, I Means ad, tivation 1€ Name Water tg d which Unjured, © exten- VI. 3. 4, d proba- it could is coun: the year, are other: | «periment Another confining moift foil, lley, - revent the < A third ting few d yintets * Sect. XVII. 21: ROOTS AND BARKS, 479 hyacinth, I am informed, are equally infipid, and might be ufed as an article of food; but the roots of crocus, which I boiled and tafted, had a difagreeable flavour, and might probably therefore be infalu-- brious. . Mr. Gmelin in his Hiftory of Siberia afferts, that the roots of the lilium martagon are ufed as food in that country ; and it 1s probable, that the root of the arum, though it be acrid in its raw ftate, might fupply palatable and falutary nutriment by cookery ;.as Mr.White afferts in his Hiftory of Selborne, p. 43, that it is feratched up and eaten by thruthes in fevere fnowy feafons, and it is known foon to: lofe its acrimony even by expofing its dry powder to the air ;. we may add, that the root of the afphodelus ramofus is ufed to feed {wine in France, and that good ftarch is obtained from the roots of white- bryony and of alftromeria licta. Other bulbous roots are propagated by florifts with great’ attention: for the beauty of their flowers, as tulips, hyacinths, lilies, and many others. For an account of fome of thefe fee Sect. EX. 3. on the growth of bulbs, and Sect. XIX. 3. 1. on the production of flowerss. 11. Palmated or branching roots. 1. The bulbous ,and tuberous roots already mentioned were either fuch, as were primarily derived from feeds, as the turnip, carrot,. ? P w > Pp a parfnip, radifh, beet, falfafi; or fuch as were fecondarily derived from feeds, but immediately from bulbs-or knobs fimilar. to them-- > y felves, as potatoes, ground artichoke, orchis, pig-nut. But the branching or palmated roots, which are ufed as food, or in-medicine, or in thearts of dying, are feldom produced immediately from feeds, but generally from preceding roats, and are hence the produé.not of annual but of perennial plants; as the root of liquorice, glys eyrrhiza; of marfh mallow, alcea ;.of rhubarb, rheum ; and of made der, rubia tinétoria, The roots of thefe perennial plants fhoot out not only annual ¢ {tems ie PRODUCTION OF — Sect. XVII. 2,9; ftems with numerous flower-buds above ground, but alfo other new buds on their caudex, or upper part of the roots beneath the foil; all which buds protrude their new caudexes not only over thofe ftems, but alfo over the old-root-branches; and thus form annually a new. bark over the old root, which remains alive beneath the ground, though the ftem perifhes by the winter frofts. ‘This happens exactly in the fame manner as the bark of trees, which annually is produced over the old bark of the root as well as of the trunk; but in trees the ftem-bark as well as the root-bark furvives the winter, Hence thefe palmated or branching roots. of perennial herbaceous plants, as of rhubarb, madder, liquorice, continue to increafe in fize by the fuper-addition of an annual new bark; but in four or five years the internal part begins to decay, and the roots therefore fhould be taken out of the ground for ufe before that time. It is faid in the tranfactions of the Society for Encouragement of Arts, Vol. XVI. p. 226, that thofe rhubarb roots, which were not taken up, till they were feven or more years old, were moft of them good for nothing from the decay of the internal part of the root. ‘The fame is faid to happen to fome bulbous roots, as the hyacinth ; and occurs in all thofe roots, which are faid to be end-bitten, as a fpecies of {cabius called devil’s-bit. See Sect. IX. 3. 5. They fhould then be taken up in the winter months, before the new buds or flower-{tems begin to acquire nourifhment from the “root, by which it would be deprived of a part of the nutritious, co- louring, or medical matters; which principally refide in the bark, or alburnum of it. On this laft account alfo thefe roots fhould not be ‘permitted to continue in the ground a much longer time than that _ above mentioned, though the internal or woody part of the root may not decay ; as the woody part is lefs adapted to the purpofes expect- ed than the bark and alburnum, which cover or conftitute the nu- , merous branches of the root, 2. One method to increafe the fize of thefe palmated or branch- ing Tay her New the foil er thof @0Nually eath the happens Mnually I$ Ink; but Winter, erbaceous fe in fize Ir or five re fhould aid in the ‘ol. XVI. , till they r nothing > is faid to curs in all of f{cabius before the from the itious, °° he bar k, of yuld not be . than thet F root may fes e8P 4 ite he prant OB the 2° ROOTS AND BARKS. 431 Seer. XVII. 2. 3. ing roots may be by pinching off the flowers, as foon as they appear, when the feeds are not wanted; this I once faw prattifed on the rheum palmatum with apparent advantage, as well as on potatoes, as mentioned above; as more nutriment may thus be derived to the new buds forming on the roots. : The colouring matter fold under the name of annotta, or arnotta, which is faid to be obtained from the fkin of the’ kernel of the bixa of South America, or of the énonymus fhrub cultivated in our gar- dens, is believed to be much adulterated with madder, rubia tin¢ctoria ; the root of which for the purpofe of colouring. cheefe may be ufed inftead of arnotta, and is to my knowledge a perfectly harmlefs root, though it tinges the bones of young animals red, who éat it mixed with their food, and may be grown by cheefe-farmers in their own gardens, as it is a very hardy perennial plant, and requires no art of cultivation. It may be ufed either by pounding the frefh root and boiling it in water, or by drying the root for the purpofe of preferv- ing it, and afterwards bruifing and boiling it. For the cultivation of rubia tinétoria fee Miller’s Gardener’s Dic- tionary, who defcribes with feveral plates the manner of growing and of afterwards preparing this root in prodigious quantities in Holland; and adds, ‘¢ that if the cultivation of madder was carried on properly in England, that it would not only fave to the nation the great an- nual fum now expended in the purchafe of it from the Dutch, but would employ a great number of hands, from the time harveft is over, till the fpring of the year, which is generally a dead time for labourers ; and the parifhes might thence be much eafed of the poor’s rates, which is a confideration well worthy public attention.” The external part of the root of rubia tin¢toria is coloured red, and its internal part yellow, which diftinguifhes it from moft other roots; which are generally etiolated owing to their feclufion from the light; which liberates their fuperfluous oxygen, which otherwife deprives them of colour asin bleaching, by uniting with their colouring mat- 3a ter, 482 PRODUCTION OF _ Szcr. XVII. 2,3, ter, and converting it into a colourlefs acid, except where the colour- ing matter abounds in too great quantity. This etiolation of moft — roots is evidently owing to the want of light, becaufe many of them, » as of white potatoes, become green if they grow above ground. 3. The roots of fome aquatic plants are ufed in medicine both of the bulbous and palmated kinds, as fcilla maritima, fquill or fea- onion, and the iris luteus, yellow water flag, and the acorus cala- mus, aromatic flag. Other aquatic roots are faid to have fupplied food, as the ancient lotus in Egypt, which has been by fome writers fuppofed to be the nymphza nelumbo. Herodotus affirms in his En- terpe, that the Egyptian lotus grows in the Nile, and refembles a lily ; and that the natives dry it in the fun, and take the pulp out of it, which grows like the head of a poppy, and bake it for bread. The white-flowered and the yellow-flowered nymphzea of our ponds and rivers has a palmated root fometimes three inches in diameter, In Siberia the roots of the butomus, flowering rufh, are eaten; both which well deferve further attention, as they grow {pontaneoufly in our ditches and rivers, which at prefent produce no efculent vegeta- bles, and might thence become an article of ufeful cultivation. See sect, IX. 2. 5. Some other aquatic roots, as well as terreftrial ones, might proba- bly become efculent and nutritive by boiling or roafting them to de- ftroy their acrimony. Or it 1s probable, that a wholefome ftarch might be obtained from them, as from the roots of white bryonia, as is af- firmed by M. Parmetier, by the fimple procefs of grating the root by a bread-grater of tinned iron into cold water, and depriving it of its acrid mucilage by frequent cold ablution. And laftly, that they might be fo managed as to undergo fermentation either by previous germi- nation, or by adding yeft to the juice exprefled from them after boiling, and thus be converted into wine or beer, from which a fpirit might be diftilled, or vinegar produced. See Se&t. XI. 2. 5. 4. The art of preferving roots, when taken out of the ground, confifts ¢ ai 3 Colour. | f Mott ‘them, id, both of Or fea. IS Calg. upplied Writers his En- mbles a ) out of 1, The ids and Bf. -40 13 both oufly in vegeta on. See t proba- n to de- +h might as is af P root by - it of its ey ih 5 germ: om after h 4 (pint grou Bt col Sect. XVIL 2.4. ROOTS AND BARKS. 483 confifts either in keeping them alive during the winter without fuf- fering them to germinate, as life prevents the fermentation or putre- faétion of their juices; or fecondly, by depriving them of their water. For the firft purpofe the roots, whether bulbous or palmated, fhould be kept in a degree of heat above the freezing point of 323 fince freezing them deftroys their life; whence they not only undergo a fudden change in their flavour and nutritive quality, but quickly tend to putrefaction in confequence of their lofs of life like the eggs of animals. Neveithelefs both vegetable and animal products, as fruits and flefh, as well as roots, may probably long exift unchanged in a frozen flate in ice-houfes ; and if they are at length eradually thawed | by covering them with melting ice, or immerfing them in cold {pring water, it is faid by Mr. Reaumure, who tried the experiment on apples, that they do not lofe much of their flavour, if they be af- rerwards foon made ufe of ; otherwife, I fuppofe, as the froft has de- prived them of life, they foon begin to undergo chemical changes. If thefe roots are kept in a degree of heat above 48, which is the heat of the internal parts of the earth, and confequently of fpring water, they are liable to germinate, as happens to onions and pota- toes in our ftore-houfes during the vernal months. And if they be expofed to a much greater heat, fo as to deftroy the life of the root, they foon run into fermentation or putrefaction, or become covered with mould; unlefs the water which they contain be quickly diffi- pated by evaporation. A friend of mine once fent many ftrikes of potatoes to be dried on a malt-kiln, hoping by that means to preferve them during the fummer ; but as the life of thefe roots was deftroy- ed by the degree of heat, and only about half of their water evapo- rated, they foon became fo putrid after being returned into his ftore- room, that the ftench of them was intolerable, and even the {wine refufed to eat them, Neverthelefs I believe, if the parts either of ve- getables or animals could be kept in an heat at or above the boiling point of 212 in clofe veffels, fo as not to fuffer their fluid part to ae 3.22 porate, 434 * PRODUCTION OF SecT. XVII. 2. 4, porate, that neither fermentation nor putrefa@tiou would enfue; but that they might be kept for years unchanged, as in the cold of 2% The degree of heat required for preferving roots fecure from froft, and from the procefs of germination, which is that between the de- grees of 32 and 48 of Farenheit’s thermometer, may be well manag- ed by ftoring them beneath the foil in dry fituations, as in dry cellars, or in pits dug for that purpofe, or even in barns ; but this requires more attention than is ufually employed in the common manner of {toring potatoes, which are liable to be injured both by froit and by germination. ‘Thefe pits in a dry foil fhould be covered with mate: rials, which conduét heat ill, and alfo with fuch as might abforb any putrid exhalations, which may occur, and thus check the progrefs of putrefaction, if it fhould commence. Air is a bad condudtor of heat, if it be confined over the furface of any body, but not fo if it be perpetually changed ; as it then carries away heat very rapidly, as any one may experience by being fanned on ahot day, Hence all fuch materials as poffefs large pores or in- terftices full of air, are bad conduétors of heat; as blankets, faw- duft, wood-fhavings, or ftraw ; and will thence preferve the bodies, they cover, both from external cold and from external heat. But as charcoal in coarfe powder not only includes much common air in its pores, but alfo has the property, efpecially if recently burnt, of ab= forbing putrid exhalations ; and is alfo itfelf of an unperifhable na- ture; it feems peculiarly adapted to the purpofes above mentioned, Hence the heaps of potatoes, or carrots, or parfnips, or ground arti- chokes, or even the roots of turnips or of beets, and the heads of cabbages, and perhaps pears, and apples, as well as nuts, almonds, and walnuts, might be well preterved in pits or cellars, or even in barns, if they were firft covered with powdered charcoal an inch or two in thicknefs, and over that a covering of faw-duft, and finally over thefe a thick impenetrable thatch of ftraw; whence a ftore of provender for the winter months and the fucceeding {pring may €q.Uires Aner of and by | Mates rb any orefs of face of Carries fanned 3 Or in- ts, faw- ; bodies, But as air in its , of ab- able na- ntioned. snd arti- heads of Secor. XVII. 2.5. ROOTS AND BARKS. 485 may be preferved from any degree of cold or of warmth much above or below that of the internal parts of the earth, in which feeds are known to continue for ages even without germination oF decay. It is neverthelefs neceflary to dry many palmated roots, when they are taken out of the ground, either becaufe they will not continue to live in our barns or {tore-rooms, like the bulbous roots, or becaufe they require to be kept for fome years in the fhops of medicine. Some of thefe roots, as thofe of rhubarb, are faid like the bulbous roots of {cilla or fquill to contain five fixths of their weight of water, and therefore require confiderable care in the method of drying them; for unlefs they are properly dried, they are liable to contract mould or mucor; which isa vegetable production, which will grow on pu- trefying materials without light or much air; but might be prevent- ed from growing by the vapour of perhaps a teafpoonful of fpirit of wine, as mentioned in Sec. 3. dae ace There is neverthelefs fome precaution neceflary in exhaling the moifture of thefe roots, as they fhould be placed in a fituation, where they are ventilated as well as heated ; for warmth alone is- liable to forward the tendency of the faccharine ‘and mucilaginous parts of them to pafs into fermentation or putrefaction, and thence to deftroy them ; as the alburnum or fap- wood of timber trees is liable to de- cay by what is termed the dry rot. With this defign drying houfes are conftructed for the preparation : of madder, rubia tinétoria, as defcribed in Miller’s Diftionary ; and the rhubarb of the fhops has frequently large holes bored through it $ which, it is fuppofed, were defigned to pafs cords through for the purpofe of fufpending it to dry, as it is conveyed on camels in a warm climate. 5. The cultivation of mufhrooms, morels, and truffles, agaricus, phallus, lycoperdon, thould be ‘here mentioned ; as they are propa- gated by their roots. “The fungi feem to conftitute an ifthmus be- tween the two great continents of nature, the vegetable and animal kin edoms. 486 PRODUCTION OF _Szer. XVII. 2.5, kingdoms. The odour of.a fungus, when burning, approaches to that of burning feathers; and all of them putrefy like animal fleth ; fome of them as the phallus impudicus, ftink-horn, emits fuch a putrid {cent, as it grows, as to attract innumerable fleth-flies to depofit their eggs or {pawn in it. And thofe mufhrooms, which are cooked at our tables, as well as the catchup, made by preferving their juices in falt and water, poflefs an animal flavour. Of this laft ciréumftance I was told a remarkable inftance, where a cook-maid in a family of invalids, who frequently wanted weak broth, perpetually deceived them bya mixture of a {mall quantity of good catchup with thin cruel, and with only the addition of fhred leaves of parfley, and a little falt. Another thing in which the fungufes differ from vegetables, con- fifts in their growing perfetly well without light, which is fo ne. ceflary to the health of vegetables. ‘The {carlet folds beneath the head of the common efculent mufhroom are fo like the gills of fifh, that they have in our language obtained the fame name. Thefe folds beneath the hat of the agarics, the pores beneath the boletus, and the thorny appearance beneath the hydnum, and the net-like pores of phallus, are all different means of expofing a larger furface to the air; and therefore undoubtedly conftitute the lungs of the fungufes, as leaves conttitute thofe of vegetables, and not their organs of reproduction, as fome have fuppofed. The chemical analogy, which exifts between fome of the muth- room tribe and animal matters, led Van Humboldt to inveftigate their conducting power of what he terms the galvanic fluid, which I believe to be fimply a minute fhock of the ele@ric fluid; and he found, that morels and thofe fungi, which in a ftate of putrefaction emit a cadaverous animal fmell, are equally good conductors as real animal fubftances. Annals of Medicine for 1 798, Edinb. Van Hum- boldt afferts further, that by chemical analyfis they approach like- wife to animal fubftances, as they contain much azote and phof- phorus. He alfo afferts, that he converted morels into fat by means of Sect. XVII. 2.5. ROOTS AND BARKS. 487 of fulphuric acid diluted with water, which experiment he thinks is analogous to that of Gibbes, and of the burying ground of the Inno- cents, where fat was formed from mufcular flefh. Journal de Phy- » fique, Vol. IV. p. 67. The fungi would hence appear to be animals without locomotion, whofe laéteal veffels are inferted into the earth, like thofe of vege- tables; but whofe gills or lungs are covered from the light, ike thofe of animals, but expofed to the open air like the leaves or lungs of vegetables. Another curious occurrence, which feems to affociate them with animals, if the truth can be depended upon, is that fome of them are of animal origin; as the common mufhroom is faid cer- tainly to be procured from horfe-dung, as mentioned below; and may therefore have its embryon or early ftate in the inteftines of ani- mals, and its maturer ftate in the foil or atmofphere like other in- fe€ts, as the bot-fly, and perhaps the tape-worm, and afcarides ? as this. production of mufhrooms is otherwife contrary to all known ana- logy. Other fungi are found on the decayed parts of peculiar vege- tables, from swtigh they feem to take their origin, perhaps like worms in the inteftines of animals, as the agaric of the oak, of the beech, of the elder; the boletus of the beech, and of the gee : and many others mentioned by Linneus.. The lycoperdon tuber, or truffle, grows under ground without light, never rifing into day ; and is propagated, I fuppofe, by only a paternal or lateral progeny, like the polypus of our ditches, and not by fexual connexion, or feminal progeny. ‘The truffle is hunted by dogs probably from its poffefling fomewhat of an animal {cent, like the perfpirable effluvia left upon the ground, .by which they hunt their game or difcover the foot of their matter. The phallus efculentus, morel, and the agaricus, mufhroom of various kinds, will grow without light in cellars, or on beds covered with ftraw ; and are alfo, I fisppetes propagated by a paternal or la- teral progeny only, and not by a fexual or feminal one. 7. The 488 PRODUCTION OF Secr. XVII. 2. 5. The roots, or fpawn, or embryons, of the common mufhroom aré faid by Mr. Kenedy and others to be certainly procured from horfe- dung laid unbroken in fmall heaps under cover. It 1s afferted, that in a few weeks during the fummer months thefe roots will appear like white threads; which on breaking the lumps have the muth- room f{mell. Thefe horfe-droppings are direéted to be as little broken as poffible, and to be Jaid about three inches thick on a hot bed of moderate warmth, conftruéted of alternate layers of tanner’s bark and horfe-dung, and whofe uppermoft ftratum confifts of tanner’s bark about two inches thick. ‘The bed is then to be covered with a little manure, and about three inches of good foil, and finally with a thick coat of ftraw. ‘Fhe fhed behind moft hot-houfes is found to afford a convenient place for a mufhroom bed; as no light is re- quired, but only warmth, and occafional moifture. See Kenedy on Gardening, Vol. II. for a particular account of this procefs. | In the tanyards of Derby, I am well informed, that a produétion of mufhroom {pawn always occurs in the path, where the horfe walks, which draws the rolling {tone to grind the bark, which path confifts of powdered oak-bark and horfe-dung trampled together. . Of this I was in one inftance an eye-witnefs, but whether the embryons of mufhrooms were derived from the oak-bark or horfe-dung was not eafy to determine. _ Mr. Ferber, in his Travels through Italy, tranflated by Rafpe, mentions. the mufhroom-ftone, He fays ** the pietra fungaia is a white calcareous ftala&tite, or tuph-{tone, dug in the limeftone hills bordering on Romagna, and endowed with the quality to produce in any feafon of the year efculent mufhrooms, if kept in a moift cellar, and now and then fprinkled with water. This quality is owing toa great many roots, or vegetable fibres, together with the mufhroom feeds,enclofed,in its fubftance. They-are ufed in fome great houfes in Naples and Rome. I-faw. an indurated mould from the fame place that anner’s WwW ith a ly with > found it is re- 1edy on tion of e walks, confifts Of this I ryons of was not y Rafpe, ngara is 4 tone hills Seen KVilcarg, “ROOTS ANDIBARKS” 489 that had the fame quality, which was ufed by Mr, Fabriani in the mint of Florence.” From this account the mufhroom-ftone appears to confit of a. porous tupha, like that with which the houfes are built at Matlock Bath ; and which has been depofited from the water. But a later writer has fince analyfed one of thefe ftones, but does not mentioir how long it had been ufed for the vegetation of mufhrooms, which might in great meafure affect the refults of his analyfis. Mr. Gadd, in the Stockholm Tranfactions, fays, that this pietra fungaia defcribed firtt by Ferber confifts of forty-five or forty-fix hundredth parts of (liceous earth, and twenty of a calx of iron, with a little magnefia and vegetable alkali. Analytic. Review, Dec. 1798. ; In this country the cellars would not be fufficiently warm to pro- duce mufhrooms at any feafon of the year 5 but as this. mufhroom- ftone is of calcareous origin according to Ferber, it fhews, that cal- careous earth is friendly to the growth of mufhrooms ; anda fimilar porous ftone from the vicinity of Matlock Bath. might probably be permeated ‘aa fimilar manner with the roots of them, as a conve- nient repofitory of them to be raifed into life occafionally by warmth and moifture. Some of the fungi are believed to poflefs an intoxicating quality, and are eaten for that purpofe by the peafants in Siberia. One fungus of the {pecies agaricus mufcarum eaten raw, or a decoétion of three of them, produces intoxication for twelve or fixteen hours. Hitt. of Ruflia, Vol. I. Nichols, 1780. The Offtiachs alfo blifter the fkin by- a fungus found on birch-trees, and ufe the officinal agaric for foap. Other fungi poflefs a juice fo acrid ‘n their raw ftate as immediately to blifter the tongue, as I once experienced on tafting a minute drop of the juice of a large mufhroom, which on breaking the hat poured out a yellow juice, which became purple or blue in a-few feconds of time on its being expofed to the air; which I believed to be the fungus deliciofus of Linneus; the acrimony of which might never- | ak thelefs 490 PRODUCTION OF Sect. XVII. 2, s. thele{s probably be deftroyed by a boiling heat. And it is alfo probable, that the common efculent mufhroom may fometimes difagree from their being not fufficiently ftewed, or by the incautious mixture of fome intoxicating fungi along with them. ; Otherwife thofe in common ufe at our tables appear to fupply a wholefome and nutritive food, approaching towards an animal nature, Two or three kinds are faid to be eaten in France befides the red- gilled ones which are eaten here; and it is probable many other kinds of fungi might be found agreeable to the palate, and whole- fome food, if well boiled, which might deftroy their acrimony; and efpecially thofe which when broken have fimply the agreeable fmell of the red-gilled ones in common ufe; and fome of thefe, I fuppofe, might be eaten raw without injury, as many people eat the red gilled ones, : Befides fome mufhrooms with white gills, which when broken had the grateful fcent of the common red-gilled mufhroom, and which were faid to be more delicious, I have known the peziza au- ricula, or ear-fungus, which was formerly an article of the materia miedica under the name of Jew’s ear, to be ftewed and eaten in con- fiderable quantity with impunity ; and was efteemed an agreeable ar- ticle at the fupper-table. And as this was efteemed a pernicious genus of fungi by Clufins, it is probable, that many other fungufes might lofe their acrimony by the heat of ftewing, and become wholefome and agreeable food; which are at prefent in difufe from their dif- agreeable acrimony in their raw {tate, or from the bad charaGter they | have accidentally acquired. It fhould be added, that though thofe plants, which are {uppofed to poffefs an alkalefcent Property, and to be liable to putrefaction fooner than other vegetables, lofe a part of their acrimony by a boil« ing heat, as water-creffes, cabbages, onions ; yet that plants, whofe acrimony is of a different kind, as ginger, capficum, arum, do not become much milder by boiling. I this morning direéted fome leaves of IY; and le fmell uppofe, ] gilled broken m, and iZa au- materia in con- Sect. XVII. 3.1. ROOTS AND BARKS. — of common fpotted arum, and of arum ariflarum to be boiled, and on tafting them found my tongue and lips almoft excoriated. ‘The na- ture of this kind of acrimony has not been fufficiently inveftigated by the chemifts, but probably depends on a fixed effential oil. ui. Barks. 1, The barks of the trunks of trees are fimilar to thofe of their roots, and may be efteemed a part of them, as they confift of an in- tertexture of the veffels, which defcend from the plume of each in- dividual bud to the radicle of it, and conftitute its caudex. The bark neverthelefs of the root is furnifhed with lymphatics to abforb water and nutritious juices from the earth, and is covered with a moifter cuticle; while the bark of the {tem is furnifhed with lym- phatics to abforb moifture from the air, and is covered with a drier cuticle ; the latter refembling the external fkin of animals, and the lymphatics, which open upon it; and the former refembling the mucous membrane of the ftomach, and its laeals. As the fap-juice rifes in all deciduous trees during the vernal months to expand their foliage, though probably in greater quantity in fome trees than in others, it muft confift not only of fugar and mucilage, as in the maple and birch, but of various other ingredi- ents in different trees, which have not been attended to; as appears from the tafte of their young leaves, as of oak or afh. . And as fome of thefe materials refide in the roots and fap-wood or alburnum, fo others of them may perhaps refide in the bark, where they have been depofited during the preceding fummer, and become lignified by the warmth of the {pring, or diffolved by the moifture abforbed from the earth and air, and conveyed upwards to the opening buds ; whence it is evident, that the barks of trees fhould be taken of for ufe in winter or in early {pring, before their buds begin to expand ; as then a part of thefe nutritious juices, or of the other materials, which are required for medicines, or in the arts of dying and tan- 2K.2 ning, 492 | PRODUCTION OF Sect. XVII. 3. 2. ning, are in part expended on the young leaves; which generally poffefs the tafte and qualities of the bark, though in a lefs degree, It may neverthelefs be obferved, that all thefe aftringent, or other materials, may refide in the alburnum of the trunk or roots of all perennial vegetables, as well as in their barks; becaufe the young leaves, which pullulate on decorticated oaks, have the fame bitter flavour as the leaves on thofe, which have not been decorticated ; which may in part be derived from the bark of the root, which is itll ini the ground, and be carried up the veffels of the fap-wood to the new buds. 2. Hence the bark of oak-trees fhould be taken off during the winter; but when the fap-juice refiding or afcending in the veflels of the alburnum becomes more liquefied by the warmth of the fpring, or is mixed with more moifture, and pufhed up with great force by the abforbent veffels of the roots, it oozes out in fome degree be- tween the alburnum and the bark ; and thus the bark becomes fo much more readily feparated from the fap-wood; whence this bufinefs is generally done early in the {pring, and fhould be performed as foon as this facility of detracting the bark appears, as mentioned in Sect. IlI. 5; becaufe this procefs of the germination of the buds continues to injure the bark, whether the tree be cut down or not ; as the buds expand their foliage on new felled trees, as they lie on the ground. ~ 3. The interior barks of fome trees, like the alburnum or. roots above defcribed, contain much mucilaginous or nutritious matter ; as the bark of elm, ulmus, and of holly, ilex ; and probably of all thofe trees or fhrubs which are armed with thorns or prickles, which are defigned to prevent the depredations of animals on them, as the haw- thorn, goofeberry, and gorfe, cretzegus, ribes groflularia, ulex. The internal barks of thefe vegetables may be conceived to be their albur- num lefs indurated, and might probably all be ufed as food for our- felves or other animals in years of fcarcity, or for the purpofe of fermentation ; as I doubt not but the inner bark of elm-trees, ul- A mus, 1€ fame bite decorticaes » Which si P= WOOd to the Off during th 4 in the velle h of the fpring great force by ome degree be: ecomes fo mul this bufinel 8 rformed as fon ntioned in Se: > buds continus rot ; as the bud he or0utl r 1008 on t yurnum 0 attel s rt) enor eKNi g # . ROOTS: ANDY BARES. 493 mus, detracted in the fpring by being boiled in water might be con- verted by the addition of yeft into {mall beer, as well as the albur- num of the maple and birch, acer et betula; all which are now fuf- fered to be eaten by infects when thofe trees are felled. For the fugar, which 1s extracted from the vernal fap-juice of the maple and birch, as well as that found in the manna-ath, fraxinus s, feems to refide during the winter months in the root or albur- num, rather than in the bark properly {o called; and to become li- quefied, as above mentioned, by the warmth of the fpring, or diffolved by the moiflure abforbed from the earth, and conveyed to the open- ing buds ; but refides folely in the roots of perennial herbaceous plants ; and in the economy of graffes, and I {uppofe of the fugar- cane, it is depofited at the bottom of each joint, which is properly the root of the ftem above 4t, as fhewn in Sett. iX29.%; : Of thefe the bark of the hdlly not only yields a nutritious muci- lage, and thus fupplies much provender to the deer and cattle in Needwood-foreft by the branches being cut off, and ftrewed upon the ground, ‘n fevere feafons of froft and fnow ; but contains a re- finous material, which is obtained by boiling the bark, and wafhing away the otheryparts of it. This refinous material poffeffes a great adhefivenefs to feathers and other dry porous bodies, and has hence obtained the name of bird-lime, and much refembles the caoutchouc or elaftic refin brought from South America, and alfo refembles a fofil elaftic bitumen found near Matlock in Derbythire, both in its elafticity and inflammability. Hollies may be worth cultivating for this material befides the ufes of their wood, as I was informed, that thirty years ago a perfon, who purchafed a wood in Yorkhhire, fold to a Dutch merchant the bird-lime prepared from the bark of the numer- ous hollies for nearly the whole fum given for the wood ; which if it could be hardened might probably be fold for the elaftic refin above mentioned. Whether this refembles the nutritive refinous material found ornu 494 PRODUCTION OF Sect. XVII. 3. 4. found in wheat flour, when the mucilage and ftarch are wafhed from it, might be worth inquiry, as mentioned in Sect. VI. 8. Se 4. Other barks contain bitter, refinous, aromatic, or acrid materials, which fupply the fhops of medicine, as peruvian bark, cafcarilla, cinnamon, and were defigned by nature to proteét thofe vegetables from the depredations of quadrupeds or infeéts. Hence many trees, and even the wood of them, after it is dried, and made into domeftic furs niture, is never devoured by worms, as the mahogany, cedar, cy- prefs; and hence many plants, as the foxglove, digitalis, hounds- tongue, cynogloflum, henbane, hyofciamus, and many trees, are not devoured by any animals; as their juices would be poifonous to them, or much difagree with their ftomachs, if their difguftful fla. vours to the nofe or palate did not prevent their eating them. ‘The fame defence of the vegetable kingdom from human digeftion, except thofe which have in long procefs of time been feleéted and cultivat- ed, appears from the relation of fome unfortunate fhipwrecked tra- vellers, who have paffed fome hundred of miles along uninhabited countries almoft without finding an efculent vegetable produétion. 5- Other barks contain reftringent or colouring particles, employed in the arts of dying and tanning, as berberry, oak, and ath, berber- ries, quercus, fraxinus. The art of tanning confifts in filling the pores of the animal mucous membrane with thefe reftringent par- ticles found in fome vegetables, which are believed to poflefs a qua~ lity of fhortening animal fibres. Thus when a long hair is immerf- ed fome time in a folution of the bark of oak, or of the galls pro- duced on its leaves by the punctures of infeéts, the hair is {aid to be fhortened. Whether this procefs be occafioned by chemical coagu- lation of the mucus, of which thefe fibres totally or in part confift, or by capillary attraction tending to diftend thefe fibres in breadth, and thus to fhorten them, as a twifted {tring is fhortened by moif= ture, has not yet been well inveftigated. By thus impregnating the pores of animal fkins with vegetable particles, they become lefs 7 liable XV lI, h; et fry i Material > Caf fear, si fon Y trees, ang ome fur. Cedar, » Cys lis, hounds. Tees, ate not Poifonous ty ifeuttful fla. them, The ftion, eXcept and cultivat- wrecked tra- uninhabited roduction. es, employed ath, berber= n filling the fringent pat pels a quae ir is immer! he galls 2 ‘on tobe | coagt* f 19 mica } part ; in bes > . ou" ned DY a eon atlS ; [Cp e tel : jablé cont Sect, XVII. 3.6. ROOTS AND BARKS. == 4995 liable to putrefa€tion, as confifting of a mixture of animal and vege- table matter, as well as much better adapted to many domeftic or me- chanical purpofes. The art of dying confifts likewife in impregnating the § pores of dry fubftances with a folution of the colouring matter extracted from vegetables by the capillary attraction of thofe pores to the coloured folution. And fecondly, by a chemical change of thofe colouring particles after they have been imbibed, and the water of the folution exhaled, by again fteeping them in another folution, which may chemically affect the former. Thus as green confifts of a mixture of blue and yellow, it may be beft produced by boiling the material de- figned to be dyed firft in a decoétion of one of thefe colours, as of in- digo; and then in that of another, as of the bark of berberry. And as a folutien of iron becomes black when mixed with a decoction of oak-galls, by being in part precipitated; it is probable, that the par- ticles’of this combination of a folution of iron with reftringent matter may be larger than either of thofe particles feparately ; and there- fore that, if a dry porous fubftance be immerfed firft in a deco&tion of oak-galls, and after being fuffered to dry, is then immerfed ina folution of iron, the black tinge will penetrate into minuter pores, and thus become more intenfe, than if the fubftance had been im- merfed in the black dye already prepared. 6. Other barks are ufed for apparel, paper, cordage, and for many mechanical purpofes, owing to the ftrength and tenacity of their fibres, or to the finenefs of them; as hemp, cannabis; flax, linum ; for the purpofes of fpinning and weaving; an art invented by Ifis, queen of Egypt, who feems firft to have cultivated flax ; which was brought into Europe from the banks of the Nile. The bark or leaves of the papyrus, a flag of the Nile, was firft ufed for paper ; and the bark of the mulberry-tree is {till made into cloth at Otaheite and other fouthern iflands. The art of feparating the fibres of the bark of plants, as they con- fit 496 PRODUCTION OF ,_ Sect. XVII. 3.7. Gift of the caudexes of buds, or the conneéting veflels between the plumules and the radicles of them, is performed by foaking them fome weeks in ftagnant water; till the mucous membranes, which .con- ne thefe fibres, are deftroyed by putrefaction ; and afterwards by drying them, and beating off with hammers, what may ftill adhere. Thefe fibrous parts of the barks of trees, as they contain no fac- charine matter, like the alburnum, are much lefs liable to decay than ~ the fap-wood, or perhaps than any part of the timber. _Mauper- tuis, who’went to Lapland to meafure a degree of the meridian, fays, that among the numerous trees which’ lay upon the ground deftroy- ed by age, or blown down by the winds, many birch trees appeared whole, owing to the undecayed ftate of their bark ;’ but crumbled into powder on being trod upon; and that the Swedes took the prac- tice from this of covering their houfes with this unperifhable- bark, on which they fometimes lay foil, and thus: poffefs aerial gardens, Voyages by Mavor, Vol. XII. 7. To increafe the quantity of bark it muft be remembered, that tle leaf-buds, or viviparous offspring of trees, as they form new buds, acquire new caudexes extending down into the ground, and thus in- creafe the bark of the ftem in thicknefs; but the flower buds acquire no riew caudexes, but die, as foon as they have ripened, their feed, and confequently do not increafe the thicknefs of the bark. Whence one method of increafing the quantity of the bark is to increafe the ~ number or vigour of the leaf-buds in contradiftin€tion to the flower- buds, which may be done by pinching off the flowers as foon as they appear; and as the bark becomes gradually changed into wood, this may be one method alfo of forwarding the growth of timber trees, as mentioned in the next Section. < | 8, The method of preferving the bark of trees from mofs confifts in rubbing off that parafite vegetable in wet weather by means of a hardith bruth ; which is faid to be ufed with advantage on the apple- trees in the cyder countries; and may at the fame time give motion to t +. ~ + ds acquit - 7 - {eed ro ot pew prs 7 "ea Wy peace — Sect. XVII. 3.9. ROOTS AND BARKS. 497 to the vegetable circulation, or forward the afcent of their juices ab- forbed by the radical or cortical abforbents. In dry weather the brufh fhould ve frequently dipped in water. Wafhing the barks of wall- trees by.a water-engine may alfo facilitate the protrufion of their buds in dry feafons ; and might poffibly prevent the canker, if appli- ed to dwarf or afpallier apple trees. Other parafite vegetables mutt be occafionally deftroyed, where they occur, as the lichens, fungi, mifletoes; with the ivies and other climbers, as fome kinds of lo- nicera, clematis, and fumaria, woodbine, virgin’s bower, and fumi- tory. g: When a wound is made in the bark fo as to expofe the albur- num to the air, the upper lip of the wound is liable to grow fafter downwards, than the lower one is to grow upwards, owing to the former being fupplied dire@tly with nutritive juices fecreted from the vegetable blood, after its ventilation, and confequent oxygenation in the leaves; whereas the lower lip only receives thofe juices laterally by inofculation of veffels. Over thefe wounds the cuticle is liable to project, and to fupply a convenient hiding place for infects, which either eat the new fibres of the growing bark, and perforate the al- burnum ; or by their moifture, their warmth, and their excrements, contribute to the decay of the alburnum, and prevent the healing of the wound. Thefe dead edges of the projeCting bark or cuticle fhould be nicely cut off, but not fo as to wound the living bark. Plafters of lime, or of tar with fublimate of mercury, have been - recommended to preferve the wounded parts from the air, and from moifture, and from infects; but as all thefe materials are injurious to the fibres of the living bark, they fhould be ufed with caution, fo as not to touch the edges of the wound, but only to cover the al- burnum ; for this purpofe white lead and boiled oil, mixed into a thick paint, or with the addition of fublimate of mercury, or of ar- fenic, or of {pirit of turpentine, may probably anfwer the purpofe ; and may be of real utility on the wounds of thofe trees, whofe wood 3 S contains 498 PRODUCTION OF Ser. XVII. 3. 10. contains lefs acrimony, and is therefore more liable to be bored into and eaten by a large worm or maggot almoft as thick as a goofe- quill: which I have feen happen to a pear-tree, fo as to confume the whole internal wood, till the tree was blown down. In refpect to the caution neceflary to be obferved in not touching the living edges of the wounded bark with fuch materials as may in- jure the tree by their abforption, I remember féeing feveral young elm trees, which died by their boles having been covered, as I was informed, by quick-lime mixed with cow dung to prevent their -be- ing injured by horfes; and I have feen branches of peach and nec- tarine trees def{troyed by {prinkling them, when in leaf, with a flight folution of arfenic, and others swith {pirit of turpentine. 10, A more curious method of cure is faid to have fucceeded, where the bark of a tree has recently been torn off éven to great extent, and that is by binding the fame piece of bark on again, or another piece from the in tree, or from one of a fimilar nature, nicely adapting the edges of the bark to be applied to the edges of that, which furrounds ee wound of the tree, which it is aia will coalefce in the fame manner, as the vellels of the bark of an ingraft- ed f{cion unite with thofe of the bark of the ftock ingrafted: on ; which is ftriétly analogous to the union of inflamed or wounded parts _ of animal bodies, as in the cure of the hare- -lip, or the infertion of the living tooth from one perfon into the j jaw of another, or the fac- titious nofes of Talicotius. If the bark over the cankered parts of apple-trees could be thus re- newed by paring the edges of the mortified bark to the quick, and then nicely applying a piece of healthy bark from an apple-tree of in- ferior value, and fecuring it with an eldftic bandage, as a fhred of flannel, it would bea very-valuable difcovery. Another method, where a branch of a valuable tree is in the pro- greis of being deftroyed by canker, might be by inclofing the can- kered part, ee fome inches above it, ina garden-pot of ‘eat pre- vioully “. COnfume hs hot to Uchin eVeral » eral young red, as | Was Vent their he. ach and nec. with a flicht ve fucceeded, even to great ON again, of familar nature, > the edges of it is {aid wil Cc ar afte of an ingralt in grafted on} wounded pat se infertion 4 , er, or the it aid be thus re the quick, - e of ill nm Sect. XVII. 3.10. ROOTS AND BARKS. — 499 vioufly divided, and f{upported by ftakes, and tied together anal branch; which might then ftrike roots in the earth of the gar a pot, and after fome months might be cut off, and planted on t : ground, and might thus be preferved, and produce a new ee which experiment I have this fummer tried on two apple-trees, an believe it will fucceed. 352 SECT. goa PRODUCTION OF Sect. XVIIF. 8.E.C TV... XVII. PRODUCTION OF LEAVES AND WOOD:. I. 1. Leaves are the lungs of vegetables. Graffes propagated by their roots. Some are viviparous. ‘Fonts of graffes are fucceffive vegetables. And their roots. Ex. tract roots of twitch-grafs by a fearifier with inclined teeth.. Produce root-leaves. Sor grazing, and ftem-leaves for hay. Eat down the firft ftem.. Cut grafs young Sor hay. Why young hay is liable to take fire. How to prevent it by fraw. Eat low meadows late. Sow.rye-grafs, trefoil, white clover, for fucceffive herbage. Other grafs feeds. . Roll them in fpring. Effetts of froft.. Uje more water as in- rice grounds. Sow thick. Heavy cattle foould be ftall-fed. How to deftroy tuf- Jocks. How to make bay. 2. Some root-leaves eaten raw. Others previoufly boiled. Upper part of fome roots and of fome ftems efculent. Afparagus. Art of: cultivation of root-leaves and ftem-leaves. Of mulberry-leaves.. 3. Etiolation of leaves leffens their acrimony. Etiolated flowers. Etiolated ladies. 4. Aromatic. and bitterifo leaves ‘ufed as tea, as of fage. When to be gathered. Tea recom= mended. §. Leaves ufed in medicine. Bog-bean inftead of bops.. Others for tanning, as oak, afb, and alder leaves. Others for dying, as indigo and woad.. 6. Leaves will ferment and may make a kind of beer. V1.1. Wood is produced Srom leaf-buds. To increase wood moiften the trees. Scratch the bark. How to. Straighten crooked trees. Pinch off the flowers. 2. To render timber trees tall with~ out knots, or crooked for fhip-timber. Willows. Ovziers. Sugar-maple. Scotch jirs. 3. Preferve wood from lightning, and from wood-peckers. 4. Woods differ in colour. Ujed in dying. Differ in medical and chemical properties. §. Oak corrodes lead. Sap-wood rots under lead. How prevented. Whence the my/~ teries of Free Mafonry. 6. Woods differ in their harduefs and fmoothnefs. Blocks for printing. J. In their durability as cyprefs. . Alder So piles. 8. In lateral cobefion. Ehygrometer. Pendulum. 9. In fpecific gravity. Rafts of hollow trunks. 10. du elafticity. Bows. 11. How to tran/plant large trees. How to Sect. XVII. 1.1. LEAVES AND WOOD. 501 . : . ° . THY oe * to prop them. 12. Time of felling timber after barking it, ‘The concentric rings of timber. 13. Pith is brain. Does not communicate from bud to bud. Sa- : goe from artichoke. From elders. 14» Boundary to. the growth of trees. Not to. coralline rocks. | t Of Leaves. r The buds of plants have already been fhewn to be individual. vegetable beings, and the leaves to conftitute the lungs of each in- dividual bud. And laftly, that the new. bud in the bofom of each leaf is the offspring from the caudex: of: that old bud; of which the leaf conftitutes the lungs. The leaves of grafles are of great confequence, as they nourifh many of our domeftic quadrupeds; the cultivation of graffes has therefore been much attended to. Many of thefe propagate them- {elves more by their roots than by their feed ; efpecially where their {tems are perpetually deftroyed by the grazing of cattle, fheep, or geefe ; and fome of them are faid to be viviparous, as the feftuca dumetorum, or fefcue grafs; that is, that they bear bulbs on their ftems after flowering inftead+of feeds; which in-time drop off, and ftrike root into the ground, like the polygonum viviparum, and the allium magicum ;. which circumftance is. faid to obtain in many dl- pine grafles, whofe feeds are annually devoured by {mall birds. The ftems of the grafles.confift in general of joint above joint without lateral branches; each joint of which feems-to be a fuccef- five plant growing on the preceding one, and generated in the bofom of the leaf, which-furrounds it;-the-ftem may therefore be efteemed a fucceflion of leaf-buds, till at-lengtlr a flower-bud is produced on the fummit, as fhewn-in Sed. IX. 3. 1. In fome grafles, as the agroftis canina, or triticum repens, dog’s-grafs, twitch-grafs, or couch-grafs, the. root confifts of joints.as well-as the {tem ; which may be confidered as feparate individual plants, like the bulbs of po- tatoes, as every joint of thefe roots will grow intoa new plant to the t - great 502! PRODUCTION OF Sec. XVAl< a7 ¥. great annoyance of the agricultor, which, when the ground is not hard, may be beft, I believe, drawn out by a deep harrow, or by Mr. Cook’s usthor: ; as a plough turns them over under the foil, as it breaks them, and thus much inereafes their number by in a man- ner tranfplanting them. The teeth of the harrow, or {carifier, fhould be inclined forwards towards the horfe for the purpofe of lifting up the roots, and that it may not too eafily rife out’ of the foil ; and it fhould be fixed by wedges or {crew-nuts to the wooden frame for the purpofe of occafionally lengthening them to adapt them to different ° foils, as the roots pierce deeper into Wr tenacious foils than into.clayey On€és. Flence it appears, that.a plant of grafs confifts not only of a tuft of leaves furrounding the root, but that the three or four lower joints of the ftem, as of a wheat-ftraw, are fo many fucceffive leaf- buds, which are generated by the caudex of the leaf, which furrounds each joint, and precede the flower-bud at the fummit; and that hence with the defign of producing much herbage for cattle, the propagation of new leaves from the root is principally to be attended to; but with the defign of producing hay, or winter fodder, the insti of the {tem are principally to be attended to. | For the former of thefe purpofes the ftem of grafs fhould be eaten down as foon as it rifes ; whence more grafs leaves will arife from the root; as is well known to thofe who eat down the firt ftem of wheat, when it is too luxuriant. For the fecond purpofe the leaf- buds, which conftitute the ftems of grafs, fhould be cut down, be- fore the flower-ftem at the fummit has begun to ripen its feeds; as at that time the {weet juice lodged in the joint below the flower-ftem becomes expended on the feed ; and the ftem becomes converted into ftraw rather than into hay. From hence it is readily underftood, why thofe paftures, which are perpetually grazed, are fo much thicker or clofer crowded with grafs roots than thefe, which are annually mowed; and why grafs cut : young >. ’ “a yy “ Te «4 ee, * at Se _ *| Cite, «te ALL tan aA) iu ats at, ieee nwa, aay sl a _——— —— U ~Miek, re 4g ; f Trt - o il aMAALT + ~ *Tryte i TroHINITC vem pie AS Cl ~ “ne TAT die se tle all hae “nennagtn - hw A OS ee a re | t CO + 4 Sect. XV! tT a | LEAVES AND WOOD. 503 young makes fo much fweeter and more nutritive ne nes oe which has ripened and fhéd.its feed. And lafily, why the Hay nen grafs cut young is fo much more liable to take fire, if baer ba6” moift ; becaufe the greater quantity of fugar in the joints of the {tems produces fo violent a fermentation, when it has fulficient -— to diffolve it, that it generates fo much heat as to burft into eae, This might beft be prevented, where chopped ftraw 1s defigned to be civen to horfes along with their hay, by laying alternately in the hay- Rack a ftratum of new hay and a ftratum of ftraw, or of clover and (traw ; whence the rapid fermentation, which occafions combuttion, may be prevented, and the ftraw may be rendered eafier of digeftion by being impregnated with the fermentative infetion, or yeft, of the fermenting hay. The art of increafing the quantity of leaves round the roots of eraffes contifts in eating off the central {tems by fheep, or horfes, or cattle, early in the feafon, as above mentioned; whence new ones are produced around the firft joint of the ftem thus bitten off, and from the diftant horizontal root-wires of fuch grafles, as produce them. In low meadows it is hence doubly profitable to eat down the early gratis till about the middle of May, as in moift fituations there is no danger but a crop of hay will fucceed; which by this me- thod will be finer and more copious; and at the fame time fome weeks provender of hay will have been faved by the ufe of the early grafs. On land intended for pafture, as for fheep, many people advife to fow three kinds of vegetables, which may in fome meafure fucceed each other in their growth. Mr. Parkinfon fows four bufhels of the feed of rye-grafs, lolium perenne, ten pounds of trefoil feed, trifoe lium pratenfe, and ten of white clover, trifolium repens, on every acre; and adds, that the rye-gra{s fhould be eaten early, while the white clover is ftill concealed in the ground, and the trefoil niakes only fome {mall appearance. That when the rye-grafs is eaten down the > 5O4 PRODUCTION OF SectT. XVIM, 1, 3, - the trefoil {prings up, and becomes food for the fheep; after which the white clover fucceeds; and after this is confumed, the rye-orafs again {prings up, and fupplies food during the winter months, if the weather proves tolerably mild; and he farther afferts, that a third more of fheep.at leaft may be thus nourifhed-than by any other means. Experienced Farmer, Vol. I. p. 88. For the production .of a meadow much fuperiorto thofe commonly feen Mr. Curtis recommends fix kinds of grafs and two of clover to be fowed-; the feeds are to be mixed together in the following pro- portions. Meadow foxtail, alopecurus pratenfis, one pint; meadow fefcue, feftuca pratenfis, one pint; fmooth ftalked) meadow-grafs, poa pratenfis, half a pint ; rough ftalked meadow-grafs, poa trivialis, half a pint; crefted dog’s-tail, cynofurus criftatus, a quarter of a pint ; {weet-fcented vernal grafs, anthoxanthum odoratum, a quarter of apint; Dutch clover, trifolium repens, half a pint ; red clover, tri- folium pratenfe, half a pint; thefe feeds are to be mixed together, and about three bufhels to be fown on an acre in rows for the con= venience of hoeing them. About the end of Auguft or beginning of September they fhould be occafionally weeded and thinned, and roll- ed in the fpring, to prefs down into the ground fuch roots as may have been raifed by the froft. Mr. Curtis thinks that meadow foxtail and rough ftalked meadow- grafs {uit moift foils the beft ; and that the fmooth ftalked meadow- grafs and crefted dog’s-tail fuit dry paftures ; and laftly, that the meadow fefcue, and the fweet-fcented vernal grafs, fuit land either moift or moderately dry ; and gives the following order of their times of flowering. 1. Sweet-{cented vernal. 2. Meadow foxtail. 3- Smooth ftalked meadow-grafs. 4. Rough ftalked meadow-grafs. 5- Meadow fefcue. 6. Crefted dog’s-tail. See Hall’s Encycloped. Art. Agriculture. Not only new fown graffes defigned for meadows, but the larger grafies, which have the names of corn, as wheat, oats, barley, may be advantageoufly rolled, when dry, after froft, which by expanding the water Vil ’ k: 1, te Le TY ear ho ‘QS, li the ‘at a thing any Othe, COm OMmonly oT Clover t OWing Dro. > Meadow dow. oral 10 trivialis, Uarter of a N, a quarter Clover, tri- -d together, or the con- ecginning of -d, and roll ots as may od meado" oq meadow y, thet te - Jand either Wy ley a tbe Sect. XVII..1.1. LEAVES AND WOOD. 505 water in moitt foils leflens the cavities, which are occupied by roots; and as roots or their branches are in general conical, they become pufhed upwards; and fuch as are loofe rife quite out of the ground, as is often feen to happen to the roots of the ftrawberries, when a frofty night has occurred foon: after their being tran{planted. After a flight froft theAarger pebbles of a gravel walk are feen: below the furface, as. if they had funk downwards during the night ; whereas this is owing to a fimilar caufe, the expanfion of the moift foil or gravel an inch deep; but as the froft had. not penetrated. fo low as to {well the ground beneath the large pebbles, thefe had not been lift- ed.up like the fmaller ones, or the wet fand. Secondly, both to inereafe the quantity of leaves round the root, and to increafe the fize or vigour, as well perhaps as the number, of leaf-buds on the ftem, a greater fupply of water than ufual, where it can be done, would be-advantageous; as is done to the rice-grounds in warm countries, in the early, part of its growth, andias.in flooding our own meadows occafionally in the vernal months. Thus very moift feafons are well known to.forward the luxuriant growth of the herbage, and ftems, in the cultivation of wheat, and to render the ears later, and lefs prolific. Where plants are fown for the purpofe of confuming the firft fo- liage, as grafles or faint-foin, the feed fhould be fown thicker, than where the plant is grown for the purpofe of producing feeds, as in wheat or peas; becaufe the quantity of the firft foliage will be greater in refpect to number ;,and the central parts of the tuflocks, as is of= ten feen in wheat and peas, when fown too thick, will rife two or three inches higher in their conteft for light and air, like the trees of thick planted woods; and will hence produce a forwarder pafture as well as a, more copious one. : To which. fhould be added, that the plants with fucculent ftems, as faint-foin, lucern,. red clover, receive fo much injury from the trampling of heavy cattle, that they fhould be mowed, and given to , eats cows 506 PRODUCTION OF Sect. XVIII.-1. 4. cows and horfes in their ftalls; which fhould neverthelefs have a yard or fold occafionally to run into with the convenience of water ; and if ftraw be chopped along with this green food, it might be a cheap and a falutary addition. Where a piece of grafs land is overrun with tuflocks of four grafs, which often. happens near towns, I have been informed, that lime or coal-afhes fpread on them would render the grafs fweeter, fo that horfes or cattle would eat it. But I fuppofe the more certain and advantageous management would confift in mowing it frequently, and giving it to the horfes or cattle in the ftable or ftall ; as I believe they will eat it greedily after it has been a few hours withered, and thus the land will not only yield more provender at prefent, but af- ter a few mowings a {weeter gra{s will rife in the place of that which was of a bad kind, or of too luxuriant growth; for which purpofe ft fhould be mowed as near the ground as may be ; or if it be frequent- ly mowed during the fummer, and left on the ground, fome cattle will eat it, when it is withered to a certain degree; by which the difagreeable flavour of it is probably leffened or deftroyed. The art of making hay confifts in evaporating about two thirds of the weight of it, as obferved by Young and Ruckert. Dr. Hales found a fun-flower plant, which weighed forty-eight ounces to lofe thirty-fix ounces by drying in the air during thirty days; and con- fequently to have loft three fourths of its weight. Vegetables to ap= pearance perfectly dry contain three fifths or three fourths of their weight of water; a part of which water-Mr. Kirwan thinks i$ not in- its liquid ftate, but that it is by a lofs of mueh of its {peciftc heat in a great meafure folidified. Kirwan on Manures, p. 37. Fhus when water is thrown on frefh quick-lime, a part of it unites with the- lime, and becomes folid, giving out much heat; which converts. another part of it into fteam, as mentioned in Se&. X. 4. 4. There are two methods of making hay prattifed in different parts of re ue ently, 49 : believe hered, and it, but af. that which purpofe ft > frequent: ome cattle which the ro thirds of Dr. Hales es to lole ~ and Cole sbles to ap- as of thei ks is nol in fre heat in hus when PS with the +h conver ho | ih Ferme ~~ Sacre XVI ia, LEAVES AND'‘WOOD. 507 of the country. In the more fouthern counties the fwarths are not turned over or fcattered for a day, or two, or three, but remain as they were left by the fcythe. In the more northern counties the hay-makers follow the mowers, and fcatter the grafs immediately, or on the fucceeding day. Perhaps a method between thefe may in general better fuit this climate. , | Herbs colleéted for medicinal purpofes, as well as flowers, fhould be dried in the fhade; otherwife they become bleached, and lofe both their colour and their odour, by too great infolation, and exha- lation. Now if the fwarth of cut grafs be only turned over once a day for three or four days, the internal parts of it may be faid to be dried in the fhade ; and afterwards if it be fpread over the eround for only a few hours on a fine day, I fuppofe it would become dry enough to ftack, and have loft confiderably lefs of its nutritive quality. Some advife a chimney to be left in the center of a ftack to prevent the hay taking fire, but there fhould then alfo be culverts under the ftack to fupply that chimney with air; which may be made by cut- ting three or four trenches in the earth, and covering them witli boards or fticks with their apertures expofed to the wind in all di- reétions. Perhaps the beft way would be to make the ftack narrow and long, and bent into a femicircle or crefcent to enable them the better to refift the winds, inftead of round or fquare, though a creater furface would indeed be afterwards expofed to the weather, and in- fome degree injured, by this mode of conftruction. When the grafs is fpread uniformly over the whole meadow, which is called zedding, it will fooner dry, as fo much larger a fur- face of it is expofed to the wind and fun; but it fhould certainly be. put into fmall cocks or wind-rows at night, efpecially if the weather be moift ; becaufe it will otherwife receive much dirt and {lime from the innumerable worms, which rife out of the ground always in nioitt warnr nights, and generally when the furface is covered with moitft 5 2% orafs 508 PRODUCTION OF — Secr. XVI 1.2. grafs at all feafons; and when they retreat into their fubterranean manfions in the morning, they are liable to draw in the ends of the grafs to ftop up the apertures of their holes, and by that means pre- vent the centipes from following them into their homes, and deftroy- ing them. See Zoonomia, Vol. I. Sect. XVI. 16. Whence much of the new hay becomes injured by the foil, they previoufly puth before them out of their mines, and by that which adheres to the grafs, which was drawn in to ftop the apertures of them, as well as by the flime, which they leave behind them on the new nays which they pafs through or over. On woe account hay-cocks fhould be made as high as may be: in proportion to their bafe, that lefs furface may be in contaét with the ground, as well as that a greater furface may be expofed to the air for a quicker exhalation of its moifture, and for the iki of the: better fecuring it from accidental fhowers. In wet feadcia. I fufpeét, the beft method muft conGtt i in turning over the rows of {warth every day or every alternate day, or raking it into {mall cocks, and turning them over in the fame manner, that the rain may not injure the wliole of it by pafling perpetually through. it, and wafhing away its faccharine and mucilaginous fluids; sad alfo that the part next the ground, and the central parts of the cock or {warth, may not pafs into fermentation and putrefa@tion. And Jaftly, when it can be put into tall cocks,-as the weather becomes drier, it will not only fooner exhale its moifture by the conta& of the atmofphere, but a beginning fermentation will fet at liberty fome degree of heat, and shoe somatsibine to dry it by increafing the eva- poration ; as the great heat generated in hay-{tacks which hate been: finifhed but one day or two, aflifts much to dry the whole ftack in moilt feafons, as is feen by the denfe fteam, which arifes from them, 2. Many root-leaves are confumed at our tables eitherin their raw ftate, as thofe of water-crefs, fifymbrium nafturtium, lettuce, lagtuca fativa, muftard, finapis, celery, apium many others are previoully — | boiled. may be ip Seer. XVIII. 1.2. LEAVES AND WOOD. 509 boiled to diminith their acrimony, and to coagulate their mucilage, as the root-leaves of fpinach, fpinacia, of cabbage, braflica oleracea, and even of turnips, braflica rapa 5 along with thefe ftem-leaves of - many plants the flower-buds at their fummits are.eaten, as thofe of mercury, mercurialis, and of fome of the cabbage kind called bro- coli, braffica italica. | | Many of thefe leaves not only confift of a refpiratory organ, but at the lower parts of them efpecially, or in their ftalks, there exifts a refervoir of nutriment for the rifing flower-{tem or for the ripening feed, as in rhubarb leaves, and in cabbage leaves, which is fimilar to: that in the roots of other herbaceous plants, and which renders them both palatable and nutritive. Moft of thefe concentric leaves are Gtuated in contaét with the earth, as thofe of lettuces, lagtuca, and falfafi, tragopogon. But others of them, as the cabbages, are placed on a ftem at fome diftance from the ground; in the former the up- per part of the root ot caudex is palatable and nutritious, as well as the lower part of the leaves ; and fome of them are of fuperior fla- your ‘when boiled. In the latter the refervoir of nutriment for the future flower-ftem and feed confifts in the lower ‘part of the ribs of the concentric foliage, as in the concentric leaves or lamina, which cover the bulb of the onion, or even in the ftalks, as mm cabbages,. and artichoke, which are therefore not only efculent, but palatable: and nutritive. Other leaves are eaten in their early ftate along with the ftem,. which they furround, as afparagus, and the young fhoots of fpinach,, and of fome kinds of brocoli, and ‘of mercury 5 which Jaft are fome- times fuffered to fhew their flowers before they come. ‘to our tables, and are then treated of in Sect. XIX. The art of cultivating all thefe confifts in fupplying them wath abundant carbonic earth, and with abundant moifture, as thefe are: h of root-leaves: or ftem-leaves, more friendly to the luxuriant growt than to the production of the flowers, or ripening of the feeds, as ap- pears $19.6 PRODUCTION. OF Secr. XVIH..4.3. pears by the too luxuriant growth both of herbaceous plants and of fruit trees in moift feafons. Another method of forwarding the growth of the new leaves and ftem-fhoots of perennial herbaceous plants, as of afparagus, is an- nually to loofen or turn over the earth around and above the roots, for the purpofe of admitting air into its cells or cavities to convert a part of the manure or carbonaceous foil, with which they have been {upplied, into ammonia, or into carbonic acid, and thus both to af- ford them warmth and nutriment. | Add to this, that the leaves of trees may be increafed in fize by lop- ping off the branches, by which means the remaining buds acquire more nutriment; the black mulberry tree is thus kept. low, and formed into extenfive thrubberies in China for the purpofe of feeding filkworms, as obferved by fir G. Staunton, who thinks the leaves are.thus rendered both larger and more fucculent ; and adds, that the ath-tree is alfo fometimes ufed for the fame purpofe. 3- Another method of deftroying the too great acrimony of leaves, befides that of boiling them, confifts in fecluding them from light, and-is termed etiolation. ‘This is chiefly praétifed on cellery, apium, by earthing it up nearly to the top of the plant ; and on fea-kale, crambe maritima, by covering the plant entirely with horfe-litter or ftraw, as defcribed in Se&t. XIV. 3. 3 3. and on lettuces, and endive, by tying together the root-leaves with a bandage. In many plants the central bud during its early growth feems to be naturally in a ftate of etiolation, as it is excluded from the light by the curvature of the furrounding foliage, as in cabbages, and par- ticularly in fome fpecies of aloe, which are faid to confume nearly a century in opening their numerous concentric foliage. Thefe etio- lated leaves, like flowers before the calyx is opened, are white ; and the leaves become green, or the flowers of many other colours, when expofed to the light, as explained in Se&t. XIII.-1. 3 It is probable that the foliage of many ether plants might. be rendered efculent by 4 thus ‘ I ) ANts ~ ’ d At r XN Q} fize by lop. uds acQLi t low, and e of feeding $ the leave; ids, that.the vy Of leaves, from light, ery, aplum, on fea-kale, yr fe-litter of and endive, th feems'? m the light es, and pe {ume neatll Thele eto Sect. XVIIL 1.4. LEAVES AND WOOD. 51t thus deftroying their acrimony, and decreafing the tenacity of their fibres by etiolation, as well as the leaves of celery, apium ; and car doon, cinara; and of endive, cichorium endivia. A feclufion from the fun’s light and. from, air has an effect fome=, what fimilar on animal bodies, rendering them pale and weak, aS may be feen in. the etiolated young ladies of fome boarding fchools 5 and in thofe who pafs their waking hours. in unventilated parlours during more than half the night. 4. Other vegetable foliage, has. been brought into very extenfive ufe infufed in hot water for its agreeable aromatic or bitterifh fla- vour, as thofe of foreign.tea, thea ; and of the ath,.fraxinus, of our own ifland, the leaves of which were collected, before. they became expanded, and {old after being dried. for the inferior kind of Bohea tea in fo-great quantity as to occafion an aét of parliament to be pafi-- ed about forty years ago to lay a fine on, any one, who fhould. have accumulated more than fifty paunds of afh leaves, which were not the: produce of bis own trees. The leaves of many other of our domettic vegetables, as of mint, balm, and fage, mentha, meliffa, falvia, have been infufed in hot water as an agreeable diluent beverage both in health and. ficknefs ; the laft. of which, the fage, poffefies a very pleafant aromatic flavour; and ‘f the infufion be poured from the leaves, before it has acquired too much of the bitter flavour, it 1s very erateful to the palate or {tomach, and has been efteemed falubrious from high antiquity to the prefent times, whence the line of Ho~ race: | Cur moriatur homo, cui falvia.crefcit in horto? All thefe infufions become nutritive, when drank with cream and! fugar, and have certainly contributed to the health of the inhabi- tants of this ifland by decreafing the potation of fermented or {piritue- ous liquors ;. and to their morality by more frequently mixing. the: ladies and gentlemen in the fame fociety. The pe PRODUCTION OF — Szcr. XVIII. 1. g The leaves of thefe plants, as well as the aromatic or balfamic buds of fome other plants, as of myrica, gale; of tacamahaca, populus balfamifera ; of balm of Gilead, amyris giliadenfis, and many others, fhould be gathered at the time of their greateft fragrance, as the ef- fential oils, which con{titute their odorous exhalation, perpetually evaporate, as our fenfe of {mell informs us; and were apparently for the purpofe of defending the plants from the depredation of infeéts in their {tate of infancy. 5. Other leaves have been ufed for medicinal purpofes, and for the — arts of dying and tanning, like the barks before mentioned; as the leaves of carduus benedictus, cnicus acarna, as an emetic; thofe of foxglove, digitalis purpurea, as an abforbent in anafarca; thofe of bog-bean, menyanthes trifoliata, as a corroborant ; which laf might probably fupply the place of hops, humulus lupulus,. in the beeline: ries of malt-liquors; and as it might be plentifully cultivated on bogey grounds, which are not at preterit ufed for other purpofes, might be a cheaper bitter to the confumer, and fave to the public fnitich more fertile foil for the cultivation of corn or other valuable vegetables. The leaves of teucrium fcorodonia, wood- fage, are as bitter as thofe of menyanthes, bog-bean, and have been ufed with fuccefs, as I have witneffed, in the cure of agues ; and, as it grows on dry barren foils, might poffibly be cultivated to fupply the et of peruvian bark in fome difeafes, or to fupply the ufe of hops in the breweries of malt-liquor. The leaves of oak-trees, quercus robur, and‘ of afh-trees, fraxinus excelfior, and of alder, betula alnus, even after they drop f{pontane- oufly in the autumn, are faid to ferve the purpofe of tanning animal membranes, like the barks of the fame trees {poken of in Seat, XVI. 3-53 and for the purpofes of dying, the leaves of indigo, indigofera tinctoria; and of wood, ifatis tin@oria; and of weld, cated luteola, have Il, , ‘§ amc by i . * Populy ny Other . ’ as the ef >ErDetuall rently he t infedts in ind for the ed ag the 5 thofe of 5 thofe of laft might he brewe. ltivated on r purpoles, the public er valuable is bitter 2 fuccels, 2 , dry barren eyvian bark reweries o 5, fraxinls ; fpontane ing api abt. xvi indigol™ da Jato ¥ a Sect? XVIIL 1. ¢ LEAVES AND WOOD. 813 have been much cultivated, and extenfively ufed; and a fpecies of polygonum is faid to be much cultivated in China for the fame pur- pofes as indigofera by fir G Staunton; to which may be added the fo- liage of lichen fru@ticofus, or archil, a whitith lichen brought from the rocks of the Canary Iflands, which gives a beautiful bloom to _ other colours, but is itfel? very fugitive. Linneus afferts in the Swedith Tranfactions, that this archil mofs is to be found on the weftern coafts of England ; and it is faid, that the archil is now pre- pared by Mefirs. Gordens at Leith near Edinburgh from a {pecies found in the Highlands of Scotland. Encyclopedia Britannica, Art. Archil. The manner of cultivation and of the extraction of the co- louring matter from the leaves of thefe plants may be alfo feen in Bomare’s Diétionaire Raifonne, and in Chambers’s Encyclopedia. It it probable, that many other plants, as hedyfarum, faintfoin, or the broad thick leaves of phytolacca, might yield a fimilar material to that of indigo, woad, and weld, if properly cultivated and prepared, as well as other kinds of moffes or lichens to that above mentioned. : The green colour of perhaps all vegetables, as well as of thofe from which indigo and woad are produced, 1s owing to the blue fe- cula, which has been obtained for the dyers principally from thaft plants ; and to a yellow material, which is more fugitive or more ea- fily decompoted, which yellow may poffibly be owing to iron. This blue fecula is imply obtained from indigo, as it fubfides from the fluid, in which the plant is fuffered to ferment; and is obtained from woad along with the cellular parts of the leaves during their fermen- tation in water, and beaten intoa mafs. It is probable that the blueft kinds of vegetables may contain the moft of this fecula. — For domeftic purpofes the juice of the fage-leaf, falvia officinalis, has been ufed both to give colour and flavour to cheefe; and the juice of fpinach is employed, I am informed, to colour the green uf-’ quebaugh, a favourite dram with the Irifh vulgar. And it is proba- ble, that the leaf of the vine, which bears purple grapes, might give : 3 a fimilar } 514 PRODUCTION OF Sect. XVIII. 2. re. a fimilar colour and aftringent tafte to our domettic wines, as the {kin of the fame grape gives to the foreign wines made from it ; fince the leaves of this vine always become quite red in autumn, be- fore they fall, probably by the concentration of their acidity, as their water evaporates unfupplied; as all blue vegetable juices be- come green by an admixture of alkali, and red by that, of an acid, 6. Another ufe for which leaves are collected by fome gardeners, _as they fall in autumn from any kinds of trees, is for the produétion of heat by fermentation in hot-houfes, or melon-frames, inftead of oak-bark, after its bitter particles have been, much extracted by the tanner; and it is probable, that many leaves might. be felected, as they will thus undergo fermentation, which might afford a {pirituous drink like {mall beer without any difagreeable flavour, or unwhole- fome material; which now ferve only for manure when gathered: into heaps, or by their flow decay on arable lands; or encumber the- grafs lands, they fall upon. 3 tI. Of Woods. tr, The leaf-buds. of trees producing a viviparous offspring acquire new caudexes, extending from the branches to the ground, and the intertexture of thefe caudexes forms the new bark over the old one. But the flower-buds. acquire no. new caudexes down. the bark, as. their oviparous progeny does not adhere ‘to the fide of the parent bud, but falls down when. mature, and ftrikes. root into the foil. . ' Now as the bark of trees is thus produced along with. the leaf-. buds, and as.it annually becomes alburnum or fap-wood ; and that fap-wood gradually lofes all vegetable life, and becomes heart-wood,; it follows, that the art’ of forwarding the growth. of the wood of. trees muft confift in producing and nourifhing the leaf-buds. For this purpofe the roots of trees fhould. be {upplied with rather more water, than they generally poffefs in their moft.natural ftate, or. the branches fhould be fprinkled by a Water-engine; as moifture fa-. ctlitates; sy as the from it. Umy ke idity, Uices . Lacid, Atdeners roduétig, iuftead of ed by the 1, as they Dirituoys 1 Whole. gathered mber the. g acquire and the old one. bark, 4s 1€ parent > foil. the Jeaf- and that t= woods wood OF De rly. rather {tates of ore giitat® Sec. XVIII. 2.1. LEAVES AND WOOD. sre cilitates the produ€tion of the new caudexes of the leaf-buds proba- bly by leffening the cohefion of the cuticle, or mechanically relax- ing it, like the rca of our hands when long foaked in water, as wall as by fupplying them with more nutriment. It may fometimes occur, that the cuticle of trees, or exterior bark, -may adhere too ftrongly, and by not opening in cracks confine the growth, or prevent the produétion of the caudexes of the new buds. There. is annually a new cuticle produced beneath the old ones, as well as a new bark above the old ones; hence fome trees have as many cuticles as they are years old, others caft them more eafily, as a {nake cafts its cuticle. When a number of cuticles thus exift one over another, it is ufeful to fcratch them longitudinally, which will admit the new bark beneath, confifting of the caudexes of the various buds to {well out, and form a line more prominent than the other parts of the trunk of the tree. If crooked young trees be thus fcratched in- ternally in refpeét to the curvature, and this repeatedly, I am in- formed, that they will gradually become {traight, by thus encourag- ing the growth within the curvature more than on its convex fide. Another method of increafing the number and vigout of the leaf- buds, and in confequence of enlarging the wood of a tree, confifts in pinching off the flowers, as foon as they appear ; as the nourifhment is thus fupplied to the leaf-buds by the ino{culation of the veffels of the bark; which otherwife would have been expended on the flowers, fruit, and feeds. ‘The truth of this circumftance is not only coun- tenanced by gardeners, who pull off the flowers of fruit-trees lately ‘planted to encourage their grow ith, but alfo from the appearance of fickly trees ; which are liable to perith, when in flower. In this cafe it often happens, that, after the flowers fade, fome of the leaf-buds continue to expand, or new ones put out, owing to the fupply of nutriment not being now expended on the pemion : 2. As tall timber trees without branches, and confequent knots in the timber, are moft valuable except for fhip-building, this may be 3U2 certainly - 516 PRODUCTION OF Sect. XVIII. 2. 2. certainly effe@ed by planting them near each other; as then the powerful conteft with each other for light and air propels them up- wards, inftead of producing many lateral branches ; as may be feen in many woods, which have not been too much thinned. For this purpofe fome have planted trees of lefs value though of quicker growth, as pines, amongft oaks ; which may be pruned or lopped, if they fhade the oaks too much, and may be finally removed, when the oaks are crowded by them; whence fingle trees feldom grow fo tall as thofe in woods, and appear ftunted, as it is called; which is generally afcribed to the cold {eafons, or to their being expofed more to the winds; which may perhaps fometimes happen in this nor- thern climate ; or where trees are expofed to infalubrious air, as near the fea; or exift in colder fituations, as on the fummits of moun- tains. Something fimilar to this may be feen in tuflocks of grafs, or where too many feeds of wheat have been fown near together, The central part of the knot of wheat or grafs grows much taller than the external part, fo as to give it a conical figure ; which has been by fome afcribed to the central part having been fheltered from the cold by the external ring, but is more generally owing to the ftruggle of the internal ftems for the acquifition of light and air. The Society of Agriculture at Copenhagen has propofed prizes concerning the cultivation of timber for fhip-building. One queftion is, whether the neceflary form and degree of flexion can by any means be given to. growing timber without injuring it? This I imagine may be done by annually. {cratching the external bark or cuticle ei- ther longitudinally or horizontally on the fouth-fide of the part of a tree, which 1s wifhed to be curved, as the fouth fide of trees are known. to grow fafter annually than the north fide, as is feen by the greater thicknefs of the concentric rings of a tree, when felled and fawed into blocks ; and becaufe the cuticle bounds the lateral growth of the trunks of trees, as the fkin of animals bounds the growth of the ee Ill. , 3 they ther ; AY be fee For this of Guicke Or lopped, ved, When OM grow fy Ls which i poled more 0 this gor. 3 alr, 28 ne 'S of moun: of grafs, or gether, The ler than the has been by ‘rom the cdl re ftrugele 0 poled prize Ose quelle by any mealls + aailit } \ Sect. XVIN. 2:2, LEAVES AND WOOD. . | 517 the cellular parts beneath it; and hence that fide of the tree, where the cuticle or exterior bark is frequently {cratched through, will be- come larger than the other fide of the tree, and tend to bend it into a curve with the {cratched fide outwards. Trees alfo on the outfide rows of woods will {pontaneoufly bend outwards for light and air, and may I fufpec&t be more eafily formed into proper curves by the. method above propofed. And where trees in a wood are at a proper diftance from each other, they may forcibly be bent by cordage to- wards each other, and then by wounding the exterior and interior bark longitudinally, or perhaps horizontally alfo on the exterior fide of the curved part of the tree, they may be brought into almoft any degree of flexure, which they will afterwards preferve as the tree advances. Some of the quicker growing trees may be more valuable to the planter than oaks, and fome in different foils are more valuable than others; as willow-trees in the hedge-rows in moift grounds are faid, :¢ headed once in ten years, on an average to produce each of them one fhilling a year. Perhaps the ozier for bafket making may be ftill more advantageous in low grounds 5 there is a valuable paper on the planting of them and the choice of the kinds of them in the Tranf{- ations of the Society of Arts, Vol. XVI. p. 129, by Mr. Phillips. Perhaps the fugar-maple may alfo be cultivated in this climate to ad- vantage on many barren commons, as on Cannock Heath. And cer- tainly pines, as Scotch fir, might in thefe fituations fucceed aftonith- ingly, as appears by the plantations of Mr. Anfon on the barren moun- tains near his feat in Staffordfhire ; and alfo from the plantations of the marquis of Bath at the foot of Wiltthire Downs near War- minfter, whofe fteward, Mr. Davis, has given a valuable account of the profit of planting Scotch fir in preference to other timber trees ; and finally afferts, ‘* that although fir-timber 1s worth individually more per tree than oak or beech of the fame fize, thefe trees will ne- verthelefs grow fatter and thicker together than any other trees. Four | : firs: 518 PRODUCTION OF Sect. XVIII. 24:3, firs will grow, where but one oak or beech will grow $ for firs are | the better, and deciduous trees the worfe, for being crowded.”’ J fup- pofe becaufe the branches of the latter are valuable, but the former is injured by the knots left in the trunk, where large branches have. exifted. Tranf. of Society of Arts, Vol. XVI. p. 126. Mr. Davis adds further, I fuppofe from his own obfervation, that * the chalk-hills in Hampfhire are peculiarly proper for beech; the flinty loams and clays of the fame county for oaks and ath; .the mofly fteep fides of the Wiltfhire Downs for hazel; the rugged and almoft naked rocks of Mendip in Somerfetthire near Chedder pro- duce the lime-tree and the walnut in the greateft luxuriance ; and on the highett parts of the fame Mendip hills, where no other tree ~ can fland the fea-breeze, fycamore flourifhes as well as in the moft fertile vallies. But taking into confideration the general demand of countries, and the peculiarities of different foils, no kind of wood is fo generally profitable for planting in coppices as ath.” Jé, 3. Another thing concerning timber-trees, which ought to be at- tended to, is the injury, they are liable to receiye from lightning ; which, I am informed, is much more frequent than is generally fup- pofed ; infomuch that in felling moft woods, efpecially thofe which grow in wet fituations, very many of the trees are found to be crack - ed longitudinally to the great injury of the timber ; to prevent this, pointed wires, as thick as a goofe quill, fhould be attached to a few of the talleft trees of all flourifhing woods reaching above their fum- “mits, as conductors of lightning. Add to this that the holes made by wood-peckers, 1 am told, are very numerous, and do much injury to the timber of our forefts, which can only be prevented by deftroy- ing that beautiful and ingenious bird. | 4. Woods differ from each other in many refpects, and are there- fore ufed for many other purpofes befides mechanical] ones ; as in colour; whence particular woods are chofen for their beauty in the conftruction of the furniture of houfes, as rofe-wood,. afpalathus ; 3 . others the moft -Mand of Wood js to be at: zhtning; ally fup- fe which ye crack- ent this, fo a few eir {um- made by injury £0 deftroy- e there g 3 48 i in the sjathuss others Sect. XVIII. 2.5. LEAVES AND WOOD. 519 others are ufed in the art of dying, as the Campechy wood, hama- toxylum, and faunders, fantalum, and pterocarpus; and feveral others. Other woods differ in their medicinal properties, as guaicum, quaffia, Campechy wood, and faffafras. Others differ in their che- mical properties, affording effential oils, as oleum rhodii, and Kaneey or balfams, and tar; and in their reftringency, as the 5. The oak probably contains much gallic acid, fuch as has been: extracted from the galls occafioned on their leaves by the pun@ures: of infects ; whence oak boards are faid to corrode the fheets of lead, which are laid on them, and are hence believed to be improper for the gutture-boards on the roofs of houfes. But the fap-wood, or ex- ternal: part of all timber, I fufpect, muft be improper for this pur- pofe on another account; as, when confined from much air by the fheet of lead over it, it muft lie for many months in the year in that ftate of moifture, which will favour the fermentation of the faccharine matter, which all fap-wood contains; and will thence be fubjeé to the dry rot, as it is called by architeéts. This. may be long prevented by leaving proper holes in the walls on all fides the baiide ing immediately under the roof, as has been generally done by thofe: itinerant bodies of archite¢ts, who thewed fuch prodigies of genius in the conftruction of cathedrals in. this ifland, and all over ee 3,and whofe fecret identifying words, and confederate figns,, which: were neceflary to them in foreign countries, whofe language they had -not time to acquire, feems to have given origin to.the modern myfteries. of Free-mafonry. The rot of wood might probably be entirely prevented by foaking ‘dry timber firft in ee ~water,. till it has sbforbed: as much of it as. may be; and then after it 1s dry by foaking it ina. weak folution of vitriolic acid in water; which will unite with the lime already de— pofited in the pores of the timber, and convert it. into gypfum ; hicks i fuppofe will not only preferve_it from decay for many centuries,, if 1f ~ §29 PRODUCTION OF — Ssct. XVIIL 2. 6. it be kept dry, but alfo render it-lefs inflammable, a circumftance worthy attending to in the con{truétion of wood-built houfes. I alfo conceive that beams fo impregnated would be lefs liable to {wag, and boards fo prepared lefs lable to warp. In the immenfe falt- mines of Hungary many large wooden props, which fupport the roof, and are perpetually moiftened with falt-water trickling down them, are faid to have fuffered no decay for many centuries. 6. Woods alfo differ from each other in their hardnefs, or the general cohefion of their particles, whence one kind of timber has obtained the name of iron-wood, fideroxylum. Others differ in the Gnenefs of their conftituent fibres, which fhew a beautifully {mooth polifh, when planed, as rofe-wood, afpalathus. “Where thefe two properties of hardnefs and fmoothnefs exift to- gether, as in box, buxus fempervirens, the wood muft be peculiarly valuable for the purpofe of making wooden printing blocks, fo well managed at this time by Mr. Bewick of Newcaftle in his books of Natural Hiftory of Quadrupeds and Birds. 9, Other woods differ in their durability, as cyprefs, cedar, maho- gany, are faid to be indiftruétible by time, or by the depredation of snfeéts. ‘The wood of the cedar of Bermudas, Juniperus Bermu- diana, in which black-lead pencils are inclofed, is faid not to be eaten by either aerial, terreftrial, or marine infects, and is thence ufed in the Weft Indies for building veflels, whofe bottoms are not pene- trated by fea-worms. The unperifhable chefts, which contain the Egyptian mummies, were of cyprefs, as well as the coffins in which the Athenians are faid by Thucydides to have buried their heroes. The gates at St. Peter’s at Rome, which had lafted from the time of Conftantine to that of Pope Eugene the fourth, that is eleven hun- dred years, were of cyprefs, and had at that time fuffered no decay. Of thefe fome are believed to endure longer in water than others, as alder, betula alnus, and is therefore efteemed preferable for piles to guard the banks of rivers. But Mr. Brindly, the conductor of the : i - grand on. Vit | CUMftat, Ules, lai © to i Menfe falt. ort the roof, lown then, 1efs, or th > timber hy differ in the fully {anooth cks, fo wel : his books i hi cedar, mand ae 0 ot to wei ‘ Sect. XVIII. 2. 8. LEAVES AND WOOD. | 521 grand trunk canal, affured me, that he believed from obfervation, ‘¢ that red Riga deal, or pine-wood, would endure as long as oak in all fituations,”’ owing perhaps to its being fo full of refin or turpen- tine. 8, Other woods differ in the deoree of the lateral adhefion of their longitudinal fibres, as the fir- aed. or deal, pinus, whence the tim- ber readily fplits by wedges. As the moifture of the atmofphere is abforbed into the pores of the dry cellular membrane, whch connects the longitudinal fibres of thefe woods, more than into thofe of the longitudinal fibres themfelves, they become much more dilated Ja- terally than extended longitudinally, by the change of a dry atmo- fphere to a moift one; whence by joining pieces of deal cut crofs-wife into a rod of fome feet in length, a very fenfible creeping hygrome- ter was made by Mr. Bdseworth; defcribed in the Botanic Garden, Vol. II. note on Impatiens. And as this wood is not liable to be much extended by low degrees of heat, when it 1s impregnated with boiling oil, or covered with varnifh, to prevent the accefs of aerial moifture, the pendulums of time-keepers have been contftructed of it, which have not perceptibly lengthened in any variations of the heat or moifture of the atmofphere. g. Another circumftance of great confequence, in which woods differ, is their {pecific gravity, as many of them will fink in water, as oak after it has been long moiftened; and others will fwim with much of their contents above water, as deal, and hence have been ufed for the conftruétion of rafts for the purpofes of rude naviga- tion; and which are now faid to be conftructed in France as engine, of war, probably for the defign of fuddenly landing troops, horfes, artillery, and provifions, from the fhips of invading armies on danger ous fhores, and for the certainty of re-embarking them. Thefe ne- verthelefs: can not carry great’ burthens fimply by their {pecific le- vity ; but if each piece of timber could be made hollow, and rendered water-tight, fo as to contain air, which might probably be done by y 3 ¢ boring s22 PRODUCTION OF SECT. AVE. S719. boring them, and plugging up the ends; or by joining thick boards together by means of paint and flannel, or caoutchouc, fo as to con- firuct long fquare wooden troughs filled with air, perhaps eight or ten inches diameter within, and twenty or thirty feet long. If the junctions of thefe could be rendered water-tight, and a number of fuch hollow trunks could be chained loofely together, and laid crofs-wife three or four times over each other, they might carry very Jarge burthens, not eafily to be deftroyed by forms, or funk by can- non fhot. — to. Another difference of the longitudinal fibres of timber confifts in their degree of elafticity, a circumftance of much greater confe- quence to our anceftors in refpect to the art of war than to the pre- fent generation ; as their bows for dicharging arrows, and the cata- pulta, or engine for throwing ftones, depended on the recoil of rods or beams of timber forcibly bent into a curve. For the conftru@tion of bows the yew-tree, taxus, was ufed in this ifland, and was plant- ed in church-yards, probably for the. purpofe of fupplying the youth of the parifh with bows, that they might become expert in the ufe of them; many of which have acquired extreme old age, and remain to this day. 11. When tall trees are defigned to be tranfplanted fae the pur- pofe of ornamenting a olesinhe peeae it is preper to dig a circular trench round them two or three feet deep in the early {pring ; whence many new roots will fhoot from thofe, which have their ends cut off, and thus the ball of earth will be better held together, when the tree is removed in the {ucceeding autumn, and the tree by having previoufly produced fo many more fine abforbent raaieles will be more certain to grow in its new fituation. __ Hence when new eee fruit-{cions on young ftocks are defigned to remain a few years’ in the nurfery, before they are defigned for fale, fome provident gardeners I am told tranfplant them every two. years, that the root-fibres may be more numerous in a {mall com- pats, funk unk by Can. ae MDEr confit eater conf. i to the pre. and the cat. recoil of rods conftruction id_was plant: ng the youth ert in the ule e, and remaia for the pul- irculat dig ac early {pring h have thet ; reld togethes and the" rbent 1 ails Sect. XVIII. 2.12. LEAVES AND WOOD. 523 pafs, which occafions them to grow, when finally tranfplanted, with more certainty, and with greater vigour. As tranfplanted trees fhould not be fet too deep in the ground, as their growth is then always much checked, as explained in Sect. XV. 2. 4. they generally require fome kind of props to prevent them from being overturned, or much fhook by the winds, before they have fufficiently extended their roots. As the bark is the only living part of the tree, it is liable to receive much injury from its contufion by the-preffure of the props againft it, or by the ftrangu- lation of the bandage which holds it to them. Hence as the inter- nal wood of a tree is not alive, I remember many years ago, that I faftened one prop by a ftrong nail to each fruit-tree of a {mall: or- chard, which I then planted; and found the tree fupported with much lefs apparent injury than in the ufual manner by three props _ and adapted cordage. | 12. The time for felling timber has generally been in the winter feafon, when labourers could beft be {pared from other rural em- ployments, and from the architeCture of towns; but it was long ago obferved by Mr. S. Pepys in a paper publifhed in the Philofoph. Tranfaa&t. Vol. XVII. p. 455, that the beft time for felling oaks for fhip-building was after having taken off the bark in the early fpring, and having fuffered the new foliage to put forth and die. For by the pullulation of the new buds the faccharine matter in the fap- wood or alburnum is expended, and it then becomes nearly as hard and durable as the heart-wood, being both lefs liable to decay, or to be penetrated by infects ; which was a curious and ingenious difco- very at that time, though the theory was not well underftood; the truth of which has now been eftablifhed, I believe, by the experi- ence of a century. As the bark of trees annually changes into alburnum or fap-wood, fo the alburnum annually changes into lifelefs wood; whence the concentric rings, which are feen in the trunks of trees, when they a C2. ae are 524 PRODUCTION OF © Sscr. XVIII. 2. 13. are felled, are annually produced ; and are faid generally to be thicker on that fide of the trunk, which grows towards the fouth, than on the northern fide, and thicker in the fummers moft favourable to ve-- getation than. the contrary. Thefe rings, as they lofe their vege- table life, and at the fame time a part of their moifture by evapora- tion, or abforption, gradually become harder and of a darker colour ; infomuch, that by counting their number, it is faid, that not only the age of the tree, but that the mildnefs or moifture of each fum- mer during the time of its growth may be eftimated by the refpec- tive thicknefs of the rings of timber. 13. In the fame manner the central pith alfo lofes its vegetable life, probably after the firft year; and then gradually becomes ab- forbed, or fo impregnated with ligneous particles, as not to be diftin- guifhed from the furrounding wood. ‘The pith of a young bud fo refembles the brain and fpinal marrow of animals in refpec to its central fituation, that it probably gives out nerves to every living fibre of the bud; though thefe have yet efcaped our eyes and glafles; and thus furnifhes the power of motion, as well as of fenfation, to the various parts of the vegetable fyftem. One curious fact, which I have obferved, feems to countenance this conjecture; which is, that the pith ofa laft year’s twig communicates to the leaves on each: fide of it, but not to the new buds in the bofoms of thofe leaves ; be- caufe thofe new buds are each an individual being, generated by the caudex of the leaf, and muft therefore poflefs a fenforium of its own. See Sect. I. 8. and IX. 2. 4. The pith of trees contains much mucilage, as well as the ftalks ef annual and perennial plants, whether they are hollow or not ; the’ pith of a palm-tree, cycas circinalis, is foftened with water, and pafied through fieves, and thus forms the fagoe of our fhops; it is poffible the large pith of the ftalks of artichokes, cinara fcolymus, might be manufactured into a fimilar kind of taftelefs mucilage; and the pith of the young fhoots of elder, fambucus nigra, might alfo poflibl y C Not oy}y each fume 3 Vegetable COMES ab > be diftins ing bud fo ect to its ery living ind glafles; ifation, to at, which which IS, ves on each leaves; be- ted by the of its own» the ftalks r not 5 the Inoes a Aly polit Sect. XVIIL. 2.14. LEAVES AND WOOD. —s.. poflibly be made into taftelefs mucilage, if previoufly agitated in cold water to wafh away any acrid material, as in the preparation of ftarch. : 14. When we contemplate the manner of the production of the internal wood of trees from the induration of the fap-wood, and the annual increafe of the fap-wood from the bark, which was previoufly generated by the caudexes of the numerous’buds; there would ap- pear to be no natural boundary to the growth of trees. But that their trunks, though a mile diftant from each other, might be en= larged, till they meet together; and cover the whole earth with lig- neous mountains, conftruéted by fucceflive generations of vegetable » buds ; as fome parts of the oeean are crowded with calcareous rocks, fabricated by the fucceflive generations of coralline infects ! : ‘A very large tree is defcribed by Mr. Adanfon in Africa, which is called by Linneus Adanfonia, in honour of that philofopher; of ° which he fays the diameter of the trunk frequently exceeds twenty five feet, and the horizontal branches.are from forty-five to fifty-five feet long, and fo large, that each branch is equal to the largeft tree in Europe. The breadth of the top is from 12a to 150 feet; and one of the roots bared only in part by the wafhing away of the earth by the river, near which it grew, meafured 110 feet long, and yet thefe ftupendous trees do not exceed 70 feet in height. Voyage to Senegal. And in this €ountry, when the internal wood is gradually detach~ ed from the alburnum, as it decays, as in fome old hollow oaks and willows, fo that it does not deftroy the tree by the putrid matter being abforbed, there feems to be no termination of the growth of the external remains of the tree, till the wind blows it down from its want of folid wood to fupport it. Of this kind of hollow tree a re- markable inftance remains in Welbeck Park in Nottinghamfhire, through the middle of which a coach is faid to have been driven. There is another oak of uncommon dimenfions in the foreft of Needwood, 4 called: 526 PRODUCTION OF Srcr. XVIII. 2. 15. called Swilcar oak, celebrated in an unpublifhed poem by Mr. Mundy, on his leaving that foreft, and is there faid to be 600 years old. But the caudexes of buds, which compofe the barks and afterwards the timber of trees, differ from the nefts or cells of the coralline in- fects, which compofe their calcareous rocks beneath the waves, in this circumftance. The cells of the coralline infeéts, like the thells of other fea-animals, become harder by time, changing by flow de- grees the phofphoric acid, which they contain, for carbonic acid ; and fome of them afterwards for filiceous acid, and are thus converted into limeftone and flint, and remain eternal monuments of departed animal life. } Whilft the remaining vafcular fyftem, after the death of vegeta- ble buds, like the flefh of animals, undergoes in procefs of time a chemical decompofition, and lofes by fermentation and putrefaGion both their carbonic and phofphoric acids, which probably gave them their folidity, and crumble into duft; which is feen in the rotten trunks of trees, which lofe fo much of their carbon as they decay ; and alfo become luminous, when expofed to the air by the efcape or production of phofphoric acid. And finally, their other component parts are feparated by elutriation, and form morafiles ; whence coals, iron, clay, and fandftone ; all which are found on the lime-rocks, which were previoufly generated in the ocean, and remain eternal monuments of departed vegetable life. Whence it appears, that a boundary is fet to the fize of trees by their internal decay, but none to the growth of coral-rocks, which are fo formidable in the navi- gation of the fouthern ocean, 15. Que/tion on the cultivation of Timber. The ‘political advantage or difadvantage of cultivating timber in this ifland fhould be here confidered. In the prefent infane ftate of human after an Malling x waves. i, * the the Y flow ge © acid 5 ang Converted of departed of Vegeta. Of time a Dutrefaction gave them the rotten hey decay; 1€ efcape oF component rence coals, lime-rocks, nain eternal ears, thata 1, but none n the sar ECT. XVIII. 2.15. LEAVES AND WOOD. 527 human fociety, when war and its preparations employ the ingenuity and labour of almoft all nations; and mankind deftroy or enflave each other with as little mercy, as they deftroy and enflave the be- ftial world; and may in time, for what appears to the contrary, re- turn to their favage ftate, and begin to eat each other again, as feems to have occurred at or before the commencement of almoft all civil focieties; the firft political attention fhould certainly in this pe- riod of human infatuation be employed to ftrengthen the country, to enable it to repel the invafion of foreign enemies, and to defend its natural rights, when they are infringed by them; but not to attack or invade other nations for any predatory or ambitious pur= pofe. The next important thing fhould be for this nation to fet a great example of juftice and humanity to all contending nations, and thence again to introduce truth and virtue into the world with peace and happinefs ‘in their train. Now as the power to refift invafion, and to defend our natural rights, when infringed by foreign enemies, muft depend more on the number of men than on the number of trees ; there need be no hefitation in determining, that thofe lands, which can be employ- ed in the prefent production of vegetable or animal food, fhould not be occupied in the tedious cultivation of future timber. But that, as the fummits of this country confift principally of a ridge of mountains extending from fouth to north between the eaft- ern and weftern feas, as thofe of the Peak of Derbythire and the Moorlands of Staffordfhire, which are fo bleak or fo barren as to be totally unfit for the plough or for pafturage, and yet might be em- ployed for raifing variety of timbers; which from our great fuccefles in naval engagements may be termed with great propriety, when employed in building fhips, the wooden walls of this ifland: Alk thofe unfertile mountains from the extremity of Cornwall to the ex- tremity of Scotland, fhould be covered with extenfive forefts of fuch 528 PRODUCTION OF Sscr. XVIII. 2. 16. -fuch kinds of wood, as experience. has fhewn them to be capa- ble to fuftain, and which may be beft adapted to the conftruction of fhips. 16. The following addrefs to Swilcar oak in Needwood forett, a very tall tree, which meafures thirteen yards round at its bafe, and eleven yards round at four feet from the ground, and is be- lieved to be fix hundred years old, was written at the end of Mr. Mundy’s poem on leaving that foreft, and may amufe the weary reader, aud conclude this Se€¢tion. : ADDRESS TO SWILCAR OAK, Gigantic Oak! whofe wrinkled form hath ftood, Age after age, the Patriarch of the wood !— Thou, who haft feen a thoufand fprings unfold Their ravel’d buds, and dip their flowers in gold ; Ten thoufand times yon moon relight her horn, And that bright ftar of evening gild the morn! — Erft, when the Druid-bards with filver hair Pour’d round thy trunk the melody of prayer; When chiefs and heroes join’d the kneeling throng, And choral virgins trill’d the adoring fong; While harps refponfive rung amid the glade, And holy echoes thrill’d thy vaulted thade ; Say, did fuch dulcet notes arreft thy gales, As Munpy pours along the liftening vales ? Gigantic Oax !—thy hoary head fublime Erewhile muft perifh in the wreeks of time; Should round thy brow innocuous lightnings fhoot, And to fierce whirlwinds fhake: thy fteadfaft root ; Yet thalt Thou fall !—thy leafy trefles fade, And thofe bare fhatter’d, antlers ftrew. the. glade; UG, | : Cay Sect. XVIIL. 2.16: LEAVES AND WOOD. 539 Uh mg Arm after arm fhall leave the mouldering buft, 00d § And thy firm fibres crumble into duft !— ~ Atel, But Munpy’s verfe fhall confecrate thy name, Eats bafe, | And rifing forefts envy Switcar’s fame ; ANd is he, —— Green fhall thy gems expand, thy branches play, Nd of MI And bloom for ever in the immortal lay. ; L the Weary SECT. tod A SS Aro 30 PRODUCTION Sect. XIX. SECT. XIX. PRODUCTION OF FLOWERS. I. Flowers from feeds. 1. Double flowers from feeds. Hereditary difeafes in plants. Full flowers have no fiamina. Three kinds of double columbine. Vege- table monfters analogous to animal mules. The ftamen, piftil, and calyx; are the moft unchangeable parts. Double flowers diftinguifbed by the calyx, are much more durable than fingle ones. Double poppies yield more opium. Annual infeéis. 2. The colours of fingle flowers from feed bow varied. Variegation of foliage. Vegetable juices are hyper-oxygenated. This fluid oxygen is converted into gas by the fun’s light; which therefore colours living vegetables, and bleaches dead ones. II. 1. Flowers from buds. Double ones how caufed. Surround the bud with water. Oil, and conferve of rofes. Their double flowers. Acquired babits. 2. How to vary the colour of fingle forub-flowers, by anther-duft, by inocula- tion. ‘Trees how variegated by ingraftment, or made into evergreens. 3. How to increase the number of flowers. lI. 1. Flowers from roots. Bulb-rooted flowers. To caufe their duplicature, break off the flower, raife them out of the ground, 2. Single bulb-rooted flowers. 1 increafe them in fize or number, take away offsets, crowd their roots. Propagation by offsets. .By feeds. How broken into colours. Plant them in different foils. Tulips break into colours from age. 3. Perennial branching roots. Duplicature of their flowers, propa- gated by offsets, by feeds. ‘Their fingle flowers. How broken into colours. By feeds, by tranfplanting. IV. Efculent and medicinal flowers. Vegetable mu- cilage coagulated by boiling in water, in fleam. They lofe their green colour in fieam,. Why? Artichoke—ftalks. 2. Cultivation of brocoli. Knobs on its roots. 3. Hop. Cammile. Their duplicature. V. Flowers ufed in the arts. For dying, ornotto. For pinning, cotton, cotton-rufb, cat’s-tail. V1. Nutritious parts of vegetables. 1. Mujfbrooms. Gluten of Wheat. Oils. 2. Sugar. Mucilage. Oil. 3. Starch. Meal. 4. Alburnum, Barks. Roots of fern and Ny ) difeaes in ne, Vi Rts aly; are the iy are much mnwal infos, on of foliage, d into gas by es dead ones, the bud with uired habits. » by inocula 5. 3. How Bulb-rooted em out of th or mumdtt, feeds, Hoo colours frim wers, pry colours: By Sect, XIK.nt. OF FLOWERS. 531 and of bryony. 5. Immature flowers. Honey. Leaf-ftalks. Leaves. Re* fervoirs of nutriment. VII. Happinefs of organized nature. I. Seeds and eggs have not fenfitive life. Milk gives two-fold pleafure. Dull animals and difeafed vegetables perifh, and give life to more Jenfible ones. Old age unknown before fociety. Mifery is not immortal. 2. Animal abforption and fecretion 1s attended with agreeable fenfaiton. Renders matter more folid. The fame in Ve- getables. 3. Strata of limeftone formed from animal fhells. Thofe of coal, clay, fand, from vegetable Jecretions, gave pleasure at the time of their production; and are monuments of pf felicity, and of the benevolence of the Deity. VIII. Cul- tivation of brocoli, @ pocm. | ‘Tue beautiful colours of the petals of flowers with their polifhed furfaces are {carcely rivalled by thofe of fhells, of feathers, or of precious ftones. Many of thefe tranfient beauties, which give fuch brilliancy to. our gardens, delight at the fame time the fenfe of {mell with their odours; yet have they not been extenfively ufed as ar- ticles either of diet, medicine, or the arts. For the purpofe of cul- tivation they may be divided into thofe immediately derived from feeds, thofe from buds, and thofe from roots; to which may be added the efculent and medicinal ones, and thofe ufed in the arts. 1, Flowers from Seeds. 1. The eye of the florift is frequently delighted with double flowers, which fhew a greater blaze of colour in a fmall {pace, and continue fome weeks longer in blow than fingle ones 5 and, though they are properly called vegetable monfters by the botanifts, may give information to the philofopher in refpect to the fexual genera~ tion of vegetables. The method therefore of producing double flowers from feeds is a matter of importance, as well-as the art of giving to both thefe and the fingle flowers. their moft healthy ex- — panfion, and the greateft brilliancy and variety of their colours. 3 Y 2 : Though 532 PRODUCTION SECT. XIX. 1.ty Though thofe multiplied flowers, which are {aid to be full, pof- fefs ‘no ftamens, or piftils, and confequently can produce no feeds ; yet are they frequently raifed immediately from feeds; for thofe flowers, which are cultivated with more manure, moifture, and warmth, than is natural, become more vigorous and larger, and at the fame time are liable to thew a tendency to become double, by having one or two {upernumerary petals in each flower, as the ftock July-flower, cheiranthus, and anemone. And what is truly curi- ous, this tendency to, duplicature -is communicated to the feeds of thofe individual bloffoms; infomuch that florifts are directed to tie a thread round fuch flowers, which have a fupernumerary petal, to mark them, and to collect their feeds feparately ; which are {aid uni- formly to produce double or full flowers, if cultivated as above with rather more manure, moifture, and warmth, than thofe plants have naturally been accuftomed to. ; The analogy cf this circumftance with the hereditary difeafes of animals is truly wonderful; as the children of thofe parents, who have acquired the gout or dropfy by intemperance in the ufe of fer- mented or fpirituous potations, become afflicted with thofe difeafes, as I have frequently obferved, in a much greater degree by the fame quantity of intemperance, which originally produced them in their parents ; or they acquire the fame quantity of thofe difeafes by a lefs degree of intemperance, than occafions them in others, whofe parents have not ufed fermented or fpirituous liquors to excefs. The luxuriance of flowers, which. is believed to arife from their cultivation in more nutritive foils with greater moifture and warmth, confifts in the increafe of fome parts of the flower, and the confequent exclufion of others; and is diftinguithed by Linnzus into the multiplication and plenitude of flowers, and into proliferous ones. Multiplied flowers confit of double, triple, or quadruple co- rols; but full- flowers are fo multiplied as to exclude the ftamina ; while in proliferous ones other flowers arife from within the principal XIX Fi ull, m No leds. for tho nutes ang > and at louble, by 5 the f Rack ruly CUrls 1 feeds of €d to tieg petal, to e faid’ uni. bove with slants have T difeafes of e difeafes, r the fame n in their S by a lefs fe parents om theif (ture aud wel, an _ Linnz> olifero le cor {rup? “fama ithin | te Secr. XIX: 1. fr, OF FLOWERS. 533 principal flower, and frequently from its center. Philof. Botan. p. So. » It is fuppofed that the ftamina of fome double flowers are con- verted into petals; but on examination, I fufpe& that the number of petals is increafed, and the ftamina prevented from growing by being compreffed by them in their nafcent ftate;- as in many of them, I believe, the rudiments of. fome ftamina may be feen, as in ranunculus. So when.a new flower rifes in the center of the old one, it is fuppofed, that the piftillum is converted into the ftem of a new flower, as in proliferous daify, bellis prolifera; but I fufped,. that the piftillum is prevented from rifing by the immoderate growth of the new flower-ftem ; as in fome of them, I am told, the rudi- ment of the piftillum: may. be perceived. Thus monopetalous flowers are doubled:or multiplied by the in- creafed divifions of the limb,.as obferved ‘by Linnaus, Philof. Botan. p- 83,.who adds, that the. metamorphofis of Englith foapwort is very fingular, as its five petals are transformed into one petal, .and. that in opulus flore globofo the central florets become fimilar to thofe of the circumference, acquiring wheeled corels, and: being barren: in thefe cafes the ftamens cannot. be changed into corols, as the num- ber of corols.is not increafed.. Afterwards, in p. 84, the fame il- Juftrious author obferves, that in double lychnis the rudiment of the common piftil is prefent. . The luxuriance of flowers seek confifts in the. multiplica- tion of the corols or neétaries, which laft are properly an appendage to the former; and the prevention of. the growth of ‘the male and female organs is the confequence.. Thus the flower of aquilegia, columbine,. has three kinds of plenitude: 1. the petals become mul- tiplied, and the neétaries excluded; 2. the ne@aries are multiplied, and the petals excluded; 3. the sabbedac are multiplied, the petals remaining. So that there are five petals, and between each.of thefe three Aotiatiee which exift within each other. A’curious 534 PRODUCTION _ Szer. XIX. A curious analogy here alfo exifts befween thefe vegetable montters and thofe of the animal world; as a duplicature of limbs frequently attends the latter, as chickens and turkeys with four legs and four wings, and calves with two heads. And in mules the parts fubfervient to’ generation become deficient, whence they can- not propagate their fpecies; exactly as in thefe full flowers, which can thence produce no feed. And in refpeé to botanic fyftems, it may be obferved from thefe vegetables of luxuriant growths, that the ftamens and piftils are lefs liable to change than the corols and neétaries, and are therefore more proper parts for the claffification of plants; on which idea Linnzus has conftru€éted his unrivalled fyftem. And laftly that the calyx, or perianth, is the next moft unchangeable part of the flower, as this is feldom doubled or multi- plied ; and that hence by infpecting the calyx the genera of many double flowers may be detected ; thus the double ranunculus pofleffes a calyx, but the double anemone is without one, like the fingle ones of thofe genera: : | ) The greater duration of double flowers than fingle ones is fo re- markable in fome poppies, that their fingle flowers lofe the corolla in a few hours, while in the double ones it continues feveral days: this circumftance is well worthy the attention of thofe, who cultivate poppies for the purpofe of wounding the head, which inclofes the feeds, for the opium, which thus exfudes. As poppies with double flowers may probably be capable of yielding opium, before they thed their flowers, and as long as other poppies, after they fhed them, Dr. Smith afcribes this event to the organs of reproduction being obliterated, and the confequent want of impregnation ; by the great ftimulus of which he thinks the vegetable irritability may be fooner exhaufted in fingle flowers: and adds, ‘ that on the fame account many plants refift a greater degree of cold for feveral winters before flowering; but after that event they perith at the firft approach of | éold, and can by no art be preferved fo as to furvive the winter.” I And. Xx, Vegeta, °C of lin : four leo, Mules Ch > they Cas CTS, Which y (ems it Wths, thet = Corals and flification of 3 UNrivalled € next molt ed or multi. Ta of many alus polletls > fin gle ones nes 1s {0 re e the cordla everal days! sho cultivate _ jnnclofes th with double yre they ht , thed thet, action bei Sect. XIX.1.2 OF FLOWERS. 535 And repeats an obfervation from Linnzus, that the piftilla of the fernale hemp, cannabis, continued much longer to exift when not expofed to the male pollen, than thofe piftilla on which the pollen had been effufed. Traéts on Nat. Hift. p. 177. It may be obferved, that many infeéts may be called annual ones as well as many vegetables, and die, as foon as they have provided the egos or feeds for the reproduction of their fpecies, as the filkworm, and, I fuppofe, all the kinds of moths and butterflies; many of which take no food at all, after they have acquired their organs of generation and their amatorial paflion, and yet appear fat and active ; and others live only upon honey, and feem to die as foon as that paflion is gratified, probably from having no further pleafureable fti- miulus to excite the animal power into activity, rather than from its total exhauftion; becaufe other animals, whofe exiftence is not na- turally fo fhort, are not injured or deftroyed by the moderate ufe of the powers of reproduction; and that power leaves them long before their death. An experiment to fhew, whether the moths of filk- worms would live longer if deprived of their paramours, might be worth the attention of naturalifts; and alfo, whether the butterflies of our climate might not be preferved during the winter, if fed with honey like bees, and kept from exceflive cold. I direéted fome honey to be offered to the filkworm-butterflies, which they would not attend to, though they may probably feek for it in their native climates. 2. Varieties in the colours of fingle flowers raifed from feeds may probably be generally acquired by fowing near together thofe of the fame fpecies, which already poffefs different colours; fo that during the difperfion of their anther-duft by the wind, or otherwife, they may intermix and adulterate each other. Or this may be more certainly effected by bending the flowers of one colour, and fhaking the anther-duft over thofé of another colour. In this manner, I {uppofe, 536 PRODUCTION _ Sgcr. XIX.1.3. fuppofe, it happens, that the beds of centaurea cyanus become of | fuch various and beautiful thades of blues, purples, and whites. Another method of giving variety of colours to feedling flowers confifts in fowing them on natural foils, or on factitious compofts, which differ much from each other in refpeét to vegetable nu- triment, and perhaps in refpe& to their colour, as fome ani- mals change their natural colours when in different fituations of foil. As frogs much refemble the colour of the foil on which they live, and our domefticated horfes, dogs, cats, rabbits, pigeons, and poultry, change their colours into endlefs varieties, owing to the difference of their nutriment or fituation, But obfervations and experiments are wanting on this fubject in refpe&t to the colours of feedling flowers, as well asin refpect to the variegation of the leaves of thrubs and trees ; which laft originates probably from foil or fitua- tion, and may be propagated by ingrafting. As the origin of double flowers is believed to refult from the lux- uriant growth of the plant, owing to too much nourifhment, moif- ture, and warmth, fo the origin of new colours in flowers, and of variegated foliage, is thought to occur from the innutrition of the foil, on which they grow, compared to that which they have na~ turally been accuftomed to, or from defect of moifture and of heat ; which is countenanced by the dwarfifh fize of fuch plants in general, and efpecially by the leffened ftature of tulips, when their petals break into variety of colours. The proximate caufe of the change of colours in flowers or foliage muft be fought from the modern acquifitions of aerial chemiftry, The prefence of oxygen gas deprives dead vegetable fibres, as cotton- wool and the threads of flax, of their colour; that is, it bleaches them; ‘which is probably owing to its uniting with the colouring matter and forming a new acid, which is tranfparent. Thus the hyper-oxygenated muriatic acid almoft inftantaneoufly deprives cot- ton and linen of their colour; and the fun’s light on moiftened linen XX. " Deco ling 8 fe IS “Ompofh, etable Die fome . tuations of Lon whic tS, pigeons, By OWing to TVations and 1€ Colours of of the leaves foil or fitua: om the lux. ment, moil- wers, and of rition of the ey have na and of heat ; ts in genet their pet al sit Sect. XIX.1.2, OF FLOWERS. 537 linen fpread upon the ground {eems to decompofe the water, and the oxygen thus detached whitens the linen. The etiolation or blanching of living vegetables on the contrary feems to originate from the want of the fun’s light to convert into gas the fluid oxy- gen; which, by diffolving their colouring matter, and forming new and perhaps taftelefs acids, deprives them of colour... Hence the water, which vegetables perfpire in the funfhine, becomes hyper- oxygenated, which dine much puzzled philofophers to account for ; and the oxygen rifes from it without decompofing it; which laft circumftance is evinced by the total abfence of the {mell of hydro- gen, which fo powerfully affects our noftrils, when a {poonful of water is thrown on burning coals. Now as plants, which grow lefs vigoroufly from defedt of nutri- ‘ment, moifture, air, or avin may acquire or poffefs lefs oxygen to diffolve their colouring matter, their ftructure may approach to- wards that of dead vegetables ; and hence they may become bleached inftead of coloured by the influence of the fun’s light, efpecially in thofe parts where their vital functions are performed with lefs vi- gour; fo an etiolated vegetable, as a blanched plant of celery, apium graveolens, becomes green in a few days, when expofed to the light and air; and white again, if deprived of life, and expofed to the funfhine and dews. The immediate caufe of the various colours of fome flowers, as of poppies, might be a fubject of curious inveftigation. I once fup- pofed, that the thinnefs of the pellicle of fome flowers might occa- fion them to reflect different colours, as is feen on dropping a drop of oil from a bridge on the water below on a bright day. But co- Jours thus produced vary with the fituation of the obferver, in refpeét to the obliquity or angle of reflection, in which they are feen; and are thence variable with every motion of them, as thofe colours feen yon foap-bubbles, and on mother-pearl, and on the Labradore-ftone, and on fome filks. For thofe colours depend on the thinnefs of the a4 reflecting 538 PRODUCTION _— Sscr. XIX. 2.1, reflecting furface, which when feen more obliquely become thicker ; and then refleéts thofe colours, which paffed through thinner plates ; in the fame manner as the red light of the fetting fun is reflected from glafs windows, feen very obliquely by the obferver. The colours of flowers therefore, as they are not variable by the obliquity, with which they are feen, like thofe of mother-pearl card- fith, do not depend on the thinnefs of their pellicle; but, I fuppofe, to the greater facility that fome parts of them poflefs in panting with their oxygen, when expofed to the fun’s light, than other parts of them; for all flowers are more or Jefs etiolated, before they firft open. In the filk manufaCtory a variable colour is produced by making the warp. of one colour and the woof of another; perhaps the variable colour of a peacock’s tail may be owing to a mixture of different coloured down placed in lines near each other. 11. Flowers from Buds. x. The flowers arifing from the buds of fhrubs or trees are liable to become double or full by the multiplication of their petals, as thofe of rofes, cherries, hawthorn, peach, rofa, prunus, cerafus, cra- tegus oxyacantha, amy gdalus perfica. Which tendency to duplica~ ture, as in the flowers of annual plants, is probably owing to the too vigorous growth of the bud from a too nutritious foil, or the combination of abundant moifture and warmth, and would probably | be forwarded by furrounding the bud itfelf frequently with water ; as is fo beautifully feeu in thofe plants, which have a cup round their joints to preferve for atime the rain, which falls upon ‘them, ‘ as round the joints of dypfacus, teafel, filphium, tillandfia, and ne- penthes. | It is remarkable, that though the duplicature of many flowers 1% believed to have beea owing to the more nutritious foil; in which they Xx ‘“ ne thicker Mer Plats, 1s Tefeta able by the pear] Card. : I fuppof, arting With eT Parts of € they fg reduced by 5 perhaps malxture of es are hiable r petals, a erafus, cla to duplicar wing to the foil, o* th Jd probably cup rou npon thes . ad Ler Jay aid ' gowess iv PG Suer,XIX.22 OF FLOWERS. 539 they have been cultivated, yet that, when tranfplanted into lefs fer- tile foils, or ingrafted on lefs luxurianc trees, they fill retain their tendency to duplicature; which can only be afcribed to the continu- ance of an acquired habit, or to the fucceffion of hereditary difeafes, fo frequently obferved in the animal fyftem. This duplicature of flowers from buds is generally propagated by ingrafting the fcions of fuch, as bear multiplied petals, om fimilar plants, which bear fingle flowers ; and may be of fervice not only for beauty, but for the purpofe of increafe in thofe plants, the petals of whofe flowers are confumed for any purpofe, as the leaves of rofes. A gentleman at Nottingham annually diftils a profitable quantity of effential oil of rofes, by colleéting all of them he cam purchafe in the neighbourhood during the feafon ; and this by the ufual procefs, which is not difficult though tedious. And a furgeon at Stafford has introduced an agreeable and profitable kind of agriculture, by planting half an acre of ground with red rofes, and converting the flowers into conferve with fugar, or by fimply drying them for the London market. 2. It is probable, that numerous varieties of colour in the fingle Sowers of fhrubs, as well as thofe of annual plants, might be ob- tained by thaking the anther-duft of one variety over the ftigma of another, where any difference of colour already exifts in the fame {pecies. And perhaps fome changes of colour of the flowers might be produced by inoculating the buds of a fhrub, whofe flowers are of one colour, into the branches of another variety of the fame fpecies or genus; as the variegation of the foliage of plants is faid to have been produced in this manner, according to the affertions of Mr. Bradley and Mr. Laurence, who budded a {potted paffion-flower and a ftriped jafmine on thofe, which were not variegated, and produced » a fimilar variegation of them, as related in Se&t. V. r. This has been afcribed to the abforption of fome infeCtious matter from the inocu- lated bud, which propagated a fimilar difeafe tothe whole tree; and: ae 2 has 540 | PRODUCTION Sect. XIX. 3 has thence been ufed as an argument in favour of a vegetable circu- lation of juices. A fimilar fa&t is alfo afferted by Mr. Milne. He fays, that ‘* an evergreen tree ingrafted on a deciduous one determines the latter to retain its leaves; this obfervation is confirmed by repeated experi- ments, particularly by grafting the laurel, laurocerafus, an ever- green, on the common cherry, cerafus; or the ilex, an evergreen | oak, on the common oak.’’ Botanical Dic&t. Art. Defoliatio. All thefe feem to want further experiments to authenticate the faéts fo delivered on the authority of ingenious men. 3. To increafé the number of the flowers of fhrubs, all thofe arts are applicable, which are defcribed in Sect. XV. 2. for the production of fruit on wall trees; which, when the tree is of a proper age, confift, 1. in bending down the viviparous branches to the horizon, which renders them oviparous; 2. by twifting a wire, or tying a cord round the viviparous branches; 3. by wounding or cutting away a narrow cylinder of the bark; 4. by tranfplanting or cutting off fome of the roots; 5: by cutting away the central or vamperans branches; 6. by ingrafting. 111. Flowers from Roots. 1. Many bulb-rooted flowers are defervedly in great eftimation by florifts, as the tulip, hyacinth, lily, colchicum, crocus, fritillary, &c, and of thofe many are liable to become double, which adds in gene- ral fo much to their fplendour and to their duration, as narciffus, hyacinth, colchicum, tulip, ; The immediate caufe of duplicature or multiplication of the pe- . tals of thefe flowers: is probably fimilar to that of thofe above men- tioned, and originates from their luxuriant growth, owing to the fertility Xx, , 31, vatle City ; that ‘ ‘ he latter t _ EXDeri. 2 AN ever, 1 vero hice the fads ( I thofe arts > production proper ace, he horizon, or tyinga or cutting z or cutting > viviparous timation by tillary, & ids in ge Sect. XIX. 3.1. OF FLOWERS. ogg fertility of the foil, and the abundance of moifture and of warmth in combination. 3 Other circumftances, which may add to their luxuriant growth, may alfo contribute to their duplicature ; fuch as by breaking’ off the flower as foon as it begins to fade; and thus, by preventing the nutritious vegetable juices from being expended in the erowth of the feeds, more of it may be derived to the principal fucceeding bulb. Thus it is alerted, that the preventing fome annual ‘plants from flowering lengthens their lives, which it may effect by occafioning them to produce new root-{cions, and thus to become perennial ve- getables. ‘The very ingenious Mr. Bogle, in the papers of the Bath Society, believes that wheat, oats, and barley, may be made peren+ nials, if they are eaten down by cattle or fheep, o1 cut by the {cythe or fickle, fo as to prevent them from producing ears. As tulip-bulbs raifed from feed produce a larger bulb the fucceed- ing year, and again a larger with a different leaf on the third year, and fo-on till the fifth or fixth, the bulbs thus annually improving till they flower; and even after they flower they are believed to continue to improve for fome years, till the colour of the petals be- come ftriped: I fufped that the art of procuring a great duplica- ture of the petals of thefe flowers confifts in breaking off the flower- ftem on the fifth, fixth, and feventh years, from the fowing of the feed; that is, fora year, or two, or three, after the flower-{tem firft appears, as noted in Se&. VHI. 1. 3. -And that the tendency to duplicature will continue in the fucceeding bulbs by the acquired habit, as in the hereditary difeafes of animals. And fecondly, thefe flower-roots become more luxuriant by raif- ing them out of the ground, as foon as the leaves wither, which are the parents of the new bulbs ; and then by taking away the {maller or collateral new bulbs from the principal one, which might otherwite “incommode its growth by their vicinity, and confequent compref- fion, 542 PRODUCTION Sect. XIX. 3. 2. fion, both thefe methods are of equal ufe to enlarge and render more vigorous the fingle flowers of bulb-roots, as well as to increafe their tendency to duplicature. 2. The fingle flowers of fome of thefe plants may be probably not only. enlarged, but fo ftrengthened as to ripen their feeds in this cli- mate, by nicely laying bare the root, and taking from it the new progeny; whether a fingle new bulb, as in orchis mafcula, or the numerous ones of hyacinth, tulip, or lily of the valley ; as by thefe means the vegetable nutriment is not expended on the new bulbs, and probably more of it may thence be derived to the flower. See Set. XVII. 1. 3. 3 : Another method of increafing the bulb-rooted flowers in fize or number confifts in crowding their roots in garden-pots, or by not annually tranfplanting them; and thus by preventing their offsets from being formed, or by decreafing the number or vigour of them ; thus lily of valley, and jonquil, feldom afford large or numerous flowers, till they have remained three or four years in the fame fitua- tion ; but muft neverthelefs be then occafionally in part tranfplant- ed, leaft the roots fhould die from being fo crowded. as not to form each of them oneannual new bulb, which is their mode of reproduc tion. The ufual method of propagating bulbous roots has been by the {maller offsets, which are formed annually round the principal or central new bulb, as in tulips; which central new bulb has com~ monly been miftaken for the old root ; by this mode of propagation the fimilarity of the new progeny to the parent is. nicely preferved ; and on that account fome of thefe new roots of tulips and hyacinths have been fold at extravagant prices. For the circumftance of this mode of reproduction fee Sect. IX, 3. 2. | But in refpe& to producing variety of colour in the fingle flowers of bulbous roots, the moft effectual method, I fuppofe, muft be by fowing their feeds, and waiting a few years, till their fucceffive bulbs at Dew bulbs, flower, Se FS in {ize of Sy OF by hot their offers ur of them; if numerous e fame fituae t tranfplant- , not to form of reproducs been by the principal © Ib has con 7 propaget™ y prefer nd by int tance oft . flowers oft pe bf ing! Sect. XIX.3.2, OF FLOWERS. — at length produce flowers, as defcribed in Sect. XVII. 1. 2. and par- ticularly if the anther-duft of one varicty iu refpeét to colour be fhed on the ftigma of another variety. “i Another method of producing a change or variety of colours in bulb-rooted flowers may be by planting them every year, till they flower, on very nutritious foil, with an abundant combination of moifture and of heat, as thefe two elements fhould exift together to effe& the moft luxuriant growth of vegetables, And after they have flowered, or on the year in which ‘they are expected to flower, they fhould be tranfplanted on a lefs nutritive foil, with lefs heat and moifture. Or probably this lefs quantity of nutriment, heat, and moifture, might be ufed at the commencement of their growth, or even at fowing their feed, with fimilar effe&t of fooner breaking into. variety of colours. The beauty of the double yellow tulip, and its greater longevity, much recommend it to common eyes ; but the,endlefs variety in the colours of fingle tulips has long and defervedly been the admiration of florifts. The curious event of their breaking into various colours. from an uniform purple, a year or two after their firft flowering, and at the fame time of their lofing nearly one third of the height -of their ftems, feems to indicate, that this effe&t refults not from ‘the debility of age, but from the acquifition of hereditary difeafes, as.thefe new colours, into which they break, afterwards remain for uncount- “ed generations, and may in this refpect be compared to the canker in.apple-trees, mentioned in Sect. XIV. 1. 3. This change of colour from darker to lighter in tulips may proba- bly ‘be accelerated or increafed by keeping the roots long out of the ground in dry or warm apartments, fo as to harden their fibres, and diminith the diameters of their fecreting veffels, and thereby hin- dering their abforption of colouring molecules, fimilar to grey hairs produced on aniinals by age or external injury of the part. This would feem to obtain in tulips, as when they break into.colours, I they 544 PRODUCTION Szcr. XIX. 3. 3. they lofe one third of. their fize, and confequently the diameters of their fecretory and of their abforbent veffels muft be much di- minifhed. New kinds of varieties in the fituations or production of white parts of the petals of flowers might be caufed, I fufpect, by com- prefling fome parts of them before the flower opens, by tying fine threads round the calyx, which inclofes them; as many darker co- loured cats and dogs have all thofe partslighter or quite white, which have been compreffed together, as they oe in their fetus ftate in the uterus; an inftance of which exifts in a black male cat, which now lies upon the hearth, and an inftance. of a black terrier bitchis de- {cribed in Zoonomia, Vol. Il. ClafsI. 2. 2. 11. This may be worth the attention of florifts and flowerfellers ; and it is probable, that the white ftreaks in dark flowers may have been thus produced by their greater compreftion in the calyx, before the flower opens. . The caufes of duplicature in perennial flowers with csantaae inns as ranunculus, caltha, hepatica, anemone, cheiranthus,. dian- thus, filene, wallflower, carnation, catchfly, are probably fuch as afford a general luxuriancy of growth to thofe vegetables, and may be certainly propagated by offsets from thofe roots, or by laying their branches in the ground, fo as to exactly refemble their parents. Many of thefe double flowers may alfo be procured by collecting the feeds from fuch fingle flowers of the fame fpecies, as poffefs a fuper- numerary petal; which, if fowed on fertile ground, will prefent us with double or multiplied flowers, as the anemone and july-flower mentioned in No. I. 1. of this Section. The effe& of breaking the fingle ones into varieties of eolour, avhich, in anemones and poppies as well as in tulips, are uncom- monly beautiful, is probably owing to the lefs fertility of the foil, or lefs fupply of heat and moifture, where they have happened to refide, and that more effectually if they were removed from more favourable fituations. The \ | § ® tion of Whit ed ' Ite > PY com. by tying ft by darker Oe White, which IS flate in th ty Which now T bitchis de. aay be worth able, that the juced: by thei 1S, ith branching anthus, dian- bably fuch a sles, and may or by laying their parents collecting tH offefs a {upe vill prefest di july-fow? ies of colo nom” Sect, XIX 4.1.. OF FLOWERS. 545- The varieties of the fingle flowers alfo of thofe roots may be. pro- pagated unchanged, as well as the double ones, by dividing the roots or tranfplanting the offsets, or by laying their branches in the ground, as of pinks and carnations. Other varieties may be: pro- cured by collecting feeds and fowing them in diffimilar foils and fituations; and fuch flowers as are of approved beauty, may pro~ bably be occafionally ftrengthened and enlarged by depriving them in part of their offsets early in the feafon; or may be broken into colours by keeping the roots fome weeks-or months out of the cround in the autumn in dry or warm apartments. 7 The colours of flowers of this kind, I believe, are frequently changed by fituation; in my garden fome roots of comfrey, {ym- phytum, with purple flowers had long exifted on a moiftifh border ; and laft-year other roots, I fuppofe from the feeds of the former, grew in a dryer fituation, and bore white flowers. And Mr. Brad- ley afferts, in his Philof. Account of Nature, p. 71, that fome roots of purple hepatica, which were removed from Tothill-fields to Hen- ley on the Thames, became white ; and became purple again, when they were returned to their native fituation. 1v. Efculent and Medicinal Flowers. 1. The efculent flowers moft in ufe at our tables have their mu-~ cilage in fome degree coagulated by boiling them in water” or in fteam, and are confumed before their maturity, as thofe of arti- choke, cinara fcolymus ; of mercury, mercurialis; of fea-cale, crambe maritima; and of srocoli and cauliflower, braffica oleracea, italica and botrytis. The flowers of the nafturtion, tropeolum ma- jus, poffefs an agreeable acrimony, and are eaten raw, - fhred with the freth leaves of lettuce, young muftard plants,. or red cabbage. ’ Other flowers are ufed for domeftic or medicinal purpofes, as thofe 4A of 546 .PRODUL TION Sect. MEK. 4a te of hops, humulys lupulus, camomile, anthemis nobilis, rofes, carda- mine, violets. . The three foremoft, of thefe, the artichoke, and mercury, and fea-cale, are perennial plants; and, as they put forth numerous root-. {cions or, offsets, may have their principal ftem much invigorated, and wall confequently produce larger flowers, by taking away many” of thefe offsets, fo as to leave but,two or three on a root. And as the ripening of the feed is no obje&, a greater abundance of moifture, - than thefe plants have been naturally accuftomed to, with propor- tional increafe of warmth in refpect. to. fituation, will forward thei, growth, and increafe their fize. : A. great part of the nbtritious, mucilage in the artichoke is, placed in the upper part, of the ftem, as well as in the pericarpium of the flower, which fhould therefore be boiled along with it for the pur- pofe of coagulation; and might then probably, be managed fo as to refemble fagoe, if granulated by pafling it through fieves. The art of boiling vegetables of all. kinds. in, fteam inftead of in water, might probably be managed to advantage, as a. greater degree of heat might be thus given them, by contriving to increafe the heat of the {team after it has left the water ; and thus the vegetable mu- cilage in roots and feeds, as in potatoes and flour-puddings, as well as in their leaves, {tems, and flower-cups, might be rendered pro- bably more nutritive, and perhaps more palatable. But many of the leaves of vegetables, as the fummits of cabbage- {prouts, lofe their green, colour by being boiled in fteam, and look. like blanched, vegetables. ‘This etiolation of fome vegetables. by fteam is, probably owing to, its diffelving their colouring . matter, which may then become decompoféd; and may render them. lefs agreeable to thofe who choofe by the eye rather than, by. the. palate; which green colour is however heightened. by boiling them in fome hard waters which. contain diflolved lime or fea-falt, or by a. fight admixture of common falt with: foft water.. An.effeét which: is Ward they ©.18, placed Um of the the pure 2d fo as to tead of in ter degree é the heat table mu- ., as well Jered pro- - cabbage and Joo, tables by $ret MIX. 8. OF FLOWERS. 547 + of the marine acid, and to the remaining alkali, which was the bafis of it, when applied to bluifh as in the common experi- is owing to the evaporation of a par vegetables converting them into green, ment of adding falt of tartar to fyrap of violets; or, according to the cuftom of forne cooks, who adda little potathy or fixed ve- getable alkali, to the water, in which young peas are boiled to make them green, and afterwards a very little fugar to fweeten them. The fame effect of making vegetables green, when boiled in other kinds of hard waters, is probably produced by the lime, which abounds in them; and which like the vegetable alkali when the aerial acid, which was united with it evaporates, is faid to convert bluith vegetable colours into green ones. The nutritious mucilage refides likewife in the. young ftems. of ~ mercury, which fhould therefore bé eaten before the flower begins to open. The ftalks and immature flowers of fea-éale are fimilar to good brocoli, if eatéh young; though many gatdeners prefer. the blanching them, which fuppli¢s an early and agreeable repaft, de- feribed in Seét. XIV. 3. 3. Afparagus does mot perhaps properly belong to this (étion, as the ftem is eaten, before the flower becomes vifible. 3. The cultivation of brocoli and cauliflower muft be very fimi- lar, except as to the feafons of the yéar, as they are varietits of the fame {pecies of plant of the cabbage family. The following direc- tions for the cultivation of brocoli weré fent me by Edward Tighe, Efq. an ingetlious gentleman of Ireland, along with an elegant Latin poem on the fame fubje€t, a free tranflation of which is placed at the end of this fe@tion. | «¢ Brocoli may be fo managed as to fupply the table with a deli- cious and falutary veyetable during the months of November, De- cember, January, February, March, April, and May. 4A2 1. Pro- «548 PRODUCTION SEcT. XIX, 4, 3. 1. Procure prime feed from Rome or Naples both.for early and late fowing. 2. Sow at the ceffation of the vernal fnows, and repeat it once a. month till the end of May, or longer. | 3. When three leaves appear, tranfplant them; and when fix leaves appear, tranfplant them again. Afterwards in June, July, and Auguft, tranfplant them two or three feet afunder, to remain. > 4. During September and O@ober the ground muft be loofened, and repeatedly cleared from weeds and ftones; and the plants earthed up to preferve their roots from the froft, and to pre- vent their being injured by the equinoétial winds. 5. Water them occafionally with water impregnated with dung. 6. Sow and plant them far from hedges, trees, and walls. The head is generally completed in five or fix days from its firft appearance, and fhould not remain much longer ;. the ftalk fhould be boiled with the flower, and peeled in the kitchen, before it is brought to the table.” ; Some kinds of Italian brocoli are faid to produce fome knobs or bulbs at their roots, which are fuppofed to be for the purpofe of raifing other ftems; if this laft- circumftance be afcertained, they fhould be broken off, when the principal {tem is tranfplanted;. like the new root of orchis to enlarge the flower, mentioned in Setion XV. 2.4. But they may be fimply a refervoir of nutriment for the principal tem, as in carrots and turnips ; in that cafe they fhould certainly remain, and be tran{planted along with the ftem. 3- In refpect to the flowers of hop, humulus lupulus; and cha- momile, authemis nobilis; as well as thofe of rofes, violets, carda- mine, and the nafturtion above mentioned; as their petals only are required, it would add much to their quality, if they could be cul- tivated in their double or multiplied ftate, as is generally indeed , practifed a en” ae ee et af Under he de ind to er th dung m its firft alk fhould before it is > knobs or purpole of ned, they ted; like in Section iment for ey fhould ‘Seor. XIX. 12 = OFO FLOWERS. 549 pradtifed in refpect to rofes and chamoniite’s ; many acres of the lat-— ter of which are cultivated near Chefterfield in Derbyfhire, and are fold, I am informed, to mix with hops, when thofe crops are -de- ficient, as well as for the purpofes of medicine. What might be the effet of endeavouring to introduce a duplicature or multiplication of the flowers of artichoke, fea-cale, cauliflower, and ae has not, I believe, been experienced. v. Flowers ufed in the Arts. 1. The beautiful membrane, which covers the feeds of euonymus, or fpindle-tree, and of the bixa of South America, is {aid to be ma- _nufaétured into the anotta, or arnotta, ufed in colouring cheefe; but I am told that madder, made from the root of rubia tin€toria, is fold frequently in its ftead, and may be readily grown by farmers in their own gardens. Few flowers are ufed in the art of dying, their co- lours are fo fugitive, as they readily bleach when expofed to the light, and cannot be kept long even in the herbariums of botanifts without lofing their colours; which is believed to be owing to the oxygen of the atmofphere being feparated from the aerial water by the fun’s light, and converted into a gas combined only with heat or light; and in that ftate more readily uniting with the colouring matter of flowers, and producing a new acid, which is tranfparent, colourlefs, or white, -or is diffolved and wafhed away by the dews or rains. The blue colour of the flowers of violets has been extraéted by water, and preferved by the addition of fugar converting it into fy- _ rup for the purpofes of medicine in part, but chiefly for thofe of chemiftry, to fhew the change of vegetable blues into greens by an admixture of fixed alkali, as falt of tartar or potafh; and into red 7 by 559 PRODUCTION Sect. XIX. 6. 4. by the admixture of an acid, as thofe of fulphur, nitre, or marine falt. 2. Another very important flower, which is fuffered to grow to maturity forthe purpofe of ufing the fine fibres which wing or in- velope its feeds, is that of the cotton plant, goflypium; which, as it requires fo much lefs preparation than the fibres of the ftems of flax and of hemp or nettles, is likely to become the principal cloth- ing of mankind; and efpecially fince the art of {pinning it was brought to fuch wonderful perfection by the genius of Sir Richard Aekwright, ‘who difcovered that two fets of pbiibce moving with dif- ferent velocities would draw out the fibres of cotton into a fine thread more accurately than could be done by the human hand, as well as more expeditioufly, along with much other very ingeni- ous machinery, There are two bog or water plants in our morafles, which produce much vegetable fibres attached to their feeds, one of thefe is the ty- pha, or cat’s-tail; and the other eriophorum, or cotton-rufh. The fibres of the former are fhort and coarfe, but might ferve perhaps to {tuff cufhions, or even coarfe beds; thofe of the latter are longer, and perhaps fine enough to fpin. And as both thefe only grow on bogs or in water, where'we at prefent cultivate no ufeful vegetables, one, or both of them, might poflibly be worthy the attention of thofe, who poffefs aquatic or marfhy fituations. “The cultivation of the cotton plant belongs to warmer climates, and may probably re- quire abundant water for its vigorous growth, as well as the typha and eriophorum of this country. vi, Nutritious parts of Vegetables. 1. Having treated of the cultivation of fruits; feeds,, roots, barks, leaves, woods, and flowers, an important. queftion prefents itfelf ; whieh 5 it Was Sit Richag 1g with dif into a fine Iman hand, very ingeni. ich produce fe is the ty- rufh. The e perhaps to - are longer, ily grow on : vegetables, attention of altivation of probably of as the typi rhs, gots a f; fents wii? Serr. XIX.6.2. OF FLOWERS. Ret which of them may fupply the moft nutrition to mankind, or to ether animals? It may be anfwered firft, we thofe vegetables, or parts of vegé- tables, which approach neareft to the nature of animal bodies, are mott likely to. fupply them with the moft nutriment ; as the efcu> lent mufhroems, and the gluten of wheat, and the oils’ of feeds and: kernels. The former clafs. of plants feems to connec the aninyal and vegetable kingdoms of nature, as fpoken of in Seat. XVII. 2. 5. and though many of them poflefs an acrid, and‘ fome of them ‘an in toxicating- quality, it is probable that the former might’ be deftroyed, and the latter diminifhed, by the heat employed in cookery. This fhould neverthelefs be attempted with due caution; fince, though one kind of vegetable acrimony, as that of water-creffes atid of cab- bages, is. much diminifhed or deftroyed by a boiling heat, yet that’ of the leaves of arum maculatum, and of arum arifarum, I found by experiment, was not decreafed by boiling. Anda few grains of the powder of lycoperdon, puff-ball, have lately been recommended in epileptic fits, and may thence poffibly poffefs a powerful narcotic quahty. The gluten of wheat is fuppofed to approach towards the - coagulable lymph of animal ‘bodies, as referred to in Se&t. XVI. qe Ts and was-once, I believe, advertifed as an alimentary powder, and recommended ‘as a nourifhment of the moft portable kind for the fuftenance of marching armies. And laftly the oils of vegetables approach much toa fimilitude with thofe of animal bodies, 2. Secondly, it may beanfwered, that fince the chyle of all red blooded. animals is believed to be nearly fimilar, and to confift prin- cipally of ‘fugar, mucilage, and oil; the laft of which ingredients renders it white by its infolubility in water, and thence diftineuifhes it from the vegetable chyle or fap-juice of trees, which is tran{parent, and.is beheved to confift principally of fugar and mucilage without’ oil's thofe parts of vegetables which contain the greateft quantity of I thefe 552 PRODUCTION Sect. XIX. 6: 2. thefe ingredients which compofe animal chyle, or are convertible into them by the power of digeftion, may be fuppofed to contain the moft nutriment for red-blooded animals. To-this may be added, that the nutritive quality of fugar is in- conteftably evinced from the known fac, that the flaves in the fugar iflands become in better condition during the fugar feafon, though they:are compelled to labour harder, The nutritive quality of fimple mucilage was {hewn in a -remarkable: inftance on record; ‘where a caravan by fome misfortune had confumed or loft all their other provifions, and lived many weeks on the gum arabic alone, which conftituted their principal merchandife. The nutritive quality of oil is obfervable in the procefs of feeding cattle with oil-cake, and in the habits of the natives of the northern latitudes, who ufe the oil of fith for both meat and drink, and derive from it their principal nourifhment. Sugar is known to be the fame, from whatever vegetable it is ex- tracted, whether from the fruit of the vine or apple-tree, from the joints of the fugar-cane, from the fap-veflels of the maple, from the alburnum of the manna afh, from the feeds of germinated barley and rice, from the roots of beets, carrots, and potatoes, or, laftly, from the neétaries of flowers. The exprefled oils of vegetables are alfo believed not much to differ from each other in refpeé to the nutriment they contain, though fome of them may approach nearer to the na- ture of animal fat; as the painters diftinguifh them by their greater aptitude to dry, when mixed with their colours and expofed to the ‘air. But the word mucilage has been ufed for ftarch, which will not diffolve in cold water, as well as for gum arabic, and other mu- cilages properly fo called, which will diffolve in cold water, and even for the gluten of wheat, which will not diflolve in either hot or cold water. We may therefore conclude, that thofe parts of vege- tables,. which contain the moft of thefe materials, are the moft nutritive, be 6, ; aT is in. the fuvay ) thouch of fimpl Where a lelr Other ey which quality of sake; and afe the oil principal € it 13 ex- from the from the barley and ftly, from are allo nutriment to the na eir greattt ofed to the which wil other mu _ and eve net hot rs of VEE" , the m° putsit Suar, S G OF FLOWERS. 553 nutritive, if they do not contain along with them fome noxious materials united: with their falutary ones, and which cannot. be readily feparated from them. | 3. Though the parts of vegetables, which poffefs, much oil, fugar, or mucilage, may afford more expeditious nutrition, as they con- ftitute the ingredients of the chyle of all red-blooded-animals; yet there are other materials, which appear to be fo readily convertible into fugar or into mucilage, as perhaps nearly to fupply an equal quantity of nutriment. Thus by the procefs of germination, as when feeds of barley are converted into malt, and when roots pullu- late in our ftore-rooms, as of onions or potatoes ; the farina, con- fitting of meal or ftarch, is in part converted into fugar, and in part into mucilage; fimilar to this procefs of germination appears to be that of ripening, by: which the auftere juices of fruits are tranfmuted into {weet ones; and alfo the culinary proceffes of baking or boiling, by which the auftere juices of unripe pears are changed into {weet ones by the application of heat, as mentioned in Sect. VI. 5. But another more expeditious converfion of vegetable materials into fugar is by the digeftion of animals, which may be truly termed a faccha- rine procefs ; as appears in thofe, who labour under diabates, as by evaporating the urine of one of thefe patients, fixteen ounces of im- pure fugar were daily extracted for fome time. Zoonomia, Vol, I. Sect. XXIX, 4. | Hence, though the oily kernels of nuts, walnuts, almonds, and the oily feeds of flax, hemp, rape, may contain moft expeditious nu- triment ; and next to thefe the faccharine fruits of figs, dates, rai- fins, and the {weet roots of beet, mungel-worfal, ground artichoke, helianthus tuberofus, parfaip, carrot, may contain expeditious nu- triment. Yet the more farinaceous feeds, as of wheat, peas, rice, barley, oats, and buck-wheat, polygonum fagopyrum, and the roots of potatoes, which contain ftarch, and flour, and mucilage, which are convertible into fugar in the {tomachs of animals, and are pro- 4B bably 554 " PRODUCTION _ Szcr. XIX. 6. 4. hably by that digeftive procefs, and their previous maftication.in the mouth, mingled with more animal coagulable lymph, as the faliva, gaftric, and pancreatic juices, and may thus {upply a more animal- ized nutriment than the former; and may on that account con- tribute more to ftrengthen the fy{tem. Of thefe feeds and roots it appears probable, that thofe, which contain the moft ftarch or gluten, as wheat, afford the moft nourifhment, as they are believed to make the beft bread. 4. The alburnum, or fap-wood, of moft trees in the winter months probably contains much nutritious matter; whence it is fo foon deftroyed by fermentation or putrefaction when deprived of life ; and by infects, -when it is deprived of its protecting bark. This nu- tritious matter might be, obtained by grating, or rafping, or pounding it, and boiling the powder or faw-duft thus procured. 3 The bark of all thofe vegetables, which are armed with thorns or prickles, is be- ieved to contain much nutritious matter, which their armour was defigned to prote&t; as the inner barks of elm, holly, goofeberry,. whin or gorfe, contain much nutritive mucilage; thus the deer in Needwood Foreft greedily peel the bark from the branches of holly, which are cut from the fummits of thofe trees, where they have no prickles, as mentioned in Botanic Garden, Vol. HI. note on Ilex. And horfes are faid to be well nourifhed by gorfe, if the prickles are previoufly deftroyed by rolling a ftone- over it, as the tanners bruife their oak-bark ; and fome horfes are faid to be fo fond of it, and fo wife, as to bruife young gorfe-bufhes with their feet, and then to eat them. Fern roots are faid to be eaten by the natives of New Holland, and in other countries in times of fcarcity ; but as their farinaceous or mucilaginous matter is included in ligneous fibres too hard. for maftication, the method of cooking it is faid to confift in boiling the root, and then extracting the fibres by hammering it to pieces. “he root of white bryony, which grows to a great fize in our hedge-bot— toms, ae - 55 Cy Goer MIK.6.9. OF FLOWERS. toms, is faid, by M. Permentier, to poffefs a quantity of ftarch, which was capable of being wafhed from the acrid mucilage by grat- ing it into cold water, and of being manufactured into an agreeable and falutary bread ; like the bread made from the caflava, which is faid to undergo a fimilar procefs,. by exprefling fome of the acrimo- nious mucilage previous to the application of the heat of cookery. Which however not only deftroys the acrimony of many vege- tables, as of water-crefles, cabbages, and the fkins of potatoes, but 1s -alfo believed to render fome of them more nutritive by coagulating their mucilage, which was previoufly combined with too great 4 proportion of water. : | 5. It would appear therefore in general, that the feeds or kernels of vegetables afford the moft nutriment; next to thefe their fruits and roots; and afterwards the alburnum or bark. Some of the fowers alfo in their early ftate before impregnation, as thofe of artichoke, cinara, and cauliflower, braflica, are nutritious from the mucilage, which they poflefs ; and fome feeds already impregnated, but ftill in their immature ftate, along with their hufks or capfules, as thofe of kidney-bean, phafeolus, and of very young peas, afford a falutary nutriment. And laftly all flowers after the expanfion of their corols fecrete honey which fupplies food to innumerable in- feéts, who plunder it, as well as to mankind. In the bafes of many leaves another faccharine or mucilaginous juice is fecreted, as at the joints of grafs, on the bulbs of onions, and at the lower parts of the leaves of cabbages, and around the ftems of afparagus, mercury, and hop-buds, during the early ftate of their flowers ; but the leaves themfelves, like the lungs of animals, feem to poflefs lefs nutritious aliment than many other parts of their fyftem. 4 B2 | vir. The 556 ~ PRODUCTION: — Sxct, XIX. 4.1, vit. The Happinefs of Organic Life. All organized nature may be divided into ftationary organizations, and locomotive organizations ; the former of which are called vege- tables, and the latter animals. All thofe parts of vegetables, which are moft nutritious to animals, confift, as obferved above, of aliment fecreted from the vegetable blood, and laid up in refervoirs for the future fuftenance of their embryon or infant progeny; which re- fervoirs are plundered by locomotive animals, and devoured along with the progeny, they were defigned to fupport !-add to this, that the ftronger locomotive animals devour the weaker ones without mercy. Such is the condition of organic nature! whofe firft law might be exprefled in the words, ‘* Eat or be eaten !’”” and which would feem to be one great flaughter-houfe, one univerfal fcene of rapacity and injuftice ! 1. Where fhall we find a. benevolent idea to confole us amid fo much apparent mifery '—I hope the fympathizing reader will not think the following account of the happinefs, which organized beings acquire from irritation only, impertinently inferted in this place ; their happinefs derived from imagination and volition may be treated of in fome-future work. It may firft be obferved, that the feeds of plants and the eggs of animals, when they have left the pericarp or uterus, and have not yet commenced their new growth upon the foil, or beneath the wings of the mother, exift in a torpid ftate, not poffefled of fenfitive life; and cannot therefore at this time be fuppofed to fuffer pain, when they are deftroyed by other animals; though thofe animals obtain pleafure from the activity, into which their vafcular fyftems are excited by the ftimulus of the aliment thus fupplied. Secondly, that the young of la¢tefcent animals both acquire and communicate pleafure to the enamoured mother, from whom they recelve SecT. XIX. 7.1. OF FLOWERS. 5S] receive their nutriment, as mentioned ‘in Botanic Garden, Vol. L. CantoI. 1.278, note; which conftitutes the moft beautiful and moft benevolent part of the great fyftem of nature. : ‘Thirdly, all animals, and, I fuppofe, vegetables, receive pleafure in the reproduétion of their fpecies; and where feeds are difperfed on the foil, and the eggs of fome animals and of many infects are buried beneath it, to be revived and hatched by the warmth of the fun ; there can be no pain in thefe cafes inflifed on the mother, when they are deftroyed by animals or by infects, as fhe is unconfcious of their deftruction.* | Fourthly, as all animal exiftence muft perifh in procefs of time, by the inirritability and confequent debility occafioned by the repe- tition of ftimulus, which’is termed habit, and appears to be an uni- verfal law of nature: -it is fo ordered, that as foon as any organized being. becomes lefs irritable and lefs fenfible, and in confequence feeble or fickly, that it is deftroyed and eaten by other more irritable and more fenfible, and in confequence more vigorous organized beings; as infe&s attack the weaker vegetable productions in pre-= ference to the healthy ones ; and beafts of prey more eafily catch and conquer the aged and infirm, and the young ones are defended by their parents. By this contrivance more pleafureable fenfation exitts in the world, as the organized matter is taken from a ftate of lefs ir- ritability and lefs fenfibility, and converted into a ftate of greater ; that is in other words, that the-old organizations, whether {tation- ary or locomotive ones, are tranf{migrated into young ones: whence it happened, that before mankind introduced rational fociety, and conquered the favage world, old age was unknown on earth ! Finally, the aged and infirm, from their prefent ftate of inirrita- bility and infenfibility, lofe their lives with lefs pain, and which ceafes inftantly with the ftroke of death; infomuch that death cannot fo properly be called pofitive evil, as the termination of cood, To $58 PR Oo DUCTION Sect. XIX. 7.1. To this fhould be added, that a long continued or a great excefs of pain cannot afflict an organized being; as {yncope or fudden death, and confequent docounattints attends very violent paitis ; and a lingering death attends the continuation of lefs violent ones. Hence it becomes a confoling circumflance, that mifery 1s not im- mortal. A philofopher, whom I left in my Gieatgs has perufed the above paragraphs, and added the fubfequent one to my manufcript. ** It confoles me to find, as I contemplate with you the whole of orga- nized nature, that it is not in the power of any one perfonage, whe- ther ftatefman or hero, to produce by his ill-employed aGivity fo much mifery, as might have been fuppofed. Thus, if a Ruffian army, in thefe infane times, after having endured a laborious march of many hundred miles, is deftroyed by a French army in defence of their republic, what has happened? Forty thoufand human crea- tures dragged from their homes and their connexions ceafe to exift, and have manured the earth; but the quantity of organized matter, of which they were compofed, prefently revives in the forms of mil- lions of microf{copic animals, vegetables, and infe&ts, and afterwards of quadrupeds and men; the fum of whofe happinefs is perhaps much greater than that of the haraffed foldiers, by whofe deftruc- tion thee have gained their exiftence !—Is not this a confoling idea toa mind of univerfal fympathy ? «¢ T well remember to have heard an ingenious ee: boatt, that he had drained two hundred acres of moraffy land, on which he now was able to feed a hundred oxen; and added, ‘is not that a me- ritorious thing :’ ¢ True,’ replied one of the company, ‘ but you for- get, that you have deftroyed a thoufand free republics of ants, and ten thoufand rational frogs, -befides innumerable aquatic infeéts, and aquatic vegetables.’ ** Having written the above, 'I fear you may think mea mifan- thrope, but I affure you a contrary fenfation dwells in my bofom; 4 and tivity {p | Rofian aS march efence of an crea to exif, 1 matter, 1s of mil- fterwarts ; perhaps » deftruc- gling ides or boall, which he hat 2” : you fof % Sect. XIX. 7.2. OF FLOWERS. 559 and though I commiferate the evils of all organic being, Homo fum, humani nihil a me alienum puto.” 2. The vafcular fyftems of animal bodies are excited into action by the ftimulus of the fluids, which they abforb, circulate, and fe- crete; and when this action is exerted in its natural or moft ufual quantity, it is attended with agreeable fenfation, which conftitutes the pleafure of organized exiftence. Thefe vafcular actions of ani- mals, which perform digeftion, fanguification, and fecretion, convert. the aliment, after its {olution in the ftomach, into more compounded and more folid materials; as ‘nto mufcles, membranes, nerves, bones, and fhells ; at the fame time that pleafurable fenfation attends ° this activity of the fyftem. The vatcular aétions of vegetables, . which perform their digeftion, fanguification, and fecretion, convert the elements of air and water, or other aliments, which they receive from organized matter decompofing beneath the foil, into more com- pounded or more folid materials, as into vegetable veffels, mufcles, membranes, nerves, and ligneous fibres; and a degree of pleafure- able fenfation mutt be fuppofed from the ftrongeft analogy to attend - this activity of their fyftems. 3. Many of the materials, which have been thus produced by the digeftion and fecretion of organized beings, and have given pleafure in their production, have been flow in their decompofition after the death of the creature; as the fhells of fifth were originally thus formed, and were left at the bottom of the ocean, till they became wonderfully accumulated, were afterwards elevated by fubmarine fires, and conftitute at this day the ‘mmenfe rocks and unmeafured ftrata of limeftone, chalk, and marble. As mentioned in Seét. X. rome = The ftrata, which are incumbent on the calcareous ones, which: confift of coals, fand, iron, clay, and marl, are all of them be- lieved to have been originally the products chiefly of vegetable orga- nization ; whatever changes they have fince undergone in the long ' progrefs 560 PRODUCTION Sect, XIX, 8. progrefs of their decompofition, and that all thofe folid parts of the earth have been thus fabricated ftom their fimpler elements by vege- table and by animal life, and have given pleafure to thofe organized beings, which formed them, at the time of their production. We hence acquire this fublime and interefting idea; that all the calcareous mountains in the world, and all the ftrata of clay, coal, marl, fand, and iron, which are incumbent on them, are Monu- MENTS OF THE PAST FELICITY OF ORGANIZED NATURE!—AND CONSEQUENTLY OF THE BENEVOLENCE OF THE Deity! vill. The Cultivation of Brocoli. ' Tranflated in part from an elegant Latin poem of Edward Tighe, Efg. THERE are of learned tafte, who ftill prefer Cos-lettuce, tarragon, and cucumber ; There are, who ftill with equal praifes yoke Young peas, afparagus, and artichoke ; Beaux there are {till with lamb and {pinach nurs’d, And clowns eat beans and bacon, till they burtt. This boon I afk of Fate, where’er I dine, O, be the Proteus-form of cabbage mine !— Cale, colewort, cauliflower, or foft and clear If Brocotr delight thy nicer ear, Give, rural Mufe! the culture and the name In verfe immortal to the rolls of Fame. When the bright Bull afcending firft adorns The Spring’s fair forehead with his golden horns; HV hen the bright Bull, 1gth of April. Italian {alia Lhe Twins, 20th of May. Sect. XIX. 8. OF FLOWERS. Italian feeds with parfimonious hand The watchful Gardener fcatters o’er his land ; Quick moves the rake, with iron teeth divides The yielding glebe, the living treafure hides ; O’er the fmooth foil, with horrent thorns befet, Swells in the breeze the undulating net ; Bright fhells and feathers dance on twifting {trings, And the fcar’d Finch retreats on rapid wings. Next when the Twins their lucid forms difplay, — And hand in hand falute the lord of day ; When climbs the Crab the blue ethereal plain, Or fhakes the Lion his refulgent mane ; Each paffing month renew the grateful toil, Upturn with fhining blade the fertile foil; New feeds infert, whofe vegetable birth May rife fucceffive from the womb of earth. So thall hibernal hours on frozen wing View the green products of the breezy {pring ; Admiring nymphs the genial banquet fhare, Smile on thy labours, and reward thy care. But when three leaves the young Afpirer fhoots, To other foils tranfplant the fhorten’d roots ; Where no tall branches form a vaulted glade, Nor ivy’d tower projects a length of fhade ; There in wide ranks thy verdant realms divide, Parting each opening file a martial ftride. There with charm’d words of fome poetic fpell Call the blue Naiads from their fecret cell ; From filver urns in lucid cireles pour Round each weak ftem the falutary fhower. Pants thy young heart to grafp the laurel’d prize, And fwell thy Brocoli to gigantic fize ?— The Lion, 22d.0f July. ‘ 4 C The Crab, 20th of June. Soon 562 PRODUCTION Sect. XIX, 8. Soon as each head with youthful grace receives The verdant curls of fix unfolding leaves ; O, ftill tranfplant them on each drizzly morn, Oft as the moon relights her waining horn; Till her bright veft the ftar-clad Virgin trails, Or corn-crown’d Autumn lifts his golden {cales, Then ply the fhining hoe with artful toil, Ere the grey night-froft binds the ftiffen’d foil; And, as o’er heaven the rifing Scorpion crawls, Surround the fhuddering ftems with earthen walls. , So fhall each plant erect its leafy form, Unfhook by Autumn’s equinoxial ftorm ; And round and {mooth, with filvery veins embofs’d, Repel the dew-drops, and evade the froft. Thus on the Stoic’s round and polifh’d brows Her venom’d fhafts in vain misfortune throws ; By virtue arm’d, he braves the tented field, The innocuous arrows tinkling on his fhield. Hence when afcendant rules the watery Star, Or the celeftial Fifhes {wim in air, Thy guarded ftalks fhall lift their curled heads, And fringed foliage fhade thy ample beds, Gem with bright emerald Winter’s tracklefs fhows, Or bind with leafy wreaths his icy brows. When leads the Spring amid her budding groves The laughing graces, and the quiver’d loves ; Again the Bull fhall fhake his radiant hair O’er the rich produé& of his early care ; The ftar-clad Virgin, 22d of Auguit. Golden fcales, 22d of September. Scorpion, 224 of O&tober. Evade the froft. One advantage, which vege- tables receive by repelling the water by the upper furfaces of their leaves, is, that it may not incommode their refpiration ; but another is, that by not being thus moiftened they are lefs injured by froft. Watery Star, roth January. Celeftial Fifhes, 17th February. The Bull, 1gth April. With ember ich VeBr Sy that ‘ poitten ith wis Sect. XIX. 8. OF FLOWERS. 563 With hanging lip and longing eye fhall move, And Envy dwell in yon blue fields above.— '‘Oft in each month, poetic Tighe! be thine To dith green Brocoli with favory chine; Oft down thy tuneful throat be thine to cram The fnow-white cauliflower with fowl and ham !— Nor envy thou, with fuch rich viands bleft, The pye of Perigord, or Swallow’s nett. The pye of Perigord was made of the red-legged partridges before the French revolu- tion ; and was fold in London at the price of a guinea for each bird it contained. Swallow’s neft. There is a fpecies of fwallow, that builds a neft on the banks of the Nile and Ganges, which confifts of ifinglafs ; which the bird collects from putrid fith left on the fands; and which is efteemed a great delicacy, and enters the moft coftly foups at the luxurious tables of the eaft. 4C2 SECT. 564. NATURAL CLASSES. Sect. XX. 1. SECT. XxX. PLAN FOR DISPOSING PART OF THE VEGETABLE SYSTEM OF LINNEUS INTO MORE NATURAL CLASSES AND ORDERS. I. The claffes of plants diftinguifbed by the proportion or fituation of the fiamina are more natural than thofe diftinguifhed by their numbers. Many Linnean elaffes thus diftinguifhed. Many of the orders are natural claffifications. Uje of natural claffes. 2. The fituation and proportion of the fexual organs are le/s liable to va- riation than their numbers. Great variation in refpett to number of the framina. From luxuriant growth. Some fpecies have but half the number. Orbers have part of them without anthers. The number of piftilla varies in different fpecies of the fame genus. Progrefs of nature to greater perfection. Of the clafs Syngenefia. 3. Immutable parts difcovered by reafoning as well as by obfervation. Filaments of Meadia unchangeable, and of bemerocalis fulva, nigella, collinfonia, Jpartium. 4. Some natural orders might become claffes. As the graffes, and the umbellata, and frellate. - Forms of the filaments, and of the anthers, as well as their fitua- tions, le[s variable than their numbers. 5. Claffic eharatters. From foort and long filaments. From their unequal heights. From their different infertions. From their refpettive fituations. From their adhefions to each other. Or to the cordl, or fiyle. From their. exiftence in different flowers. From the connexton of the an- thers, or from the forms of the filaments and anthers. 6. Uncertainty of the num- ber of piftilla. Their proportions and figures lefs variable, And would define . more natural orders. 7. Charaéiers of orders from the length of the fryle. The curvature of it. The attitudes of it. Divifions of the ftigma. Abfence of the fligma. Adhbefions of the fiyle. 8%. Conclufion, J. Orren as I have admired the clafflification of vegetables by the great Linneus deduced from their fexual organs of reproduction, fome NNEVs nina are i elafes "natural e to U- Kamina, ers bave [pecies of ngenefia. “tlaments artim. mbellate, oir fitua ort and 5s, From the cortl f the aut phe mum ld oe ylt. The i ples bY sy tio" fort — Sect. XX. 1. NATURAL CLASSES. _ 565 fome of the claffes have appeared to me to be more excellent than others, as they feemed to approach nearer to natural ones. On fur- ther attention to this fubje&t, I perceived that thofe claffes, which were deduced from the proportions OF (tuations of the ftamina, or which included the number of the ftamina along with their propor- tions and fituations, were more natural claffes than thofe, which were diftinguifhed fimply by the number of them. Thus the clafles termed Dydynamia and Tetradynamia, which are derived from the proportions and fituations of the ftamina as well as their number, are wonderfully natural ; to which may be added the clafles Icofandria, and Polyandria, as their diagnoftic character confitts in the fituation of the ftamina on the calyx or petals in the former clafs, and on the receptacle in the latter, though the names . of thefe clafles are not fo happy, as they fimply refer to their num- bers, which are unfortunately very variable. Some other of the Linnean claffes are diftinguifhed by the fitua- tion of the filaments, as the Monadelphia, Diadelphia, Polyadelphia, and Gynandria ; all which approach towards natural claffes ; and the Syngenefia, which is diftinguifhed by the adhefion of the anthers, is a clafs beautifully natural, except the laft order. Many of the orders alfo in the fexual fyftem are natural claffifica- tions, as the graffes in the clafs ‘Triandria, the umibellated plants in the clafs Pentandria, and perhaps the cruciform plants in the clafs Tetandria ; with many amonegit thofe which are termed natural orders at the end of the Genera Plantarum ; all which ‘might proba- bly be difcriminated by fome fituation, or proportion, or form, of their refpective {tamina. As the clafles deduced from the proportions or fituations of the ftamina alone, or conjointly with their’ refpective number, appear thus to produce more natural diftributions of vegetables, than thofe derived fimply from their number; it might have been more fortu- nate for the fcience of Botany, if the great author of the fexual fyftem 566 NATURAL CLASSES. SECT. XX, 2, : 4yftem had turned his mind to have clafled all of them from the pro- portions, fituations, and forms of the ftamina alone, or from thefe. ¢onjointly with their number, and to have diftinguifhed the orders according to the proportions, fituations, or forms of the piftilla alone, or conjointly with their numbers. The great ufe of diftributing plants into natural claffes is not only for the purpofe of more readily diftinguifhing them from each other, and difcovering their names, but alfo for that of more readily detect- ing the virtues or ufes of them in diet, medicine, or the arts; as for the purpofes of dying, tanning, architecture, fhip-buildimg; which — has already been happily experienced in attending to the genera or families of plants, which are all natural diftributions of them, whence the fame virtues or qualities generally exift among all the fpecies of the fame genus, though perhaps in different degrees. 2. But another great advantage would probably occur from deduc- ing the characters of the clafles of vegetables from the fituations, proportions, or forms of the fexual organs rather than from their number; which is, that thefe criterions of the claffes and orders would be much lefs fubject to variation. The variation of the number of ftamina not only frequently oc- curs from the too Juxuriant growth of many cultivated flowers, or by the duplicature or multiplication of their petals, or ne¢taries, which is liable much to inconvenience the young botanift; but feveral of the fpecies of plants have but half the number of ftamina, which other fpecies of the fame genus poffefs. This occurs fo frequently, that the defect of number 1s expreffed-as an eflential charaéter of the {pecies in many initances. ‘Thus the ceraftium pentandrum, and fper- gula pentranda, diftinguifh thofe {pecies from the other plants of the genus, which poffefs ten ftamens; fo tamarix floribus pentandris, tamarix floribus decandris, falix floribus diandris, falix triandra, falix pentandra, valeriana floribus monandris, valeriana floribus diandris, verbena diandra. u So X, 2, * Pio. thef, ders lone, t only other, dete. 88 for Which 1€ra or Vhence aCles of deduc- lations, n their | orders tly o¢- ‘efS, Of whic veral of which yently, + of the id {per 5 of the andes a, {alls jan dels 50 Sect. XX.2. NATURAL CLASSES. a So the vernal flowers of the corchorus filiquofus have but four ftamina, but the autumnal ones have numerous ftamina. The linum flax of this country has but five perfect {tamina, and five without an- thers on their fummits; whereas the hnum lufitanicum, Portugal: flax, poffefies ten complete ones. The verbena, vervain, of our coun- try has four ftamina, that of Sweden but two; the genus albuca, bignonia catalpa, gratiola, and hemlock-leaved geranium, have only half their filaments crowned with anthers; all which and many others evince the uncertainty of depending on numbers alone for diftinguifhing the claffes of plants. Nor are-the number of piftilla more certain as a criterion of the: orders. ‘Thus there is nigella pentagyna, and nigella decagynas$: hypericum floribus pentagynis, trigynis, and digynis, with innu- merable other fimilar inftances, as mentioned in No. 6 of this Sec- tion, Which evince, that great confufion muft be occafioned by a reliance fimply on the number of the piftilla for defining the orders of plants. I contend, that the number of the fexual organs in flowers is more liable to change by the influence of foil or climate, or by the pro- grefs of time, than their fituations or proportions, or forms, and might thierefore probably be more advantageou fly employed in diftinguifhing their clafles and orders from each other, as well as in rendering them more natural combinations. . This mutability or uncertainty of the number of the organs of re- production belonging to individual flowers, would feem to arife from an attempt of all organized beings towards greater perfection. Whence as the fuccefs of the procefs of reproduction becomes more certain from the greater perfection of the vegetable being, the organs for the purpofe of reproduction feem to become fewer. Whence fome flowers have loft half the ftamina, and in others the anthers of thofe ftamina are yet only deficient, and in others the piftilla are deficient; all which in procefs of time may gradually become lefs . nunaerous, ~ 563 NATURAL CLASSES. SECT. XX, 3. numerous, or feparate themfelves from hermaphrodite flowers into fexual ones, as in the claffes of monoecia and dicecia; and all of them finally, after a long procefs of ages, become of the orders mo- ~ nandria and monogynia of thofe clafles; whilft new kinds of vege- tables may begin a fimilar progrefs from lefs to greater perfection. So in animals, the lefs perfect feem to poflefs organs for amore nu- merous reproduétion, as fifh and infects. Such would feem to be the perpetual progrefs of all organized being from lefs to greater per- fection exifting from the beginning of time to the end of it ! a power impreffed on nature by the great Father of all. Thus in the clafs fyngenefia, the tendency of thefe vegetables from more numerous to a more fimple organization for the purpofe of reproduétion is wonderfully con{picuous. In the order polygamia eequalis, all the florets are furnifhed with male and female organs. In the order polygamia fuperflua, the florets in the centre have both male and female organs, thofe in the circumference have only fe- male ones; and of thofe fome have loft the corol of the floret. In the order polygamia fruftranea the florets in the centre poffefs both male and female organs, but thofe in the circumference have nei- ther; though at the fame time the corols of thofe florets remain. And laftly, in the order polygamia neceflaria the central florets are fimply male florets, and thofe in the circumference fimply female ones; and thus approach to the clafs of monoecia, having the male and female organs in feparate florets; and may in procefs of time exift in feparate flowers, and afterwards in feparate plants, like the two fexes of the more perfeét animals. Something fimilar to this feems already to have occurred in the plant phytolacca, of the clafs decandria decagynia; which poffeffes one {pecies with twenty males, another with ten, another with only eight males and eight females, and laftly one of the clafs dicecia, or two houfes. 3. In many flowers fome circumftances of the fituations or pro- portions or forms of the filaments or anthers may be fhewn, by rea- 4. foning lygamia organs, ve both only fe- ret. In efs both ave nels remaill yrets are + female he male of time like the r to this the cla | maless females ; of P if by fins Secr. XX. 3. NATURAL CLASSES. 569 Jfoning as well as by obfervation, to be lefs mutable than others ; as the fhortnefs of the filaments of dodecatheon meadia, cyclamen, fo- lanum, borago, fufchia, and others. As mentioned in Botanic Gar- den, Vol. II. note on Meadia. Thus in the flower of meadia the filaments are exceedingly fhort compared to the ftyle, and feem to have been in that circumftance immutable. Whence it became ne- ceflary, firft to furnith them with long anthers, which ftand pointed towards the diftant ftigma apparently endeavouring to reach it. Se- condly, it was neceflary to bend the flower-ftalks, when the corols open into thofe graceful curves, which conftitute the uncommon beauty both of this flower and of the fufchia; that the ftigma by hanging down immediately beneath the anthers might thus receive, _ as it falls, the prolific farina. And that this was the evident defign of the curvature of the flower-ftalk appears from its rifing again, and becoming quite erect, as foon as the impregnation of the pericarp is accomplifhed. ‘Thirdly, as the flower thus becomes perpendicularly pendent, it was neceflary to reflect the petals for the purpofe of ad- mitting light and air to the fexual organs. We may reafon from this ftructure of the meadia, that all this ap- paratus of long erect anthers to approach the ftigma ; of bending the flower-ftalk, that the fexual organs might become pendulous; and then of reflecting the petals to give light and air; might have all been fpared, if the filaments alone could have grown as long as the flyle; as occurs in moft other flowers. And that therefore in thefe flowers the filaments are the moft unchangeable parts of them; and that hence the comparative length of the filaments in refpeét to the ftyle would afford the moft immutable mark of their effential cha- racter, or for the purpofe of claffification. Another apparent inftance of the great unchangeablenefs of the length of the filaments exifts in the hemerocallis fulva, tawny day- lily, in which I obferve the ftyle is crooked, or bent into a zigzag, about the middle of it, evidently for the purpofe of fhortening it, 4D that 670 NATURAL CLASSES. Sucr, XX. fe that the anthers might approach the ftigma; the {talk of the flower not being fo flexible as to allow it to become pendent, as in the he- merocallis flava, or yellow day-lily. ae eee In nigella, devil in the bufh, the ftyles are very long compared with the filaments, and bending down their ftigmas over the an- thers in curves, give the flower a refemblance to a regal crown 3 which need not to have occurred, if the filaments could more eafily have been lengthened. In collinfonia the two anthers ftand widely diverging on fhort Glaments, and the tall capillary ftyle bends its f{tigma into contact firft with one of them, and afterwards with the other. In the f{par~ tium fcoparium, common broom, the long ftyle bends round into-a circle to accommodate the ftigma to the fhort fet of anthers, which great curvature need not have exifted, if the filaments could more eafily have grown longer. Other inftances of fimilar ftructure are related in Set. VII. 2. 2. of this work. It is probable, that fimilar obfervations, and-a confequent reafon- ing on them, might be applied to. many other kinds of flowers fo as. to dete&t the moft unchangeable parts of them: but great time, la- bour, opportunity, and ingenuity, would be required to eftablith. from them. the moft. invariable and: moft. natural claffes.of vege-- tation. 4. Many different: proportions and fituations and forms of the fila ments are enumerated. in the Philofophia Botanica of Linnzus ; fome of which might poffibly have become claffical characters, if he had turned his attention tothem,.and given them adapted names 5. as he has done to thofe clafles, which. he has derived from the fitu- ations of the fexual organs, as didynamia, tetradynamia, fyngenefia, . ~ and’ others,. which-approach nearer to natural claffes, and are fubje&: to lefs variation than. the numerical. ones. Some of thofe collections of plants, which Linnzeus has termed natural orders, and fome of thofe of Ray,.and Tournefort, might | = perhaps ay lowes he hes ADared he Ms I thort COntagt ne {par d into. which ld mote ture are reafon- ers {0 a3 the fila- jnneus ; cs, if he the fitue enelias o _ ¢ fublé S$ permed t, m8 ; pel hap ‘ Suet, XX. 4. NATURAL CLASSES. 571 perhaps have had names affixed to them, denoting the fituations or proportions or forms of their ftamina, and have thus conftituted na- tural claffes in the Linnzan fyftem. Thus for example the natural order of grafles might perhaps have had a name denoting their long capillary filaments. The natural order of graffes is fo confpi- cuous, as to have ftruck all beholders ; they conftitute, it is faid, nearly a fixth part of the vegetable kingdom, efpecially in open countries; the leaves are not eafily broken by being trampled on, but die in winter, becoming yellow and dry; but what is wonder- ful, they are faid to revive in the fpring, and become green again. This natural order of plants has been divided into cerealia and gra~ mina, corn and graffes ; which however only differ in refpect to the fize of the feeds: It is much difunited by the numerical diftinGions of the fexual fyftem, as fome graffes belong to the clafs monandria, diandria, triandria, and hexandria ; and thofe of the triandria, and hexandria, are either hermaphrodite, or monaecious, or polygamous plants. Of thefe a very curious and extenfive table is given in the Preletiones in Ordin. Natur. a Gifeke Hamburg. 1792, p-! 38. A great part of the natural order of caryophyllei, in which the number of the ftamina is very variable, are obferved by Mr. Milne to have their filaments alternately attached to the claws of the petals and to the receptacle, and might poffibly have a claffical denomina~ tion from that circumftance. Botan. Dic. Art. Caryophyllei. The five ftamina of the umbellated plants in the clafs of pentan- dria digynia, with five petals, two feeds, above; which are term- ed umbellatz in the natural orders of Linnaeus; as they diverge from each other, might perhaps be called five ftarred, or cinque-pointed ftamina from this fituation. And in part the natural order of plants termed ftellatae by Linnzus, as galium, and afperula; which belong to the clafs tetandria monogynia with one petal, two berries, above; the four diverging ftamina might perhaps be termed cruciform, as they oppofe each other, And thus thefe natural collections of vege- es ee tables 572 NATURAL CLASSES. Secrcx &: zs tables might acquire a claflical denomination from the fituations of their ftamina, or perhaps from the form of their filaments or anthers. To thefe fituations and proportions of the ftamina, with many others, might be added the form of the filaments, as capillary, flat, wedgeform, {fpiral, awled; and alfo the forms and fituations of the anthers, as. globular, oblong, arrowy, angular, horned. Which may be feen in the Philofophia Botanica of Linnaus, p. 65; ora tranflation of them in Miln’s Botanical Dictionary, under the titles of filament and anther. All which, I fuppofe, are much lefs vari- able by foil or climate, than the numbers of their refpective fexual organs, and. would in the hands of an ingenious botanift. form more natural claffifications. : 5. Claffical chara&ers might perhaps be taken: from the length of the filaments compared to that of the ftyle, with fome other con- comitant circumftances; as firft where they are fomewhat fhorter than the ftyle, as in the pendent bell-flowers of lily, fritillaria, cam- panula. Secondly where the filaments are more than twice as fhort as the ftyle, as in meadia, cyclamen, folanum, borago, fufchia.. Or thirdly where the filaments‘are more than twice as long as the {tyle, and in the natural order of graffes. Secondly, the unequal heights of the filaments at the firft opening of the corol. In many flowers the inferior fet of ftamina rife up to the ftigma, when the higher fet have difcharged their pollen. To thefe fituations of the ftamina may alfo be added their number, as ia the two very natural claffes of Linnzus, the didynamia and the te- tradynamia. One of thefe might be termed two higher than two; the other four higher than two. To which might perhaps be added a third clafs, of many higher'than many ;_ as fix above-fix in lithrum falicaria, five above -five in lychnis. Thirdly, the different infertions of the filaments, as firft on the calyx, which principally diftinguifhes the clafs icofandria of Lin- 6 nzus, X > ae Lation, “Uts or | many Ys fat, 5 Of the Which 5} Org he titles efs var}, © fexug iM more encth of her cone it thorter ria, Cams > as fhort fufchia. eas the : openilg rife up ‘ len. To ber, 431 id the han tw05 s be added n lithe Sect. XX.5.. NATURAL CLASSES. 573 nzeus, and which thus approaches towards a natural clafs. Secondly on the receptacle, which diftinguifhes the clafs polyandria of Lin- nzeus, which alfo approaches toward a natural clafs. And thirdly, the infertion of the filaments alternately to the claws of the petals, and to the receptacle; which diftinguifhes a part of the natural order of the caryophyllei, in which the number of the ftamina is very various, Fourthly, the fituation of the filaments in refpe@ to each other; as firft in the natural order of Linnzeus termed ftellatz, or a part of the tetrandria monogynia ; the diverging filaments oppofe each other, and might be termed cruciform, as in galium, afperula. Or fe= condly, where five diverging filaments affume the appearance of a: ftar, as inthe natural order of umbellatz, or a part of pentandria dis gynia, and might have a name borrowed alfo from their number, like five-ftarred, or cinque-pointed, applied to-the filaments, as men- tioned above. Fifthly, the adhefions of the filaments to each other at their bafe. This has given. names to three claffes of the Linnzan fyftem, which approach to natural ones, under the term of brotherhoods ;. as: firft, where the filaments all adhere at their bafe, as in the clafs monadel+ phia; fecondly, where they adhere in two fets, as in the-clafs dia- delphia; and thirdly, where they adhere in many fets, as in the clafs polyadelphia. ; Sixthly, the adhefions of the: filaments to the corol, as where they adhere more than half their length to the internal part of it; as in many monopetalous flowers, as primula,. auricula;. or where the filament arifes from the petal, or where the anthers adhere to the ' gnargin of the petal, as in: many of the natural order of {citaminez,. as obferved in the Przeleé&t. in Ord. Natur. a Gifeke, p. 189. Seventhly, where the filaments adhere to the ftyle, as.in the clafs gynandria, which approaches to a natural one. Eighthly, the fituations of the ftamina.not in the fame flowers with: 574 NATURAL CLASSES. SECT. XX, 6. with the piftillum. This has alfo given names to three claffes of the Linnzan fyftem, moncecia, dicecia, polygamia. Ninthly, the connexion of the anthers, which has given the name to the clafs fyngenefia, which excepting the laft order, 18 a wonder- © fully extenfive and natural clafs. To thefe varieties of fituation, proportion, and adhefion, of the filaments, may be added thofe of the anthers on their fummits ; which to an attentive obferver may perhaps be as numerous as thofe of the filaments, and to thefe may again be added the various forms of the filaments, as capillary, flat, wedgeform, fpiral, feathered, &c. and alfo the various forms of the anthers, as oblong, globular, ar- rowy, angular, horned. All which are defcribed in the Philofophia Botanica. And by an adoption of fome of thefe feparately or in conjunétion for claffical characters, I fhould hope that new claflifica- tions might be difcovered inftead of thofe, which are fimply numeri- “Cal. Which might be more natural ones, lefs fubject to variation, eafier to be diftinguifhed from each other, and more fimilar in her good or bad qualities; and might thus add to the great beauty and utility of the prefent wonderful arrangement of fo many thoufand vegetables in the Linnzean fyftem. 6. The fame obfervations and mode of reafoning are applicable to the various orders of the fexual fyftem. Which if the great Lin- nzeus had fortunately deduced them from the proportions, fituations, or forms of the ftyles and ftigmas, the characteriftic figns might have been lefs liable to change by foil or climate, and many of the orders have been more natural colle€tions of vegetables, than thofe are, which he has derived fimply from their number, The uncertainty of the number of piftilla, and the confufion, which might be occafioned by a reliance on it, was mentioned in No. 2 of this feftion; there is a nigella péntagyna, and a nigella decagyna; there is an hypericum floribus pentagynis, trigynis, and digynis 3 and in the whole order of fraftranecous polygamy in the AX 4, § of the "Onder. » Of the Mmits aS thofe US forms red, &e, lar, ap. lofophis ely or in claflifica. numeri« Variation, r in their eauty and thoufand slicable to reat Lite tuations, han thofe - onfuion ntioned i da sige t soy sph Scet. XX. 7. NATURAL CLASSES. 575. the clafs fyngenefia the florets of the ray are furnifhed with a ftyle and no ftigma, as in the funflower. The flowers of the polygonum, whofe claffical character is oc= tandria, and its order trigynia, affords many inftances of the uncer- tainty of the number of the fexual organs, both in refpect to the -ftamina and piftilla, Thus the fpecies 4, 5, 6, 7, poflefs but five flamina in each; the fpecies 8, 9, 10, have each of them fix: ftamina, and the eleventh fpecies has feven ftaminas And laftly the fpecies 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 11, 12; have each of them but two piftilla, . and all the reft three piftilla. From thefe and other innumerable.inflances there is reafon to con- clude, that the proportions,. fituations, and forms of the ftyle and: ftigma, to which might be added their- number conjointly, would: have made effential characters for the orders, which would have been lefs variable than thofe derived only from the number of them, and. would have rendered them more natural collections. 7. The charaéters of the orders might be deduced firft from the: length of the ftyle compared with that of the filaments; as where the ftyle is more than twice as long as the filaments, as in meadia, cyclamen, folanum, fufchia. Secondly, where the {tyle is about one third longer than the filaments, as in lilium, -fritillaria, cam-- panula, and many other bell-flowerss Thirdly, where. the ftyle is - very fhort compared to the filaments, as in poppies. 2.. The charaéters of the orders might be deduced from: the cur- vatures of the ftyle. As firft,; where the ftyle bends into a curve: over:the anthers-to bring the ftigma into contact with them, as in nigella, devil in the bufh. Secondly, where the ftyle bends into a: circle like a french-horn to accommodate the ftigma to two fets of ftamina in fucceflion, firft tht lower, and then the higher; as if> {partium {coparium, common broom. Thirdly, where the ftyle is crooked in the middle of it, making a kind of zigzag, to lower the ° ftigma 576 NATURAL CLASSES. Sect, XX. 7, ftizma to the anthers beneath it, as in hemerocallis fulva, tawny day-lily. ; | 3. Characters might be deduce ed from the attitude of the {tyle ; as where it is pendent, that the ftigma may be accommodated to the anthers above it, as in many. ell-flowers. Secondly, where it is inclined at a confiderable angle to accommodate the ftigma to the in- clined anthers, as in epilobium, willow-herb, and gloriofa fuperba. Thirdly, where the ftyle is erect, to adapt the ftigma to the upright a as in many flowers. | . Where the divifions of the ftigma expand, and bend down to- re the anthers beneath them, as in fome kinds of dianthus, we and in epilobium. 5. The total abfence of the ftyle might mark an order. 6. The total abfence of the ftigma, which is a characteriftic mark of the florets of the ray in the order fruftraneous polygamy of the clafs fyngenefia. +. Where the ftyle adheres to the ftamina, as in the natural order of Linnzeus termed calamariz, as obferved in Philof, Botanica, No. 102, on the Piftilla, p. 68. 8. Where the ftyle fupports the ftamina as in the clafs gynan- dria. g. Where the ftyle appears to exift both above and below the germ, as in capparis, euphorbia. ro. The lateral adhefion of the ftyle to the germ, as in one of the natural erders of Linnzus, which he has termed fenticofz, or briers, which includes the rofe, rafpberry, ftrawberry, agrimony, al- chemilla, and many others, which might be named from the lateral adhefion of the ftyle to the germ, which Linnzus afferts to exift both in the natural order above mentiéned, and in the order Icofan- dria polygyna. Philof. Botan. p. 67. : If to thefe proportions or fituations of the ftyle were added the va- rieties down to US, pink, ftic mark ny of the ‘ural order nica, No. ifs gyntt- below the ticoley sect. XX. 7. NATURAL CLASSES. ery rieties of its figure, as cylindrical, angular, awled, capillary ; and to thefe were again added the divifions of the ftigma, as convolute, re- volute, fix-parted, many-parted. And to thefe were again added the various forms of the ftigma, as globular, egged, endenicked, cruciform, feathery, &c. which are enumerated in the Philofophia Botanica; there is great reafon to believe, that characteriftic marks of all the orders of plants might be deduced and named from fome of thofe circumftances feparately or conjointly ; which might diftin- guifh them from each other with greater eafe and certainty, and by marks lefs variable by foil or climate, than by the number alone ; _and by rendering them more natural add to the beauty and utility of the Linnzan fyftem. Conclufion. Neverthelefs I am well aware of the great general inconvenience of altering fo extenfive a fyftem once eftablifhed, and am forry to fee fome idle efforts to add the claffes already deduced from fituation or proportion to thefe, which are fimply numerical ; and thus rather to deteriorate than to improve the prefent fy{tem of the great mafter. I profefs myfelf incapable to execute the plan, which I have here fuggefted, as it would require a moft exa& knowledge of the detail of botany, as well as of the outline; would require many years of un- remitted application, with every opportunity of vifiting botanic gar- dens, or examining dry colle@ions, and infpeCting prints and draw- ings of vegetables ; and would demand a genius, which few poflefs, capable of reducing the complex and intricate to the fimple and ex- plicit. But if the fyftem of the great Linnzus can ever be antrinfically improved, 1 am perfuaded, that the plan here propofed of ufing the fituations, proportions, or forms, with or without the numbers of 4E the 573 NATURAL CLASSES. Sect. XX. 72 the fexual organs, as criterions of the orders and claffes, muft lay the foundation; but that it muft require a great architect to erect the: fuperftructure. And my principal defign in adjoining this imperfec {ketch at the end of this work was to warn thofe botanifis, who have: began to interweave fome of the Linnzan claffes deduced from fitu- ation or proportion of the fexual organs into thofe diftinguifhed fim- ply by number, that they fo far contribute to deteriority the great fyftem, which they mean to amend.—At the fame time I much ap- plaud, and beg leave to recommend to the attention of the public, the: {uperb pictore{que botanical coloured plates now publifhing by Dr. THORNTON, which I fuppofe have no equal. ADDITIOTAL yT hh ADDITIONAL NOTES. 1, To be inferted before the laft paragraph of Sect. 1V. 2. 1. at pr 45, line 2.2. In the prefent year 1799, Auguit 18, there was an uncommon faummer-flood on the Derwent, which covered my garden above | three feet deep with muddy water. Many plants of the rheum hy- bridum, mule rhubarb, which were tranfplanted in the {pring, and had not flowered, had their large pointed leaves covered with mud, fo as to render the green colour totally invifible after the water fub- fided. They appeared ftrong as before for a day or two, and then every one withered and dropped down. The fame happened to the leaves of many other vegetables, and to ef{pallier apple-trees, as high as they were immerfed ; which was doubtlefs owing to their refpiration being precluded by the veil over them of a fine tenacious mud. See Sect. VII. 2. 6. 2, To be inferted-in Seét. VII. 2.6. at p. 115, after line 2.3. The rheum hybridum, mule rhubarb, defcribed in Murray’s. Sy{- tema Vegetabilium, édition the fourteenth, I believe.to be produced between the palmated rhubarb, and the common rhubarb of our gar- dens, or rheum rhaphonticum;.as it appeared both in my earden - 4E 2 .-..gnd 580 ADDITIONAL NOTES. and my neighbours amongft a mixture of thofe two kinds of rhu- barb, without being previoufly placed or fown there. ‘The leaf is very large and pointed, without being palmated, and ts a week or two forwarder in the fpring than either of the other rhubarbs, and the peeled ftalks are afferted by connoifleurs ia eating to make the beft poflible of all tarts, much fuperior to thofe of the palmated or raphohtic rhubarb ; and are fo much more valuable as a luxury, as — they precede by a month the, goofeberry and early apple; and may be, well propagated by dividing the roots, as they do not produce feed in all fummers. See Seét. IV. 2, 1. 3. Fo be inferted at the end of Set. X. 4. 9. pi 207+ Mr. Ruckert planted two beans in pots of equal fize filled: with garden-mould'; the one was watered almoft daily with diftilled, wa- ter, and the other with water impregnated: with. carbonic acid. gas, in the proportion of half a cubic inch to an ounce of water; and both of them were expofed to all the influence of the atmofphere except to the rain, The bean treated with the carbonic acid water appeared above ground nine days fooner than that moiftened. with diftilled war ter, and produced twenty-five beans ;. whereas the other pot pro- duced only fifteen. The fame experiment was made on ftock-july. flowers, and other plants with equal fuccefs.. An. Chym. 1788. 4. Ta be inferted at the endiof Sect. &. 207. ps 228%. Befides which the vitriolic acid abounding in many clays, when brought into contact with mild calcareous earth, by the various ope-. rations of agriculture, muft unite with.it, and fet at liberty the car- bonic acid either ina fluid form, ora: gaffeous form beneath the foil ; 4 which. d: with od. Was gas, It d both except ypeared ad War it pro- k-july g, when 13 Ope” ye cal” , folli bith ADDITIONAL NOTES. 581 which is ktiown to be fo friendly to vegetation, w hen applied to the roots of plants; and at the fame time a eypfum will be produced, which is now alfo believed to be ufeful in agriculture. Mr. Kirwan afferts, °* That the gypfum ufed with fuecefs in agri- - eylture is of a fibrous texture; and that clay lands, he believes, to: be more improved by it than calcareous ones. The time of fpread- ing it is in February or March, and it is then to be thinly ftfewed on erafs-land at the rate of about eight bufhels to an acre} as more he fays would be hurtful. He further adds that the theory. of its effects is to be deduced from its extraordinary {ceptic power; as it is found to accelerate putrefaction in a higher degree than any other fubftance, (Hiftoire de Putrefaction, p. 36), whence it is not to be: ploughed in, but barely to be ftrewed on the furface of the land in. the month of February, to convert the old erafs quickly into coal’to: nourith the young growths.” 7 I have tranfcribed the above from Mr. Kirwan’s Treatife on Ma- nures, but am liable to doubt the experiments concerning bodies: promoting putrefaction; as the progrefs.of that procefs has-generally: been only judged of by the odour ; which may poffibly be altered or deftroyed by many bodies, by their uniting with it without other- wife affecting the tendency to diffolution: Add to this. another cir-- cumftance, fKewing the uncertainty of thefe deduétions, that: fome of thefe antifeptic materials, as fea-falt, and lime, are {aid to pro- mote putrefaétion, when ufed in {mall.quantities ; and. to fupprefs. it, when ufed in large ones.. 5. To be inferted in Sect. XMI. 2:2: at the end of the. paragraph which: mentions Mr. Lawrence's letter to Mr. Bradleys Another thing, which renders low fituations lefs proper for gar+ dens,. is, that: I believe. them to be. much more liable tobe. infefted: 582 ADDITIONAL NOTES. by the aphis ; as leaves of the nut-trees in my garden on the banks | of the Derwent are every year crowded with innumerable aphifes on their inferior furfaces, and yet I have feen few, if any of them, on nut-trees in fome higher fituations, which I happened to infpe&. Add to this, that the great honey-dew, mentioned in Se&. XIV. r. 7. was produced on a row of willows by the fide of water. This may neverthelefs be in part afcribed to fome other local circumftance ; as I this year obferved numerous large black aphides round the ftalks of garden-beans on a clayey foil, which did not exift in my garden, which may be called a carbonic foil. Though on the peach and nec- tarine trees, again{t the walls in my low garden, and on fome plum- trees, the aphides exift almoft every year in fuch deftructive mul- titudes as to prevent the fruit from fucceeding, and thence to render ‘them not worth cultivation ; and to render the leaves of the nut- trees lefs in fize, ‘and lefs prolific than other nut-trees on a more ele- vated and clayey foil, with which I-this year compared them. Why the aphis fhould be fo much more numerous in moift fitua- tions is a curious fubject of inquiry, but is fo fimilar to another ani- mal fact, that they may illuftrate each other. The cough and con- fequent confumption of fheep, which occurs annually in moift fitua- tions, is owing to an infect called a fleuk-worm, about the fize and fhape of a child’s finger-nail, which creeps up the gall-duéts from the inteftines, and preys upon the livers of theep ; as may be feen in moift feafons in our fhambles, ‘This feems to occur from the bile. becoming too dilute from fo much watery nourifhment in thofe ani- mals, and that thence it does not poffefs fufficient bitternefs or acri- mony to prevent the depredation of thefe infeéts, as in drier feafons. On the fame account I fufpeé the juices of nut-trees and of willows planted i in very moift fituations may be rendered too dilute ; but that in higher fituations they may poflefs fufficient acrimony or bitternefs mixed with the Pau to> prevent the “sPRReAtONG of the aphis, - See Sect. X1V..2, 8, ae : 6. Ta bank Phifes Q, Qn » Add Ley, IS May CES as alks of arden, 1d nee. plum. é mul- Tender € nut. ore ele. t fitua- ef alli- id con- t fitua- ize and om the een 10 he bile ife ane of acti feafons. yslows ut that tern aphis 6, 1 ADDITIONAL NOTES, | 583 6. To be inferted at the end of Sect. X. 5. 3. Phofphorated lime is faid to be found in the greateft quantity im wheat, where it contributes to the formation. of the gluten, which is thence not improperly denominated by fome writers animal glu- ten; which in rainy years has been obferved by Witwer to be in {maller quantity. Differt. 1]. p. 103. Hence the ufe of bone-afhes as. a manure for wheat, as obferved by Mr. Kirwan. Effay on Manures, Pw 53° 7. To be inferted at the end of Seét. VI. 10. Befides the various fecretions above defcribed Brugmanns is faid by Humbolt to have fhewn, that-plants void an excrement like ani- mals, which might be noxious to them, if retained; that he put the plant, lolium, ray-grafs, into a glafs of water, and obferved daily at the extremities of the roots a {mall drop of a vifcous material ; which he detached and found to be renewed on the next day. But this I {ufpec&t to have been produced by the death and confequent decompofition of the extremities of the roots in their unnatural fitua- tion. Journ. de Phyfique Delametherie, Ls 1 Vs BD 350. 8. To be inferted at the end of Sect. XIV. 4. 2. In the TranfaGtions of the American Philofophical: Society there is-a paper fhewing, that'the water-rats of that part of the country are fo liable to be affected with tape-worm, as-is. fuppofed much to di- minith their numbers, In this country many animals, as*I believe dogs, cats, and geefe, as well as the human {pecies, are afflicted with: this inteftine enemy, Could fome of thefe-difeafed American rats be’ 6 imported 584 ADDITIONAL NOTES. imported into this country, and propagate their malady amongft the mative rats of this climate ? 9. Lo be inferted at the end of Set. X. 7.8. p. 228. . Having now fpoken of carbon, of lime, and of clay, which with Hiliceous fand conftitute the principal ingredients of fertile foils, fome rules may be required for diftinguifhing the goodnefs of foils by the purchafer, as well as by the poffeffor. For this purpofe the chemical analyfis would firft prefent itfelf, as attempted by Fordyce, many years ago, and lately by Giobert, Bergmen, Kirwan, and others. M. Giobert found, that one pound of a fertile foil in the vicinity of Turin contained of carbonic matter, which would burn and flame, about twenty-five grains, of flinty fand about 4400 grains, of clay about 600 grains, of lime about 400 grains, and laftly, of water about 70 grains. ‘The {ame author found that one pound of fome barren foils was compofed of filiceous earth about 3000 grains, of argillace- ous earth about 600 grains, and of calcareous earth about 400 grains, and I fuppofe without any carbonic matter. Mr. Kirwan ingenioufly obferves, that the quantity of moifture, which fome countries are more liable to than others, fhould be nicely attended to, at the fame time that you eftimate the fertility of land by its analyfis, as moift climates or fituations may require more fand than drier ones; and therefore the fame component parts of foil would not be the moft fertile, on both the weftern and eaftern coafts of this ifland; as, the former. experiences more rain than the latter ; ~ nor on the fummit, declivity, .and bafe of moft mountains, which differ in their degree of moifture. It appears from hence, that the chemical analyfis of foils is not yet arrived at fufficient accuracy.to be depended upon with certainty to difcover their degrees of fertility, But as the carbonic part of foil probably Mt the ich with ils, fome ls by the Chemica! ey Many hers, icinity of id flame, _ of clay iter about e barren argillace: 10 gral noifture, be nicely r of land nore fand +S of foil rn coals ADDITIONAL NOTES. 585 ptobably contributes moft to the growth of vegetables, and next to that the calcareous part ; there is reafon to conclude, that if a few pounds of different foils are dried by the fame degree of heat, and then weighed, and afterwards expofed to a red heat in an open fire; that the foil, which lofes moft weight, is probably the moft fertile 3 becaufe the carbonic matter will almoft all efcape in flame, and almoft half the weight of the calcareous earth in carbonic acid. Another method of giving fome conjecture concerning the fertility of a foil may be by examining its fpecific gravity ; as the {pecific gra- vity of garden-mould is faid by Mufchenbroek to be 1,630, compar- ed to. 1,000 of water, And Fabroni found the fpecific gravity of barren fandy land to be 2,210 to 1,000 of water. This experiment would not be difficult to try with {ufficient accuracy by drying two different foils at an equal diftance from a fire, or in the fame oven, -and then weighing a pound of each in a thin bladder with apertures near its top or neck; and then letting the bladder fink fo low into water, as to admit the water through the apertures amongft the foil ; and laftly, obferving the difference between their refpective weights in air, and in water. Neverthelefs the method moft in ufe by the purchafers of land te judge of its value is by attending to the growth and colour of the ve- getables, which cover it ; which requires an expeyienced eye, and can- not be.eafily defcribed in words. Add to this that vegetables, which grow wild on foils, will in fome meafure indicate the nature of them. As the digitalis, and arenarea, are found generally on {andy foils, the veronica becabunga, and creffes of fome kinds, belong to moift fitua- tions, and others to mountainous ones. A particular catalogue of fuch plants, as fpontaneoufly grow in different fituations, might affift in dif- covering the degree of fertility, and the nature of the foil; as other flowers by the time of their opening in each climate, which 4s term- ed the Calendar of Flora, may teach the temperature of the feafon.'* In fome parts of the country the fpontaneous production of many | 4F .. docks, 586 ADDITIONAL NOTES. docks, rumet, has been reckoned the mark of an inferior foil, and the production of thiftles, ferratula arvenfis, to be a fign of a good one; which explains a ftory in a black letter book on hufbandry, which fays, ** A blind man went to purchafe a farm, which was of- fered to fale, and riding over the pafture land, and hearing the good- nefs of the foil much applauded by the poffeffor, at length difmount- ed, and faid to his fervant, ‘ Tie my horfe to a thiftle !’ ‘ Here are no thiftles,” replies the fervant, ‘ but I can tie him to a dock.’ ¢ Then I will not purchafe the land,’ fays he, and mounting his horfe with a good morning to you, Sir, left the owner of the eftate in great furprife.” 10. To be inferted at the end of Seét. XV. 3.7. To difcover when the feeds of herbaceous plants are ripe, as of wheat, the drynefs or ftraw-cotour of the ftem is in general a good criterion ; as when the {tem dies, and becomes bleached: by the oxy- gen of the atmofphere, no more nutriment can be conveyed to the mature feed. And to determine at what time to colle& thofe fruits, which never ripen on the trees in this climate, as crab-apples, and baking-pears, change of colour or fall of the leaf fhews, that they can acquire no more nourifhment, and may receive injury from the ap- proaching froft. But to determine when our beft or earlieft apples and pears are ripe enough to gather, that is, when they will acquire no more nu- triment from the tree, depends on a very curious circumftance of the colour of the fkin of the feeds. During the infant ftate of the feed “there is no cavity round them, but the feed is in contact with the feed-veffel, as may be feen on cutting an unripe pear or apple; and the feed therefore is perfectly etiolated, as it cannot part with any of its oxygen. . Afterwards when there is no more depofition of nutri- tious Ntin g his the eftate pe, as of ral a good the oxy- ed to the fe fruits, ples, and - they cat 1 the ap- pears are ADDITIONAL NOTES. 589 tious matter to enlarge the fruit, the cells, in which the feeds are contained, become hollow, producing an air-veffel for the living embryon ; of what purity the air may be, which is produced in thefe cells, has not I believe been tried, and may differ as the em- bryon-feed grows older; but the oxygen, which it contains, feems to have been difengaged from the membranes, which cover the feeds, which thence become coloured ; whence the dark colour of the feeds of apples and pears is a proper criterion of the time, when they fhould be gathered ; as it indicates, that the fruit will no longer increafe in fize, as it now waftes and becomes hollow by .abforbing fome of the mucilage from the central parts of it. ee: 11. To be inferted at the end of Sect. V1. 5. 5- Sugar is not only afforded by the fap-flow of trees, as the maple, birch, and vine, but alfo I fuppofe from that of herbaceous vegeta- bles, as heracleum fpondilium, cow parfnip, and ferratula arvenfis, Geld thiftle; when. the former of thefe plants has been cut off near the ground in the vernal months, the fap-juice from the ftump I> have obferved to flow in fuch quantity for many: days, that I have doubted whether by a proper apparatus for catching it the plant might not be advantageoufly cultivated for the purpofe of making wine, or of extracting the fugar as from the maple of America. This circumftance has been {aid to thew a proper time for deftroying the weeds, as if they be mowed in the bleeding’ feafon, they are believ- ed to perifh by the lofs of fap-juice. As all fpirit is the fame, when nicely diftilled, whether it be found in wine, ale, cyder, brandy, rum, gin, and is the product of fugar by the chemical procefs of fermentation ; and ag all fugar is the fame, when nicely cleaned, whether it be obtained from fruits, grains, roots, canes, or fap-juice; there is reafon to believe, that fugar as well as 42 {pirit 588 ADDITIONAL NOTES. {pirit may fome time or other be economically procured from the ves getables of this climate, as Margraff extraéted it from the beet-root, and from potatoes. For the ftrength of common ale, which is pro- duced from the fugar contained in malt, is faid to be about the fame as that of fome domeftic wines, which owe their {pirit to prepared fugar. And as in the former a bufhel or ftrike of malt is ufed to about fix gallons of water, and in the latter about twenty pounds of fugar to fix gallons of water, it follows, that one ftrike of malt con- tains about twenty pounds of fugar; which if an eafy method of cleaning it from the mucilage and from the effential oil of the feed could be difcovered, it may fome time be manufactured at home cheaper, than it can be procured from abroad. We may add, as all fugar is the fame, and all fpirit is the fame, from whatever plant they are procured ; that the flavours of wines differ from each other folely in the effential oil, which they contain, or the quantity of acidity, or of fugar not yet fermented; and that in ref{pect to wholefomenefs wines only differ from each other in their ftrength or quantity of fpirit, unlefs where fome noxious material has been ufed to fine them, or to counteract their tendency to the acetous fermentation, as lead has been employed in fome of the cy- ders of our country, and in fome of the white wines of France, to correct their acidity ; and it is faid that arfenic is occafionally em- ployed for the purpofe of fining white wines. The injurious methods of fone wines, and of flopping their ten- dency to acidity having been cieatibisel) the innocuous ones ought to be fubjomed ; for the former it has been propofed to filter muddy wine through fine fand laid on a fieve ; but this I am told does not fucceed, as the mucilage of the foul wine foon fills up the interftices. of the grain of fands ; but that an. efficacious method is to fhower the fine fand on the wine through a fieve ; which as it pafies down by its own weight will carry the mucilaginous mud of the wine along with it. And laftly, if fome colouring particles cannot thus. be 3 made ADDITIONAL NOTES. 589 made to fubfide, a little more fimple mucilage muft be added, as gum arabic or whites of eggs, and_a fand-fhower be again paffed through it. In refpect to the tendency of wines to become vinegar, this 1 am informed may be prevented by not expofing the fermenting mate=- rial to the air more than can be eafily prevented, as it is the union of the oxygen of the atmofphere with the fpirit that converts it into vinegar ; and though the vinous fermentation proceeds flower, when fecluded from the air, yet it finally becomes more perfect ; as the fugar in {weet wines continues to become fpirit, after it is corked up in bottles, though the procefs is flower, and the wine confequently becomes ftronger as it grows older, and the fweetnefs vanithes. Hence I obferve the manufacturers of raifin-wines fet them to fer= ment in large cafks with only the bung-hole open, that they may not be too much expofed to the atmofphere; and foon {top them up or bottle them, before the {weetnefs vanithes, which they judge of by the tafte. 3 I was once told by a gentleman, who made a confiderable quan- tity of cyder on his own eftate, that he had procured vellels of ftronger contruction than ufual, and that he directed the apple- juice, as foon, as it had fettled,. to be bunged up clofe; and that: though he had had one veffel or two’ occafionally burft by the ex- panfion of the fermenting liquor, yet that this rarely occurred, and. that his.cyder never filed to be of the moft excellent quality, and took a confiderably greater price at market. ) Nor fhould this account of fermentation be concluded without ob- . ferving, that it converts fugar, which is a wholefome nutriment both. to young and old, into {pirit, which is a poifonous material to all a as it ftimulates the whole fyftem into too violent exertion: for a few hours, and leaves it afterwards in confequence torpid and imactive 5. and hence that the ftrongeft wines are the moft pernicious, and that all.of them fhould be diluted with water, Ajs thofe in general, who: : drink 590 ADDITIONAL NOTES. drink ale to excefs, acquire the gravel; thofe, who drink wine to excefs, acquire the gout ; and the drinkers of fpirits die of the drop-- fy !—but it is the cuftom of moft of the inebriates of this country to begin their unfortunate career with the firft, and terminate it with ' the laft. | 12. To be inferted at the end of Seét. X. 6.8. An important paper concerning lime is this year publifhed in the Philofophical Tranfactions by Mr. Tennant, who having been inform- ed, that two kinds of lime were ufed in agriculture, which differed greatly in their effeéts, one of which it was neceflary to ufe {paring- ly, and to {pread very evenly over the land ; for it was faid, that a large proportion of it diminithed the fertility of the foil; and that wherever a heap of it had been left on one {pot, all vegetation was prevented for many years, And that of this kind of lime fifty or fixty bufhels on ah acre were as much as could be ufed with advantage ; while of the other fort of lime a large quantity was never found to be injurious ; and that the f{pots, which were entirely covered with it, became remarkably fertile, inftead of being rendered barren. Mr. Tennant having analyfed thofe two kinds of lime found, that the latter confifted folely of calcareous earth; but that the former contained two parts of magnefia with three parts of calcareous earth, He afterwards obferved, that though vegetable feeds would grow equally well in both thefe kinds of jimeftone, when fimply reduced to powder ; yet that, when they were calcined {0 as to become lime, and both of them ftrewed about the tenth of an inch thick on gar= den mould, that the magnefian lime prevented nearly all the feeds, “which‘had been fowed, from coming up; while no injury was oceas fioned by the calcareous lime ufed in the fame manner. This important difcovery feems to explain the caufe of fuch variety ef opinion about the ufe of lime, which fome have believed to be of BS Te) ADDITIONAL NOTES. 59% no advantage, and even injurious to land ; which has probably been owing to their having ufed the magnefian lime, and having laid on too much of it. > : : Mr. Tennant firft found magnefian lime near the town of Don- cafter, and afterwards at York, at Matlock in Derbythire, and at Breeden in Leicefterthire, and at Workfop in Nottinghamfhire. He obferves, that the cathedral and walls of York are built with this magnefian limeftone ; and that at Matlock the magnefian and cal- careous limeftones are contiguous to each other; the rocks on the fide of the river Derwent, where the houfes are built, being magnefiany and on the other fide calcareous. He obferved alfo here, that the magnefian limeftone was incumbent on the calcareous ; for in de- {cending into a cave formed in that rock, he found a feparate vein of calcareous limeftone, which was full of fhells, but contained’no mag-~ nefia ; and obferves in general, that magnefian limeftone may be rea* dily diftinguithed from the calcareous by its fo much flower folution in acids, and that it contains generally very few fhells, but that thofe alfo are impregnated with magnefia. Asall limeftone may be divided into three kinds ;. the rocks, whiclt remain, where they were formed from fhells beneath the ocean, ex- cept that they were afterwards elevated by fubmarine fires; and fe- condly into alluvial limeftone, ‘as thofe which have been diffolved in water, and fimply precipitated, as the. beds of chalk, which contain. only the moft infojuble remains of fea-animals, as the teeth of fharks; and thirdly thofe which after having been diffolved and precipitated, have been long agitated beneath the fea, till the par- ticles have been rolled fo againit each other,, as to acquire a globular form, which is faid to refemble the roe, or fpawn, of fifh, and whieh contain very few fhells or none, as the Ketton ftone, and that which L have feen on Lincoln Heath extending almoft from Sleaford to Lincoln. Now as the falts of the fea confift of only two kinds, common alts, 59S: ADDITIONAL NOTES, falt, or muriate of foda, and vitriolated magnefia, commonly called _Epfom falt, which in the fea-waters furrounding this ifland were found at a medium to exift in the proportion of one thirtieth part, of common falt, and one eightieth part of vitriolated magnefia compared to the quantity of water. And fecondly as thefe falts are believed by many philofophers to have been formed by vegetable and animal matters, which principally grew upon the furface of the dry land, after it was raifed out of the primeval ocean; and that in ‘confe- quence the faltnefs of the fea was pofterior to the formation of the primeval rocks of limeftone ; and from hence we underftand, why thofe limeftone ftrata, which have not been diffolved or wafhed in fea-water fince the fea became falt, are not mixed with mag- nefia. | | The chalk muft have been diffolved and precipitated from water, as it exadily refembles the internal part of fome calcareous ftalactites, which I have in my poffeflion; yet there is no appearance of its component particles having been rubbed together into {mall globules, and may not therefore have been removed from the fituation, where it was produced, except by its elevation above the furface of the ocean. | f But that alluvial limeftone, which confifts of {mall globules adher- ing together, called Ketton limeftone, and of which there appears to be a bed ten miles broad from Beckingham to Sleaford in Lincoln- fhire, and twenty miles long from Sleaford to Lincoln, I fufpe& may probably confift of magnefian limeftone; which is alfo faid in that country to do no fervice to vegetation ; for this alluvial lime- ftone by having evidently been long rolled together beneath the fea, by which the {mall cryftallifed parts of it have had their angles rub- , bed off, is moft likely to have thus been mixed with the magnefia of the fea-water, which is {aid to contain one eightieth part of its aveicht of vitriolated magnefia, as above mentioned, ‘At the lime-works at Ticknal near Derby there appears a ftratum of ADDITIONAL NOTES. : 492 of alluvial limeftone, like Ketton Jimeftone, which they do not burit for fale, over the bed of the calcareous limeftone, which they get from beneath the former, and-calcine for fale. It is probable, that the fuperior bed may ‘contain magnefia, which has rendered it not fo. ufeful in agriculture. It is more probable, that alluvial limeftone has acquired its mixture of magnefia from the fea-water ; as magnefia in its uncalcined ftate will precipitate lime from water, as obferved by Dr. Alfton ; who thence propofes to render water ‘pure and potable, which has been long kept at fea free from putridity by having lime mixed with it, by precipitating the lime by the addition of mild magnefia which is a fubje&t now perhaps worthy the attention of the court of admiralty, fince magnefian limeftone appears to be fo plentifully diffufed over the earth. See Dr. Black’s Exper. on Magnefia in the Effay Philof. ~ and Literary, Edinb. The lime from Breedon is magnefian, that from Ticknal (which is fold) is calcareous lime I believe ; and fome farmers in the vicinity | of Derby affert, that two loads of Breedon lime will go as far, that is will apparently do as much fervice to their land as three loads of Ticknal lime. Breedon lime, Iam alfo informed, 1s preferred in ar- ~ chite€ture, and is faid to go further in making mortar; which I f{up- -pofe means, that it requires more {and to be mixed with it. Mr. Marfhall in his account of the agriculture of the Midland counties {peaks of lime made at Breedon near Derby as deftructive to vegeta~ bles when ufed in large quantities. And in Nottinghambhire it is af- -ferted, that the lime from Critch in Derbyfhire is fo mild, that thiftles and grafs {pring up through the edges of large heaps of it, when laid in the fields. Dr. Fenwick of Newcaftle obferves, that the farmers in that country divide lime ‘nto hot and mild ;. which Mr. Tennant believes to mean magnefian and calcareous lime. . By experiments: which were made by Mr.Tennant by fowing feeds of colewort on various mixtures: of calcined magnefia with foil, and 4G Of 594 ADDITIONAL NOTES. of calcareous lime with foil, he found that thirty or forty grains of lime did not retard the growth of feeds more than three or four of calcined magnefias from hence what can we conclude? but that, as they both injure vegetation in large quantities, they may both affitt vegetation in {mall ones? and that this is more probable, as the far- mers believe, that they find both of them ufeful, though in different quantities ; and as the magnefia would form Epfom falt, if it meets with vitriolic acid, which Dr. Home found from his experiments to be friendly to vegetation, when ufed in very {mall quantities. More accurate obfervations and more numerous experiments on this fub- ject are required, which this important difcovery of Mr. Tennant’s will I hope foon occafion. 13. To be inferted at p. 286, I. 16, at the end of No. 2 of Sec. XII. Another method has been attempted by fome- for the purpofe of ameliorating clayey lands, which were unfit to be turned up deeper than they had been accuftomed to be ploughed, on account of their acidity or tenacity being very injurious to vegetation ; as the white faggar clays over many coal countries; or fome very tenacious red clays, which may contain a vitriol of iron; not an oxyde, or oxy- genated calx of it. The method I allude to confifts in fr turning over a ridge of earth, as in common ploughing ; and then with a plough, made on purpofe, to penetrate fome inches deeper into the clay fo injurious, to vegetation ; this plough is to, be fo contrived, as to raife up the clayey foil about the breadth of the furrow recently made, and three or four inches deep, or more ; but not to turn it over, fo that it may ftill lie under the fertile foil, which is to be turned over it with the common plough, in making the adjoining furrow, So. that this plough Nant’s XII. fe of Jeeper ’ their white is red Oxy- 9€ of Je ot us, C0 ) the three may h the this - ous? | ADDITIONAL NOTES. 595 plough is only to pafs under the foil, and thus loofen it, and mix it with atmofpheric air without turning if over. By this manoeuvre the clay a few inches deep beneath the fertile foil becomes broken in its texture, and obtains fome air intercepted in its pores; from the former circumftance it may contribute to retain the vernal fhowers, which would otherwife run off over the clayey farface beneath the more fertile one, and might thus in drier feafons prevent the upper furface from being fo much. indurated, and might gradually become lefs injurious by the frequent admixture of atmo- fpheric air, and at length even falubrious to the roots of vegetables. 4G2 APPENDIX. APPENDIX. IMPROVEMENT. OF THE.DRILL PLOUGH. Tue firft experiment I tried toimprove this valuable machine was that mentioned in Se&t. XII. 5. of this work, by enlarging. the axis of Mr. Tull’s feed-box into a wheel of fixteen inches diameter, with’ excavations.in the.rim.to raife portions of the corn above the furface of that in the feed-box.. But I found to my furprife the friction of. the corn to be. fo much greater than expected, when fix fuch large wheels were immerfed in it, that an additional hopper became*ne- ceffary to deliver the feed flowly into the feed-box, as in Mr. Cook’s drill plough ; which, as it would add much to the intricacy and ex- pence of the machinery, and to the-inaccuracy of the-quantity of feed delivered, occafioned me to relinquifh that idea, and after many de- figns and many experiments to conftrué the following machine, which I believe to be more fimple, and confequently lefs expenfive to conftrut, and lefs liable to be out of order, and to deliver the feeds « of all kinds with greater accuracy than any drill plough at*prefent in - ufe; and that it poffeffes every other advantage that they can boaft. . The fcale of the three following plates is half an inch to ten inches.» Conftruttion of the Carriage Part. Plate X. Fig. 1...4 a,.are the fhafts for the horfe,.which are fixed * to the center of the axle-tree by a fimple univerfal joint at %, whence, A’ if 598 IMPROVEMENT OF if the horfe fwerve from a ftraight line, or is purpofely made to pafs obliquely to avoid treading on the rows of corn in hoeing; the per- - fon, who guides the plough behind, may keep the coulters of the plough or hoe in any line he pleafes ; which is thus performed with much fimpler mechanifm, than that ufed in Mr. Cook’s patent plough for the fame purpofe, whieh has many jouits like a parallel rule. . 66 are the horns or fhafts behind, for the perfon who guides the drill coulters or hoes; they are fixed to the axle-tree before, and have a crofs piece about fix inches from it at gg for the purpofe of ‘{fupporting the feed-box defcribed:- below. Behind this ‘about a foot — diftant from it is another crofs piece at cc; called the coulter-beam, which is fifty inches long, fix inches wide, and two inches thick ; it is perforated with two fets of fquare holes, fix in each fet, to re- ceive the coulters in drill-ploughing, and the hoes in horfe-hoeing. The fix light fquare holes are nine inches from cach other, and are to receive the coulters or hoes in the cultivation of wheat, the rows of which are deficned to be nine inches from each other, and the fix dark {quare holes are placed jeven inches from each other to receive the coulters or hoes for the cultivation of barley, the rows of which are defigned to be but feven inches diftant from each other. Befides thefe there are fix round holes through this coulter-beam at one part of it, and fix iron circular ftaples fixed into the edge of the other part of it; thefe are to receive the ends of the tin flues, which crofs each other, and convey the feed from the bottom of the feed-box into the drills or furrows, when the coulters are difpofed in the iquare perforations before them. Thefe coulters or hoes the perfon, who guides the machine, ean raife out of the ground in turning at the ends of the lands, or in paff- ing to or from the field, and can fufpend them fo raifed on the iron fprings dd, which at the fame time fo fixes the fhafts to the axle- : tree: THE DRILL PLOUGH, 599 tree that the wheels will then follow in the fame line with the horfe. : ee are wheels of four feet in diameter, the nave of one of which has on it a caft-iron wheelat ff, for the purpofe of turning the axis of the feed-box, which has a fimilar wheel of one fourth its diame- ter; whence the axis of the feed-box revolves four. times to one re- volution of the wheel. Conftruttion of the feed-box. Plate XI. Fig. 2. This confifts of boards about an inch in thicknefs, is forty-eight inches long within, twelve inches deep, twelve inches wide.at top, and fix inches wide at bottom; it. is divided into fix. cells, in which the corn isto be put, as reprefented in Plate XI. Fig. 2. and fhould alfo have a cover with hinges to keep out the rain, and is to be plac- ed in part-over, and in part before, the axle-tree of the carriage, at gg. Plate X. Fig. 1. 3 Beneath the bottom of the feed-box pafles a wooden cylinder, ‘at hh, Plate XI. Fig. 2. with excavations in its periphery to receive the grain from the fix cells of the feed-box, /muopgq, and to deliver it into the fix oblique flues 77, which are made of tin, and crofs each other, as reprefented in the plate. The ufe of the feed-flues thus in- terfecting each other is to increafe the length of the inclined {urface, on which the feed defcends, that if fix or eight grains be delivered together, they.might fo feparate by their friction in defcending, as not to be fown, together. in one, point, which might be liable to pro- duce tuffocks of corn. | As thefe feed-flues crofs each other, before they pafs through the coulter-beam.at cc, Plate X. Fig. 1. it was neceflary to make three of the round holes of the coulter-beam at one end backwarder than thofe at the other-end; and on that account to ufe iron, ftaples or 9 rings - 600 IMPROVEMENT OF rings at one end inftead of perforations, as at ww, Plate X. Fig. Ye Thefe tin flues deliver the feed at the time of fowing into the Gasll furrows or-drills, which are made by the coulters ierabe them. Thefe feed-flues have a joint at x x, where one part of the tin -tubes-flides into the other part, and they by thefe means can be occa- fionally thortened or lengthened to accomodate them to the coulters, when placed at feven inches diftance for fowing barley, or at nine for fowing wheat. At the bottom of this feed-box are fix holes, one in cack cell, to deliver the corn into the excavations of the cylinder, which revolves beneath them. ‘Thefe holes are furnifhed on the defcending fide, as ‘the cylinder revolves, with a {trong bruth of briftles about three fourths of an inch long, which prefs hard on the tin cylinder. On the afcending fide of the revolving cylinder the holes at the bottom of the feed-box are furnifhed with a piece of ftrong fhoe-foal leather, which rubs upon the afcending fide of the cylinder. By thefe means | the corn, whether beans or wheat, is nicely delivered, as the axis re- volves, without any of them being cut or bruifed. ConfiruGtion of the iron axis and wooden cylinder beneath the feed-boxs Plate XI. Fig. 3. An iron bar is firft made about four feet fix inches in length, an@ an inch fquare, which ought to weigh about fifteen pounds’; this bar is covered with wood, is: as to make a cylinder four feet long, and 4wo inches in diameter, as at #4, Plate XI. Fig. 3. The ufe of the iron bar in the centre of the wood is to prevent it from warping, which is a matter of great confequence. This wooden nie paffes beneath the bottom of the feed-box, and has a caft-iron cog-wheel at one end of its axis, as at rz, which is one fourth of the diameter. of the correfpondent caft-iron wheel, which De THE DRILL: PLOUGH. eat “which is fixed.on the nave of the carriage-wheel, as in Plate X. Fig. 1. ff, fo that the axis of the feed-box revolves four times dur- ing every revolution of the wheels of the carriage. In the periphery-of this wooden cylinder are excavated four lines of holes, fix in‘each line, as at nnnnn i. A fecond line of excava- tions is-‘made oppofite to thefe on the other fide of the cylinder, and two other lines of excavations between thefe; fo that there are in all twenty-four excavations in the wooden part of this axis beneath the feed-box, which excavations receive the corn from the feed-cells, as the axi§ revolves, and deliver it into the flues {hewn in Plate XI. Fig. 2. 00/7, not unfimilar to‘the original defign of the ingenious Mr. Tull. , . The fize of thefe excavations in the wooden cylinder to receive the feed are an inch long, half an inch wide, and three eighths of an inch deep; which are too large for any feeds at prefent employed in large quantities except beans, but have a method to contraé& them to | any dimenfions-required, by moving the tin cylinder over the wooden one, as explained below in Plate XI. Fig. 4. Confirustion of the Tin-cylinder. Plate XI. A Bat Fig. 4. reprefents a cylinder of tin an inch longer within than the wooden cylinder on the iton axis at Fig. 3. and is of two inches diameter within, fo as exactly to receive the wooden cylinder, which may flide about an inch backwards or forwards within it. CD are two {quare tin fockets fixed on the ends of the tin cylinder to fit on the {quare part of the iron axis, which pafles through the wooden cylinder at //, Fig. 3. on which they flide one inch backwards of forwards. The following dire@ions in making the holes in this tin cylinder, 4 H 3 and 602 IMPROVEMENT OF and thofe in the wooden cylinder, which are to ee with them, mutft be nicely attended to. Firft, when the tin-cylinder is foldered longitudinally, and one end of it foldered on, as at A, fix holes through it muft be made longi- tudinally on four oppofite fides of it, each hole muft be exactly half an inch wide, and five eighths of an inch long, the length to be parallel to the length of the cylinder. The centre of the firft of thefe holes muft be five inches 'diftant from the clofed end A, the centre of the fecond hole muft be eight inches diftant from the centre of the firft, and fo on till fix holes are * made longitudinally along the cylinder. Then another fuch line of fix fimilar holes is to be made on the oppofite fide of the cylinder, and then two other fuch lines between the former, in all twenty-four s. and the fize of all thefe holes muft be nicely obferved, as well as their. diftances. Secondly. The wooden cylinder fixed on the axis is now to be in- troduced into the tin cylinder, ‘but not quite to the end of it, but fo as to leave exactly one inch of void {pace at the clofed‘end A, and then the fize of all thefe apertures through the tin cylinder, each of which is exa¢tly half an inch wide, and five eighths of an inch long, are to be nicely marked with a fine point on the wooden cylinder,. which muft not previoufly have any excavations made in it. Thirdly. The twenty-four holes thus marked on the wooden cy- linder are now to be excavated exactly three eighths of ah inch deep, but with an addition alfo of three eighths of an inch at that end of ‘every one of them which is next to A; fo that, when ‘the wooden. cylinder is again replaced in the tin cylinder as before, with one inch of void fpace at the clofed extremity of it, the excavations in the wooden cylinder will be three eights of an inch longer, than the per= forations in the tin cylinder over them. Thefe excavations in the wooden ¢ylinder muft alfo be rather narrower at the Bottom than at ; the THE DRILL PLOUGH. 603 the top, to prevent with certainty any of the grain from {ticking in them, as they revolve. Fourthly. A {crew of iron a head to receive a {crew -driver, bout three inches long, with a {quare is to pafs through the end A of the tin cylinder on one fide of the axis, as at x, Fig. 4. The {crew part of this is to lie in a hollow groove of the wooden cylinder, and to be received into a nut, oF female fcrew, which ‘s fixed to the wooden cylinder. The head part of the {crew, which pafies through the end A of the tin cylinder at x, muft have.a fhoulder within the tin cy- linder, that it may not come forwards through the end of it; and a dof the {crew on the out- brafs ring mutt be put over the fquare en Gde of the.tin cylinder, with a pin through that fquare end of the {crew to hold on the brafs ring, , Thus when the. fquare head of the {crew is turned by a {crew- driver, it gradually moves the tin cylinder backwards and forwards one inch on the wooden one, {o as either to prefs the end A of the tin cylinder into contact with the end of the wooden cylinder within it, or to remove ‘t to the diftance of one inch from it, and leave a void {pace at the end A. Fifthly. The ends of all the holes of the tin cylinder, which are next to the end A of it, are now to be enlarged, by flitting the tin three eighths of an inch towards A, on each fide of the hole; and then that part of the tin, included between thefe two flits, which will be half an inch wide, and three eighths of an inch lengthways in re- {pect to the cylinder, is not to be cut out, but to be bent down into the excavations of the wooden cylinder beneath, fo as to lie againft that end of the excavation which is next to A. _ , But thefe projecting bits of tin, before they are bent down into the excavations of the wooden cylinder, muft be filed a little lefs at , the projecting end, which is to be bent down, than at the other end ; € the wooden cylinder are to be rather narrower 4H 2 at as the excavations Pe} 604. IMPROVEMENT OF at the bottom than at the top, and thefe pieces of tin, when bent down, muft exadlly fit them. Lafily. When all thefe holes through the tin-cylinder are thus en- Jarged, and the bits of tin filed rather narrower at their projecting ends, and then bent down into the excavations of the wooden cylin- der, the other end of the tin cylinder with its fquare focket may be foldered on. And now when the end of the tin cylinder at-A is preffed forwards upon the wooden cylinder towards B, by turning the {crew atx above defcribed ; every excavation of the wooden cylinder will be gradually leflened, and finally quite clofed; by. which eafy means they may be adapted to receive and deliver feeds of any fize from horfe-beans and peas to wheat, barley, and to turnip-feed, with the greatef{t accuracy, fo as to fow four, five, or fix pecks on an acre, or more or lefs, as the agricultor pleafes, by only turning the ferew a few revolutions one way or the other. Ob/fervations. 1. In the conftru@ion of the tm and wooden cylinders beneath the feed-box another fmall improvement may be neceflary in fowing very {mall feeds, which is this: As the {erew at the end A is turned, fo as to contract all the excavations of the wooden cylinder, the furface of the wooden cylinder for one inch from the end of each excavation towards the end B, Plate XI. Fig. 4. will become bare without being covered by the tin cylinder ; and on thefe bare parts of the wooden cylinder, which will be one inch long, and half an inch wide, fome {mall feeds may chance to ftick, and evade the brufhes, which fhould prevent them from pafling, as the cylinders revolve, To prevent this, when the wooden cylinder is fo placed within the tin cylinder, that all the holes‘are quite open, let a piece of the tin cylinder THE DRILL PLOUGH. 605; cylinder about an inch and.a balf long, and half an inch wide, -be cuts e end B, and let this- out from the extremity of each hole next to th piece of the tin cylmder thus cut out be fixed by a few: fprigs on the wooden cylinder exactly in the fame place, which it covered before it was cut out of the tin one, by which contrivance, when-the tim cylinder is afterwards pufhed forwards by. turning the fcrew at its end, fo as to contrac the excavations of the wooden cylinder’ be- neat, the bare parts of the wooden cylinder will ‘exift an inch and a half from the extremities of the excavations next to the end B, and thus will not pafs under the brufhes, and in confequence no {mall feeds can lodge in them. 7 >. Some’kind of iron ftaple fhould be fixed. at each end of the féed- box on the outfide, which when the hinder part of the carriage is- raifed up by the perfon who guides it, might catch hold of the two iron fprings at dd.in Plate’ X. Fig. 1. for the purpofe of fufpending the coulters out of the ground, and conneéting the hinder part of the machine with the fhafts before; that in turning at the ends of the” lands, or.in paffing from or to the field, the wheels may not {werve - at.the joint x, at the. centre of the axle-tree, but may. follow in the: fame line with the fhafts. 3. 2 he feed-box mutt alfo be fupported on upright iron pins pafi=- ing through iron ftaples, witha lever.under the end of it next to: the wheel rr, Plate XJ. Figs 3. for the purpofe of eafily lifting that» end of the feed-box about an inch high, to raife the teeth of the iron cog- Wheel on its axis out of the teeth of the correfpondent iron: wheel on the nave of the carriage-wheel. 4. The conftruction of the coulters, which make the drills, and » of the rakes, which again fill them, after the feed is depofited, and alfo.of the hoes, are not here delineated ; as they are fimilar to thofe {o often defcribed or ufed by Mr, Tull and his followers. 5. When the lower ends of the feed-flues are placed through the holes in the coulter-beam, Plate I. Fig. 1. at nine inches diftance from 606 IMPROVEMENT OF from each other, the rows of wheat or beans will then be fown nine inches from each other; and as the wheels of the carriage are four _ feet in diameter, and therefore travel about twelve feet at each revo- ~Jution; and as there are four excavations round the axis of the feed- box, which revolve four times for one revolution of the carriage- wheels; it follows, that the feeds contained in the excavations of the cylinder beneath the feed-box will be fown at nine inches dif- * tance in each drill or furrow, as the plough proceeds ; and as thefe rows are nine inches afunder, any defired number of feeds may be depofited in every fquare of nine inches, which are contained in the furface of the field. 6. Mr. Coke of Norfolk acquainted me, that on his very exten- five farm the wheat fown on an acre was fix or feven pecks by the Rev. Mr. Cook’s drill plough, which was about half the quantity generally ufed in broad-caft fowing. Ifthe wheat was nicely depo- fited in the drills, I fufpect one bufhel would be quite fufficient for an acre, as the rows are at nine inches diftant from each other; for there would in that cafe be about eight grains or niné grains depo- fited in every nine inches of the drill-furrow; that is, in every {quare of nine inches contained in the furface of the land fo cul- tivated. Which may be thus eftimated. Mr. Charles Miller, in the Philo- fophical Tran factions, Vol. LVIII. p. 203, has eftimated the num- ber of grains in a bufhel of wheat to amount to 620,000; and Mr, Swanwick of Derby has lately eftimated them to be 645,000. We may fuppofe therefore, that a bufhel may at an average contain 635,000 grains of wheat. Now as a ftatute acre contains 4840 fquare yards, and there are fixteen {quares of nine inches in every fquare yard, 4840 multiplied by 16 gives 77,440, which is the number of {quares of nine inches in fuch an acre. If 635,000 grains in a buthel be divided by 77,440, the number of fquares of- nine inches in:an acre, the quotient will fhew, that rather more than eight THE DRILL PLOUGH. 607 Die ‘our : : 5 ee Se ies eight grains of wlreat will thus be depofited in every nine inches of ; z the drills. tei 7. Now if eight or nine grains were dropped altogether in one ‘Bes inch of ground, they would be too numerous, if they be all fup- * of . pofed to grow, and would form a tufflock ; but by making them dif, » flide down an inclined plane, as ‘n the tin-flues,. from the feed-box hefe to the coulters, which are croffed for the purpofe of lengthening Y be them, as feen in Plate XI. fig. 2. fome of the feeds. will be more de- the 3 layed by their friction in defcending than. others, and the eight or omine feeds will thence be difperfed over the whole nine inches of the ten- drill ; which. renders drill-fowing fuperior to dibbling,. as in. the the latter the feeds are dropped all together. tity | g. When the holes in. the wooden cylinder are completely open; e ep0e | they are about a proper fize for fowing barfe-beans or peas + when | they are completely clofed, there wall remainia {mall niche at the end for of the excavation in the wooden cylinder mext to B, Plate XI. fig..4. for ? . for turnip-feed, or other {mall feeds. ; af For wheat and barley and oats, «a wooden wedge fhould be made very of the exaét fhape-of the area.of the hole, which the director of the cul- | plough requires ; who will-occafionally infert it into the holes, .when: he,turns the {crew at the end of ‘the cylinder to.enlarge or to leffen a} thetn to-thefe exact: dimentfions. 3 sia | Phefe wedges fhould be written upon with white paint, wheat,. Mr, | barley, oats, &c. which will much facilitate the adapting the fize of We - the excavations to each kind of grain, and may be altered,.if required, a to fuit larger or lefs feeds of the fame denomination. : ed : g. In fome drill-ploughs, . as:in Mr. Cook’s,. there is an additional pe machinery to mark a line, as the plough proceeds, in which. the very wheel neareft the laft: fown: furrow. may: be direéted to pafs.at a pro- Ae per diftance.from:it, and parallelitoit.. Butin fowing wheat or peas rains and beans’ this:may be done- by making the wheels, as they run upon: pine the ground, to be exactly fifty-four inches from each other ;; and’ han then: jght 608 IMPROVEMENT OF ‘then at.the time-of fowing to guide the wheel next to the. part laft fown exaétly inthe rut, which was laft made; by which guide the rows willeall.of them be accurately at nine inches diftant from each -other. 7 . The Simplicity of this Drill-Plough. ‘z. The fimplicity of this machine confifts firft in its having only -a feed-box, and: not both a hopper and a feed-box, as in the Rev. Mr. Cook’s patent drill-plough. . -2. The flues, *which condu& the feed from the bottom of the feed-box into'the drill-furrows, are not disjoined about the middle of them to permit the lower part to move to the right or left, when the horfe fwerves from ‘the-line, in which the coulters pafs, as in Mr. Cook’s patent drill-plough; which is done in this machine by the:fimple-univerfal joint at s, Plate I. fig. 1. 3. In-this machine the horns or fhafts behind, between which the perfon-walks, who guides the coulters, are fixed both to the coul- ter-beam, and to the axle-tree ; whereas in Mr. Cook’s patent plough thefe are all of them moveable joints like a parallel rule, for the pur- _pofe of counteracting the {werving of the horfe; which in this mas chine is done by the imple univerfal joint at 2, ‘fig..1, ‘Plate'l. before mentioned, 4. The altering the dimenfions of the holes in the axis of the feed-box by only turning a fcrew, fo as to adapt them to all kinds of feeds, which are-ufually fown on field-lands. ‘s, ‘Ebe ftrongbrufh of briftles, which fweep over the excavations .of the cylinders beneath the feed-box, ftrickle them with fuch ex- aétnefs, that no fupernumerary feeds efcape, and yet none of them are I In t la le the | Fach ; Only Rey, f the dle of when as in ine by which coul- Jough 7 pure is mas before f the 4ds of ations sp et on a 1h 7 THE DRILL PLOUGH. 609 in the leaft bruifed or broken, as I believe is liable to occur in Mr. Tull’s original machine. Laftly it fhould be obferved, that the lefs expence in the conftruc- tion, the lefs propenfity to be out of repair, and the greater eafe of underftanding the management of this machine, correfpond with its greater fimplicity ; and will, I hope, facilitate the ufe of the drill- hufbandry. Mr. Swanwick’s Seed- Box. As the dibbling of wheat, defcribed in Se€t. XVI. 2. 2. 18 a very flow and laborious method of depofiting the corn, and is yet coming, as L am informed, more and more into fafhion in fome counties, I fufpeét this muft be owing to the expence of procuring, and the difficulty of managing the drill-ploughs now in ufe, or to the greater inaccuracy, with which they deliver the feed. I flatter myfelf there- fore, that Iam doing a benefit to fociety in endeavouring to fimplify this machine, and to increafe its accuracy as much as poflible: and {hall therefore here defcribe another method of delivering the feed from the feed-box, which was invented by Mr. Swanwick, an inge- nious teacher of writing and arithmetic, with fome branches of na- tural philofophy, in Derby; and who will not be averfe to fhew the working models of the feed-boxes, or to give affiftance to any one, who withes to conftrué either this drill machine, or the pre- ceding one. Mr. Swanwick’s feed-box is forty-eight inches long within, is di- vided into fix cells for the purpofe of fowing fix rows of feeds at the fame time, like that above defcribed: And at the bottom of each cell is a hole a,a, &c. Fig. 1. Plate XIE. for the feed to pafs 41 through 610 | IMPROVEMENT OF through into the feed-flues, as in the machine before defcribed : but in this there is no revolving axis, but a wooden or iron bar BB, fig. 3. Plate XII. about two inches broad, and about four feet erght inches long, and exactly three eighths of an inch thick. Through. this bar there are fix perforations, e¢e, &c. which are each of them: exactly one inch long, and half an inch wide ; and three eighths of an inch deep, which is the thicknefs of the bar. The centres of thefe holes are exactly eight inches diftant from each other, corre- fpondent to the holes at the bottom of the feed-box ; over which it is made to flide backward and forwards in a groove. By this fliding: motion it pafles under tiff brufhes, which are placed over it on each: end of the holes at the bottom of the feed-box, and ftrickle off the. | grain, as the holes in the fliding-bar pafs under them, which thus. meafure out the quautity with confiderable accuracy.. In order to increafe or diminifh the quantity of grain delivered,. the flider is covered with a cafe of tin CC, fig. 4, Plate XII. which has fix perforations exactly correfponding with the Holes inthe flider;. but inftead of the bit of tin being cut out the whole length-of the hole, part of it is left at the end’z, fig. 6, equal to the thicknefs of the flider, and is bent down.as at 4, after the flider is: put into the cafe,. like the tin cylinder in the preceding machine. This. cafe is ES moveable about one inch. backward and forward by turning the finger {crew s,, fig. 4.and 5; and thus the holes are made larger or lefs to (ait various forts of grain, or different quantities of the fame fort, ex- aétly as in the wooden and tin cylinders in Plate XL. V he. flider is. moved forwards-by a: bent: iron. pin 4 attached to it, which pafles into a ferpentine groove. Yi, 8. &, Sxed'to the nave of the wheel: and backwards by a fteel {pring at the other end: of the feed+box,. Fig. 5 isa bird’s eye view. of the parts before deferibed :- E E.the feed-box divided into cells by. the partitions dd, &c.—e¢c.the flider,. I with | THE DRILL PLOUGH. 611 with a part of the apertures feen jutt appearing from under the brufhes. % the axis of the wheel. fig. 6 is a drawing of part of the tin cafe, nearly of the full di- menfions as to breadth and thicknefs, but only a fmall portion of the and is intended to thew more diftinétly the conftruction ood t length ; of it. Fig. 2 reprefents a fide-view of one of the fix bridges lying over the holes at the bottom of the feed-box, on each fide of which the brufhes are fixed, which ftrickle the holes, when they are full of corn, as the bar {lides back wards and forwards. : The fimplicity of this flider at the bottom of the feed-box may be in fome refpects greater, than that of wooden and tin cylinders in the former machines as this has but fix holes to meafure out the corn, and the other has twenty-four. But perhaps in other refpects lefs fo; as in this twelve brufhes are ufed, one on each fide of each of the fix holes ; whereas there are only fix brufhes rub upon the tin cylinder in the former machine. And the reciprocating motion of this flider muft be quick, as ‘t mutt aét once every time the pe- riphery of the wheel of the carriage has pafied nine inches forward ; fo eafy to execute as the cog-wheel, and unin- which may not be he. axis and cylinder in the preceding terrupted movement or t machine. I have only to add, that the facility of adapting the holes to the dimenfions required in both thefe machines, and their not bruifing or breaking the crain in their operation of delivering it, as well as their not being encumbered with an additional hopper, which muft deliver the quantity of feed with great inaccuracy from the. unequal fhaking of the machine, adds much to the excellency and fimplicity of them both. And I hope will render more general the ufe of the drill hufbandry invented by the ingenious Mr. ‘Tut ; who was on 412 that 612 IMPROVEMENT, &c. : : ‘that account an honour to this country, and ought to have a ftatue erected to his memory, as a benefactor of mankind, like Ceres and. ‘Triptolemus of old. Tile Ego, qui quondam gracili modulatus avena Carmen, et egreffus fylvis vicina coegi, Ut quamvis avido parerent arva colono, INDEX. NDE Vreneetieist! 0 WT uaTHE —— il | | 7 me an i rn T ma an , my | vi a hala eee i ia Mh i oll Miki ik i i W,) Het " ; i I q i i i ondon, Published. JanZ 11800, bv LJohirson, St Pauls Ch —— ————— aie Ate TATE TEAUTA VADER VOC IEAL urch Yare q. yt r Plate XI. —> yy Mg WA ad mf st co ————= ; a. N 44 = > S fy.F fig. 3: en 7 —— * / Plate XID. lh r il i I WN | | qh i —— —= \ _—>I SS Mt) = = nu | wl a — I London, Published Jan.2 1800, by JJohnson, StPauls Church Yard. | N LE XxX. A. AxBsoRBENT veffels of Sele, il. iva sa eee kee rigid coats, i. 3. Paras soritit of a fpiral line, a ‘atid + We a eh. ae Se Geet OF Letrostade, i: 0. ia hie Cones iy ae a ii. Q. ; their force ftronger than "ahs hear: v. 3. and §. Acid muriatic. oxygenated, ave 3. 3. 42, 5. os vegetable, vi. 10. Acrimony vegetable XVil of two kinds, a *s ~ 25 ees Foe MV. 25 Ee i. Adanfania the largeft tree, Xvill, 2. 14. Adultery vegetable, viii. 8 Agric ilture fuperior to Pe XVI. Q. I. Agroftis canina, XVill. 1 Air atmof; pheric, wie babed beneath the foil, Kil. f. . heats hot-beds, x. 8.2, x. Il. §; its furface over ridies and furrows, x. ) ly a > 2 @ Air- velfels of veg getables, ii. 4. iil. 2. 6. Alburnum contas ris A ae Wig? 3° ce eeses acts fometimes as capillary tubes, 2.3: Hl. 2:4 Alum, ufe of it in bread, vi. 3. T. <.eee bow detected. in bread” vi. 2.2 ... falutary in the bread of London, vis 3: »..es ufe in making hair-powder, vi. 3. ...+. unfriendly to vegetation; x. 7 X. 11,9, fyphons, O. fometimes as capillary oe Alum refifts putrefaction, x. 7. 8. Ammonia, x. 2 Animals ditinguithed fem vegetables, % 52 As X14. 5. Abies microfcopic, Xiv. 3. 2 Annuals converted inte perennials, xix. 3. Anthers and ftigmas live on honey, iv. §. 6. ...... bend to the ftigmas,-vil. 3.'2.. Aorta of plants, v. I. Appetencies and propenfities, Vil. 3. 7% formative and nutritive, Vil. - epeeeeee € @ 3° 7- : Aphis, iti. 2. 8. vil. xiv, I. 4. and 3. 2.’ add. note v. Apple four on one fide; xv. 1 BE Sar © se horizontally, Archil, xvill. 1. §. Armour of veges acquired, Xiv. 3. 2. Arnotto, Xvil. 2. 2. Artichoke ground, xvi. 3. 4. Xvil. I. 3. Arfenic to “poifon fies and waips, vi. 6. 3. I. §. 1X. 3. I. We face © XVt 25 Qe eee vegetable, vill. 5 Afh-tree ufed to feed filkworms, Ath-leaves uféd for tea, xvii Afhes of plants contain phofphorus, X- 5.6. ..+. of bones, x. 5. 4. Afparagus, Kvitig 1, 2. Attractions and a ptitudes, vii.-3. 6s Azote forms ammonia, X- 2 Azotic gas, 3 8 wuee ein {pring water, X- 3. 5. XVill. Iv 2 B Barks, xvii. Pra F eduntis of, xvii. 3. Tox Barks ‘Barks veffels of inofculate, ix. 2. ally, XVill. 2. Ie . . ‘onipe ‘tha tie XVil es 6. Barley Reced | in dunghil water, xvi. 8.3. thiee bufhels and an half on an acre, e ° « oeee xvi. 8. Beans fed ‘for provender, xvi. 6. 2. eee + IEUTEd By cold watets xe «+... injured by too much water, XVi. ~.... enrich clayey foils, x. 7. 7. Bees injure vegetation, vi, 6. 3 XIV. 3. 7+ ow to ioe them when attacked, X1Y. I. 4. «bees 3: 7 ...« how to-place their hives, xiv. 3.7. Bitter juices of plants, vi. 9. I.) Xvil ph ia agi as fruits wee fatten, ‘Beseh tai for hops, xvill. I. 5. 1. 2» 5e Bone-afhes, ufe ef, x. Bounties on exportation 3 corn, XVI. gi. Bows from yew, XvViil. 2. 11. Brain of vegetables, viii. 1, and 9. Branches, lower ones firft in leat, Rok Bread and beer made from hay, xX. 9. 4. Bredon-lime is half magnefia, x. 6. 8. Briftles on mofs-rofes, ule of, xiv eeu > os On young fhoots ‘of nut- “ees, Xiv. Brecali, cultivation of, xix. 4. 2. ... poemon, xix. 3. ‘Broth from Sahel ees XVil. 2. 5 Buds, parts of, of A ferent re iis $e lateral and fummit ones, xv. 2. §- ... converted into each other, ix. 2. £1. Budding on roots, 1X. 3. 5- Bulbs, ix. 3. . produce other nee 1X..d He Bunium pignut, Xvil. I. 3 Burying- grounds, x Kshs Be Butomus flowering rufh, 9. 5: Cc. XVH. 2. 3. Xi. Cain and Abel, xvi. 9. I- Calamine for manure, X. 7. 1. X. 9. 4 See Lime, ‘x. Calcareous earth. 6. add. note 1x, Calender geen! xvi. 8. I. Canker, xiv. ee propofed cures _ XVil, 3. IO. Caoutchouc, vi. 5: he Capillary attraction in TBM iX. 2. 10 XV. herd. Caprifcaion, Xiv. 2. Q» Carbon, x. Soha diffolved by lime, x. 4. 7: ie ... by ammonia, X. 4. 3. Carhanie: acid es mee the earth, x. 4. 1. ompofes mountains, X. 4. I. Caterpllats in apple- pager Xiv. 3. 3 o deftroy, XIV. 3. 3. eves ofeulent and poifonous, RIV. 3. 6. Caudex of a bud, i. 2 sib a as OF DOME ol trees. Vii. 1.7. XV. 2.1. multiplied by dividing, vil. 3. 4. bine from iy part ‘of; Vil. T. 7. ; le, vil. rehen injeded ae quickfilver, We preferve feeds, xvi. 7. 6. 1.4. Vil, Te 2. iii, Te 4 eevee evd eo »esee eee eoevreae eeeeee Chick 4 in re egg, iil Chorion of the chicks, Chyle of animals, x. Circulation of renee: V. I. XIX. 2. J ithout a heart,’ v. 2. tS eos oe it Dee se ve 3. . by abforption and by fpiral vef- fels, 5 Clavus or ergot, xiv. I. 4. Clay, x. 7. cae note Xil. ~ ous effervelces, x. 7-2 has a fmeli when breathed én, x. 7.-3. burnt for manure in coal countries, xX. a .... is condenfed by froft, xv. 4. I. Xill. 2. cake wine » OCI ity of, ee ae XIV. 2. 5. Coals, origin ae vi. 3. Coke, his drill Poftenaes Xvi. 2. 2. Colchicum autumnal, iv. Cold after heat more injurious, Mill. 2. 4. xiv. 2 «0 6 ORGS efs of, xiv. 2. 2. Colouring, matters of, xvill. I. Xvil. 3. 5- XVII. Qe I. 5- Colouring tuo fx. Colouring for cheefe, RVI. Qe Ie. @olours of flowers, XiX. I+ 2 how to change, xix. 3. 2 _... white owing, to compellion, KX. o- 3. 2. Condiments, xiv 8. Congelation conkers clay, xv 4. I. Xs ea pees: LODRTALES fluids, xvi4) 1s Xe ae: _seeees-repels:mucilage, xv. 4. I. Coping of ftone, x. 3.8. xv. 3. 6. Xilis bor ie _... temporary of boards, xv. 3. 6... Coralline recks, XVIil, .2- Sg Corn ripened in froft, xvi- 3 ... ripened fooner by We XV. 3. Corols are refpiratory organs, iv. 5 = Vil. “i Borleions of feeds, ix. 1. 3. Couch-grafs, xvill. I. SS fea-cale, xiv. 2: 4. Vili. T. 3. XIX 4. @rsaked trees to ftraighten, XVlily 2. Te Euticle, or exterior bark, XViil. 2. Ts may be feratched, xviii. 27 Is Cyder, xiv; 2. 9. additional. note xi. D. Deity, benevolence of, XIX. 7. 3% Degeneracy of grafted.trees, Vil, Ie 3s, X¥e Ie 1, Xiv. Dew- drops; formof, xiil. I. 5.’ Dibbling wheat, XVE. 2.2. Digeftion, experimient on, xvi. 6.22 Difeafes of plants, xiv. ..eeee hereditary, xv. I. 4. a a experiment:on stiede digeftion, xvi. Double flowers, duration of, xix. 19; -eaceeevss tO produce, Vilk I. 3.° xix. Dooghe, excefs of; xiv. 2. Is Draining lands, xi. I. Drill-machine. improved,’ xii. 5+ and ‘Ap» et print of, Appendix at the end “of the Drill- din thanilfy. ix. 3. 7 XV, 2. Js Drill-hufbandry, advantage of, %-. 136 S34: XiL. 5: Nc ae ace SOR CUPDIpS, XIV. 3+ 5: Dry- rot of timber, to prevent, XVill. 2. 5» Dunghill water, xvi, 8. 3. Dwarf fruit-trees, XV. I. 3. XVi 2 % Dyeing matters, XVii. 3», 5+ XVil 2. Ie ee Ei Ear fungus, XVil- 2. 5: a its fertility from want of: rain, X.- Electricity, xii. 3. affeOts lants, viii. f, XIV. 2. Ze points to animate dew, Xiil. 3. he pendulum | doubler of; xiii, 3. 5-- fin: ‘ea bark of, XVit. 3. 3s ny 3 Evaporation of water injurious, ‘Xx. 3. esa ome no bleedin a 1X. Qs Qe’ e by ingraftment, XiXs BeBe Excrement are ants, add. note vil. Exportation of grain, XV1. a Ie Exfudatio miliaris, xiv. 1. Fy Fallowing, ufe of, xil. = Faft-days,-.ufe of, xv Q. T. Fatnefs, how to produce, xiv. 2. 833 Fermentations, x. 8.2. XV}. 3. 46 Figs fall off in flower, xv. 3. 4 pinch off their fummits, XVI. F »».. comprefs.them with wire below, xVs 4: wound them with'a 7 ee XV. 30 Ae Fire-flues in garden walls, xv. Fith propagated for manure, X. LO. 4 Flax: LAN “Fiax, dinwm, xvi i. 3.7%. Flewk-worm in Geen, xiv. 2, 8. additional note v. Flies, how to poifon, vi. 6. 3. Floods i injurious, oe ee Pe «Flooding meadows, art i, Kin 2: Flower- Ina s.terminal, “eee eres aiid: ae leaf- buds, ix. 7 Jae ie Flowers require | lefs eater, oe a XV e+e. enlarged by deftroying the XLV. 3° 3. I. 4. vi. leaves, es eee ccaufes of their colours, xix. 1.2. ee.eee.s to render double, xix. 2. 1. ...» double:ones from feeds, xix, I. I. Piuci. cubic {par, X. 5: 2s -.... ufeful in agriculture, x. 5. 4, Fluxus umbi licalis, ap- PHO lit, 2. 25 cols oOifeafe Of; Xiv. 1.9. Fogs injurious, xv. 3. «+. dafhed againft ares xv. 3. 6. Food of plants or manures, x. «+s. of young vegetables, x. 1. 9. of adult vegetables, re te we Fow!s, how fattened, xiv. 2. 8 Free-mafons, xvili. 2. 5 Froft ripens:corn, x. 3. 9. ..».» black or rimy,. Xill.-2<2. .... deftroys by expandin ig fluids, xiii. 2. 2. owe es feparating fluids, xiii. 2. 2. xv. by decreafing irritability, Xllis 23 2s 2. Re 28 ne ies the fap.juice, xiii. 2 ..++ deftroys the old and infirtiiy: » Xfils2- 2s ES a the children of the poor, xiii. 2. can oe to be faved in fnow, xiii. — 2. are a on folutions, KV. .4s 1. KA 25 2. X. 9 ee ie it deftroys - life, Xi. r XWV..:4. Te » 3 ae roots out of the ground, xviii. ee vaifes the fmall. pebbles of gravel walks, XVill. I. I. «..» makes clay’ more folid, xv. 4. I. x. 7° I. eB »+.+ prevented from injuring meadows, xi. Zeus DE xX. : Fruit wounded, ripens fooner, x. 8. 1. xv. 3.7. XIV. 2. Qe 7 ....» to preferve in ice-houfes, xvil. 2. 4. xvi 9. 3: ; .. to raife good from feed, xv. Ie I. . to preferve by heat, xv. F . when ripe, to Mleceon Add. note x. . deftroyed by ee bees. why? meg Fungi, xvil. 2. 5. .. grow without light, xiil. I. 4. xv. 3. e. Mees eee -are of animal origin, TW Be ; eee animals without locomotion: XVil. xi 4 .. are nutritious, xix. 6. I. Furrows and ridges, xvi. 2. 2+ G; Gangrena, canker, xiv. Garden, beft fituation- of, xiii, 2. 2. xy. 3.9. Garden-walls with flues, xv. 3. 6. Garden-mould, x. 4. 3. Generation, vegetable, vii. 3. ies tas Re lateral, VA. Feds Vile 3: os : . fexual, vii. 2. I. Vile 3-10. Glide af vegetables, vi. Gldis, “329.2: oe »s5 ane fand far, 43) 24, a hates of wheat nutritious, xix. 2+ +eee defttoyed by iernentalion. XVI. 7. Ts Goofeberry-trees, . ope xiV. 3. eee ee fuckle, xv. 3 5. Gout,, xix. I. I. Granaries, xvi. 7. I. Grain, prefervation of, xvi. 4. Grafts and so fecrete from the fame bloo KV 4. Graffes peer by flooding, xi. »esees preferved from froft by Tosdiigy: xi. gs ++... when beft for hay, xi. 3. 1. . fters and roots of, ix. 1. 6. . have no nectary, ix. 1. . fix minis for meadows, xviii. 1. I. »..+.. three kinds for paftures,, XVIisd. Fs eeds of, XVi, 2. 3. Xvili. Z. I. G 1X, 2. 23 eoeeseree? rowth Ta.N= DU EY: X35 ae of turnips does not impoverith land, Scetaeof trees, its boundary, xviii. 2. 14. Gum, effufion of, Ms prevent, xiv. I, 10. Gypfum, x. 5. 3. x. 5. 4. oid:s Vio o WE magnelia, x. 6 esveese how to be ufed, Add. note iv, Hi. Habits of plants, xiv. 1, I. xix. 2. I, Hair- powder, vi. Happinefs of organized nature, xix. 7. I. Harrogate water as a manure, X. 4. 7. Harrow to extraét roots, xviii. I. I. Harrowing wheat in {pring, xil. 7. Hawthorn-hedge from fcions, i. 1. Xv. I. +3e ae nahin be cut young, xi. 3. 2. XxViil. lakes two thirds of its weight, XVill, I. I. ° injured by = XVill, I. I .. making, xviii. I. I. Sea is lifelefe, 1X. 2. 10. - -+...fmall force of, v. 3 Heat, ufe em vegetation, ix. I. 3. xiii, 2. 25: STS e+. internal “of apie Xlll.e 2. 3s from dunghills, x «eee combined, - xiii. 2. +1. variations of, wholefome, xiv. 1. I. . above 212 preferves flefh, XVil. 2. Aa Hedgehogs- -ufeful in — XIV. 3. 3: 4- Helianthus tuberofus, Hepar of carbon with Goie Hehe. Hereditary difeafes of plants, xix. I. I. Xix. —*, Hills ploughed horizontally, x. 11. 1. x, Hocing after the corn has bloffomed, . xy. “horfe- -hoeing, ix. 3. 7. xii. 5. Boe! hoeing, xii. 5. Sie y a Honey, Vi. abe a differs from fugar, v. 6. ». 2... food of anthers and igor, Vil. 2.4. wosee Gew, dil, 2. 8s xiv. yo~xiv. ae Ho ops, bogbean inftead of, xviii. Piige Hotbeds turned over heat again, x. 8. 2, Hydrocarbonate gas,~x. 8. 2. ~ pa escosseecee ON roots, 3 om a ecveceeeee NOt by flower-buds, ne oseccvcsees With mature buds, xy. ¥. 2. I. & J. arcane €s : Lee: good? Xvi. Q, I. Indi - 5: Individaality oF leaf-buds, i. I. .» Of flower-buds, i. 4. Ingrafting, iil. 2.7. XV. I. 4. = i Soaps aesoeosevedve {triped plants, Vv. I. hex Ds 23 ecoccees Of different genera of plants, xv. fauatien, ee Fare < =IO; why in acene life 23 7, che Infeets | propagated for manure, x. IO. 3. ations of, xiv. 3. to dettroy, xiv. 3. 3. Joints — IX. 3. I. XVli. 3. 3. onge: uil, xix. 3.2 Irritability, vegetable, Vill. 2. oct teees Mledtes Of, Kins tf; is Land to eftimate. See Soil, Lateral progeny, vii.1. 1 eee refembles ta parent, vil. I. 3. - degenerates, vii. 1. Lead ‘cortoded by oak- boards, ING Se Leaf-buds converted into flower-buds, ix, C Vash ‘ Leaves are lungs, «eee. deftroyed to produce flowers, ix. Re PEY: »+++. withered ones firft eaten, xiv. a. ++eee enrich foil by carbonic acid: X77 -+++. turn red in autumn, xv. 1. 4. Lemon-trees ingrafted, xv. I Lichen rang iferinus, Xlll. 2. 2. Light, ufe of in vegetation, xiii. 1. »+++. excels of injurious, xiv. 2. 4. »+++. from rotten wood, x. 2. 1. rom re{piration, x. 2.7. get of, injurious, xiv, 2. 4 eeeve e239 b+ 4 Lightning I N°’ D- E X. Lightning i sa bg wheat. fields, xiv. 2. 3. oys by excels of ftimulus, xiv. ” pone 2 ... by burfting vegetable veffels, xim. 3 yay . how to, prevent, xiv. 2. 3. tise fin of, x..6. Add. note xi. »ses.» promotes stations Xi 6.5 ee oS the ripening of grain, x. 6. + XI. Se » ~Gilblves carbon,. % 4. 7- » +++ contains phofphorus, x. 5. 5+ X 6. °3. »eee. ufe of burning it, x. 4. 8. sees emits; heat, x. 4. 4 »».e flaked with boiling water, x. 4. 4. . ++ broken into powder by fteam, X. 4. -4e »eeee Of New walls is long moift, why. ie ee aes nourithes plants, x. 4. 6. . approaches. to tuidity, X. fe &.. Xe ». 6. ne DE bees is. half magnefia, x. 6. 8. Add. n : jeeabs the cohefion of clay, x. 7. 7+ Livers of ¢ poets XIV Loamy foil, x. 4 3, Lop nut trees early i in fummer, ix. 2. Q. Lolium perenne, xvii. Lycoperdon, puff-ball, x 64 Luxury in flefh-food = ale, XVi. Q I. M, Machines for raifing water, xi, 3. 6, ; Hiero’s fountain, »1. os ae oes by. new horizontal ‘windmill, Xke 3. 6. Madder for colouring ——: XVii. Qe. 2e Magnefia with gypfum Malt, its goodnefs i how > xvi. 6. = Manganefe as a manure, x. oes 2 Manures, py where i x, 8. remical, ee se oe application O,. xen when to be applied, x asveeeeee ECONOMY of. its sclcnee. X. so eeeeee Which, molt nutritive, X12. 4» Marle, prodaéiion of, X. fin 3 Seb ks . 5. 5- “s crumbles in - ain, wing? %. 2. -3 Marine acid, iP . plants peti liquid, vii. 2. 2. Mafonry, whence the myftenies. of, . xvii. 2» Se Meadows, flooding of, xi. 3. ies awes eat late in fpring, xviii. I. I. Menyanthes ufed for, hops, xviii. 1. 5. Xb Misc bth ais Michel’s ies OF raifing witles, XW. I. 3, Mildew, to. prevent, xiv. T. 2 Mifery i is not immortal, x. 7. 1. Mitts injurious, xv. 3. dathed againft trees, xv. 3: Gs Moitture, ufe obi in vegetation, ie. TP. %, weeee exces of, xiv. Moles, to delens, XV. 4.-3. Mole-plough, x1. f. ue * Bik 10te xil. Monfters, vegetable, ix. 2. 11 1 vegetable and. animal, vii. Se ¢: 8. 13x01, Macca of paft felicity, xix. 7. 3 ~caedslae ope OF Galton nal life, in 24H: és ct eae oe OE ee vegetable life, xvill. 2. Mora Monts sppreael to > animals, xWli. 2. 5. » +2. converted into fat, xvil. 2. 5. Mofs- rofe, its armour, xiv. Mould, xiv, 1.2, See Mucor. Mucilage, Mucor, or ea grows without light, xiv. . By: ANE 34:5 secre poifaned by vinous aie XV. A. » 2 he Malberry leaves, xvili. I. 2 -oeeeees fruit by ingrafting, xv. I. I. Mule- beans, vii. 2..6. : — . cabbage, Vil. 2.. 6. o oe 0 e peasy, XVI. . triple vegeible Vis 2. 2% : Mules, — vii, 2, 7% aioe PaaS ES eae Necitee _ ogatahtesl Viil.. I Muthrooms, ofianimal origin, xvii, 2. ¢: «eee ee approach to animal nature, XIX. 633 Muthrooms: \ i-N.D E * Mufhrooms conduct Galvanifm, xvii. 2. 5. one, XVil. 2. § N. Nerves of vegetables, viii. 1. Nevil-Holt water 8. _ Nitre, produétion of, Nutritious parts of Vegetables, e621: Nut-tree twigs their armour, xiv. 3. 2. Nearest am ik: 2. 8. kvl. 2. 2. elumbo eaten in Chin, xi. 2.5. se eevee O. Oaks and willows why barked in fpring, iii. 5: XVI. 3° 2. . fhould ad felled in winter, fii. §.1 8. XVlil. . barked ihe BY more flower- buds, - oe is see isl. 7. t: years old, Oats lefs profitable coeenies than beans, xvi. 6, 2, . improve by keeping, Xvi. pe 4. Ochre red, as a manure, x. 7. Oils effential, agreeable or aoHfehons, vi. ; teas in a boiling heat, xvii. 2 5. .... ufed to poifon weapons and pools of water, Vi. - 3: sxe Gmpre reffed, not narcotic, vi. 4. 2. Old corn preferable e to new, xvi. 6 4, Onions, roots of, tx. 3. sf esses magical, ix. Orange bears by ingratit rs ee oe © Orchis = falep, xvi. 3. 4. Xvii. I. 5: . .». how to ripen the feeds, 173.2. Sh a of reproduction, vii. . lateral in buds, vii. r. . fexual in flowers Owls fhould be ee pla xiv. 4. I. Oxydes of metals, x I. Oxygen, xX. 2. X. 7. 2. nas im rain water and in fnow, * Oxygen in vegetable fluids, whence? x. — —— carbonic acid, x. 4. 8. xiil Seeks "fm dctorbpated water, X. 3.4, aie iS Pe toolely combined in nitre, x. 8. 4. c.seee. Promotes vegetation, xX. 2. 8. . eee abounds by etiolation, xix. I. es = pants by excefs, Xiv. 2. 7. . as a caute of irritabi Sag xiv. es. Gitgenaea muriatic acid, x. So 5- perfpirable eather xii. I. P, Papin’s digefter, x. 9. 3- Papyrus, xvil Paring and buraing, a9. d. Pafturage compared to agriculture, Xvi. g. 1. a in vegetation at Midfurnnter, iii. 2. 8. - 2.9. repre: in part decorticated, ix. 2. 10. xv. 2. 3: wseeess compreffed by wire, xv. 3.4 o.e-ee. bears at the extremities, why? =. ee eer ‘ . tipens by baking, x. 8. f. Peas grow in water, xi. 3. 4. . rows of from fouth- ealt to north-wefty Xill. Fae eee. contain more meal than oats, xvi. 6. 2. . mule, vil. 2. 6. xvi. 4. I. . their pods nutritious, xi, 3. 2. *onomical provendér, xvi. 6. 2. Penetrability of foils, x Perfpiration vegetable oxygenated, xiii. 1. 4. Petals are re{pitatory organs, iv. §. I. Vii. oo, in rotten wood, x. 5. F. in all vegetables x, ¢. 3: . hejer of, ; ives fotkdicy to timber, x. 5. 6. Phofphate ye Nnmd, Ke. S. F. 9. n the glutén of wheat. Additional @eeseveereoe Pignnt, toc, XViie FT. 3s 4K2 Pinee IN D Pine-apple cultivated in water, xv. 3. 4. Piping buds, ix, 2. 1. Pah like t brain or fpinal marrow, i. 8. ix. 2. 13: aceneat veffels of buds, il. 4. iii, 2, 6. esr pe 3 ‘ egos, ili, I. 4. Plants live longer if prevented from flower- ing, Vil. I. 3. * Plant trees fhallow in the foil, xv. 2. Plough for draining, Te ESF drill, xii. 5. a east , xi. 1.7. Add. note xi, Ploughing if iD: ‘idee Sed eh. > Se. wheat in fpring, ‘<7. Pinme of feed alcends, why? x. ISAs oems. See Pojnts liberate air pace water, Xill. I. 5. Poifon of yew. leaves, xiv. 3. 2. »+ee. Of euphorbium, vi. 8. 3. etables, xiv. 2. 7. Poifonous exhalations, xiv. 2, 6. olypus, ix. 3. I. Potatoes, early ones, xvii. I. 3. oceevee Curled ones; 1X, 2. 45 x¥i. aseees aerial ones, xvil. «eee increafed by tranfplanting, ix. 3.7. r++. increafed by pinching off the flow- Cis, -1X:: 4, 3. KVM. FE 2, Seas better fet in drills, XVI. 2. 2. -oee.. toripen the feed, xvi. g 4. - +++ how to improve, Xvi. 5. I. ».+e. to boil in fteam, x. Be »..... to boil mealy, x Sark v5.0 ICE DY betas oe on i ‘ain, ¥:0;2. XVii. 2. 4. A ee reac ol vi. 3. Sexiness y be planted whole, xvii. I. 2. Pottery, Breeden lime for, x. 6. Prefervation of fruits, xv. 4. I. cae ch cae OF eee he tad Ee a roots by cold: and by heat, td 3 a XV Prove of nature to perfection, xx, 2. xiv. ‘3:4 Propagation of good trees, ix. 3. 7. Props for pennants S trees, XVill. 2, II. X. Putrid exhalations, x. 4. 2° 5.4. Be 4 EB X. Raddle as a aR > ey ae Radithes to procure early, xvii, I.. Te Rafts of hollow Seis de XVill. 2. 10. Rain contains oxygen, xill. 2. 2 .... injures the Sates “dutt, x. iy Rats to deftroy, xiv. 4. 2. .... are liable to the tape-worm, Xiv. 4. 2, Red leaves in autumn, xv. I. 4. Rein-deer mofs, xiii. 2 Refin elaftic from eo of holly MVLs, 24 25 .. of wheat-flour, vi 8. Nils Be Refpiration of animals, x. 2. eseeeeeee Of plants requires light, Mile Ee »seeeeeee Of plants not in their fleep, iv. 5. 5: ie ; of glow-worms is luminous, x. 2. Rheum hy bridum, mule rhubarb. Additional otes 1. and li. Rhubarb roots when to be taken up, xvii. Xill. 2. I. ooeese leaves deftroyed by mud. Additional note i. Rice in Valencia, xi. 3.4. ... grounds, x.3. 9. Ridges and. furrows, x. 3: 7. XVi. 2. Qe wee. advantages of, xvi. 2. 2. Rime perpendicular or lateral, xv. 3. 6, w.e+ frofts and black fotin.. Mili. ards Rings of timber concentric, xvili. 2, 12. nt: of fruit by wounding it, xiv. 2. 9, X. 8, 2. XV: . todifcover. Additional note x. Roll Ws in fpring, xi. 8. Roots defcend, why? ix. 1.3, xv. 2..4+ isle So aL Moses, iX. 2. Q. ¢ «aso. Gecay eee ee 1X. 3.5. oe... end-bitten, ix. 3. 5. as nee be chadked up for ing, XV. 2. 4. sas fen, wounds of the bark, aos ss CHOlatiOn Of, XVil,.2, 1, tranfplant- iXs-8> J. »»es inocu +++» propagation, ix. 3. 5 .».. feions for planting, xv. I. 2. Rofe plaintain, ix. 2. 11. Rofes to forward, xvi. 2. 5. »»e.». double ones, XIX. 2. 1 Rot of timber, ii. 2, 3. ix. 2. 8. xviii. 2. 5s Rot IN DE xX Rot of theep, xiv. 2. 8. Additional note v. Rubia tinGtoria to colour cheefe, KVil, 2. Je Rubigo, ruft, a difeafe, xiv. 1. 3. Rye-grafs, xvi, 6, Is XVI. 1.1. 5. Saccharine procefs in malt, x. 8. eeeeeeee may exift beneath the ee X. is weeeeeee in baked pears, x. 8. 1 .,..~ how haftened in fr ait XIV. 2. 9. Sage- -leaves for tea, xvill. I. 4- Sagoe from the palm, xviii .... from artichoke ftalks, xix. 4. I. Salep, or ahy XVi. 3.4. XVil. I. 5. Salt marine as a etl Xe 7.5: .«. asa-condiment, x Sand fine white near Babs, xi. 8s 3s 8, ... from herbaceous plants Add. note x. eee component parts of, Scarcity, food in times is X. 9. Ae Scarifier, xvill. I. I. Scions from roots, Xv. I. 2 .. +e for grafting, xv. I. 4- ....e for planting, xv. I. 3. Sea- cale, how to a Xiv. 2. 4: Secretions = vegetables, oe eeu the raft a {tock different, xv. I 2 apes ee m, a difeafe of, xiv. I. 10 Secret concerning fruit-trees, ix. 3.2. Seeds before impregnation, vii, 9. I. vil. oe . growth of, plume none {fet % ve IX. E. 3 root downwards, why ! > ix production of, xvi. ae fteeped in dunghill- -water, xvi. 8. 3. teas ass hay fpoiled by fermentation, xX. > 7s pe ot wheat fpoiled by fermentation, xv. (Ey Sees of wheat, how to preferve, xvi. 7. I. ...» of wheat, how improved, xvi. 5. 1. »..» of potatoes and orchis to ripen, XVis 3° 4° Seeds difperfion of, vil. »»++ change of not ee 5,1 .+»+ when ripe to arty Add. note x. ...» how to preferv e, xvi. 7. 6. ...~ fhould be fown foi after ploughing, Xx. 7+ 5: ‘ ..s Tequire oxygen, Xi. I. 5. Seedling trees, XV. I. I. Senfes of vegetables, vill. 6. Senfibility of vege tables, vill. 3s Sexual generation, Vil. I. 7s progeny, Vil. Bawa ¥ infects, ix. Sheep, flewk worm of, XIV, 2. On Showers injurious, x. II. I. Shepherd kings, xvi Shrubberies of man tberriee. XVill. I. 2. Silkworms fed: with afh-leaves, XVili. a Situation for a garden, Xv. 3. 5. Xlil. 2. 2 Slaughter-houfe of nature, ee 6. 5. Sleep of — iv. 5. 5- Slugs, x Smoke and ee of poifonous plants, xiv. 3. 2 Smut of wheat, vii. 2. 2. XiV: I. 5+- XVI. o. Smyrna wheat, XVI. 4.4; Snails and Slugs, xiv. 3. 5. Snow contains oxygen, xiil. 2. Soap-ftone fteatites, x. 6. 8. Soils to analize. Add. note ix. sea stony burning them. Add. note ix. . by their fpecific gravity. Add. note ix. .. by their native plants. Add. note.ix. .... cracks in them, to prevent, Xv 2. Soup lefs nutritive than the folid ex : 4 ae Sone a orate, how to deftroy, XVilil. I. I. Sow thick for herbage, xviii. ».». early on wet foils, x. 3. 6, xvi. 8. Is ieee = a the plough, x. 6, 5. oe piritous liquor, xvi. g. 1. Add. note xi. m roots, xvii. I. I ony ig ag foc barks, xvii. 3. 3. . from pts xvi. 1.6. Springs origin of, xi. all- (priaes wat ‘pipe- fprings, Xi. eeeoeeee? are sesees how to difcover, xi, I. 12. Spur LN. Dp ke Spur of rye, ergot, xiv. 1. 4. Stacks of hay, ¥. 11. 7. Xvill. ¥. J. vce ur ‘grain, to preferve, EVI. 7,4; Starch, vi. 3. xvi. 3. ix. I. A Steam, als of in cookery, xi . ...» etiolates fome vegetables, ae Oe € Beatie San {tone, x. Stigma bends to the ater, Vii; 3,2 Straw chopped with green food, XViii. [. I. Strawberries, xv. ae bat fe 4 Pe oe Suffufio mellita, "honey de WY.1. 7: Sugar, vi. 5. x. 8. 1. xix . fugar = fap-juice of ‘herbs tional note > aoucs « TRAY safare the teeth, vi. 5. 2. ons os Ral my Malt. d. note x. »+++- feparated from mucilage, vi. s. Addi- 3. XK. > tom beats and carrots, xvil. I. 1. ce Eerie nutritious, XIX Sweat miliary, xiv. r. 8. Swine-troughs moveable, x. 11. 6. Swilear oak, XVill. 2. 16. sg Tennant on limes, Add. note xi. ‘Tanning, SVU. @ 5. ‘Tape-worm in water-rats. Add. note viii. Tar-water deftroys fome infects, xiv. 3. 5. ‘Tea recommended, xviii. Tellure or tiller, xvi. oF -— XVi. 3: 3. Xi. 7. Teucrium feorodonia, wood-fage, xviii. FAS Thiftles, to deftroy, xiv. 1.9. Additional note x1. Thunder fhowers, xiii. 3. 2 Tiller, or tellure, xii. 7, xvi, 2. 2. ‘imber, concentric rings ee xVHl. 2. 12. sciuss Tot. of, te prevent, XVIll.. 2. 5. vs<.. DOW decompdled, XVill. 2. 1 »eeeee Political to chltivate, 3 XVI. 2. ‘Is. weeeee durability of, xviii. = e Trees T aniplantation of wheats 1S. 3...7. Xii. 62 Tranfplantation of trees at Midfummer, ix. 9. coceccccescs Of SPU trees, 2¥..2. 4. aun. a 11 . setceoeeee Of timber trees, XVili. 2. 11. ewan ; - not too deep, = PS ee Pa Fis estes »eee+ Of turnips, ix. 3. 5. xii. 6. env hes » + Of brocoli, xv. 2. 4. xix, ae ereceoveseey Of ftrawberries,iv. Trees crooked, haw to ftraighten, | xviii. a. ¥, -+..+. fmeared with pitch die, iii. 2. 6. «+--+» donot bleed in fummer, i Mik 2-5. w«ee. triple by ingraftinent, vii. 3. 1. ..... their fize bounded, xviii. 2. 1 -+++. to make tall and flraight, xviii. free OF «.... to make them — xviii. 2.23 Bete Boies to fell, iii. 2. . 2. 8. xviit. 248: Seo waning’ when large, how, xviii. 2 BE: «+... tranfplanted, how to prop, xviii. aS GS Trefoil, xviii. 1. 1. pee pratenfe & repens, Xvili. I. 1. Truffle, a tuber, xvil. 2. 5. Tulip, xv. 1. 1. << 5 eed is ‘five years before it flowers, ix. i. ae X.g-1 vere x tOls when coloured, xix. 1. 2. Tull’s hufbandry, 9. 3. p. xvi. 2. 2. ~«++. advantages of, xii. Turnips fowed deep in drills, XIV. 3. 5. ++e+++ do not impoverith the foil, why, xii. 3. -+s,+. tranfplanted, ix. 3. 5. xii. 6. anise by-the fly, -xiv. * 5. Turpentines, vi. 8. Tuffocks of gr ab, how to deftroy, -x. 6. 7. NVI. I. I ye Bate “how to difcover its goodnefs, xvi. mv weceee fow two kinds of, xvi. 8 ~.eeee caudex of producesother items, ix.. ps sevees caudex injured by infects, xiv. 3. meee. - dibbling of, Xvi. 2, 2 os eaten down by theep, i 1X. 3. 7. XVin FS é .. dried on a kiln, Mi. 5, 3; .«»+ hoarded by mice .4 Ww a pats of flowers from copenione - 3: WwW ‘lowe ae iX.. 2.10 Winds, fouth-weft iicbeoas, xv. 3. 6. »seeee north-eaft injurious, xv. 3.6. b Be Ao NAD ER; Wines, means to fine them.. Add, note x. Worm of fheep, xiv. 2.8. Add. note vy. an dd Woad, xviii. 1 ounds of trees bleed in fpring, iii. 2. 2. Wood, to increafe, xviii. 2. 1. ¥v. 2. eveeee durability of, xviii. 2: 7. xviii. 2. 14. eeeeeee imbibe fluids in fummer, v, 3. 2 eee eee of the bark, xvii. 3. Io. 5 ereeees Upper lip only grows, i. 3. Wood-fage, teucrium {corodonia, xviii. 1. 6... 6. of fruit by infects, xiv. 2. 9: sseeeee by caprification, xiv, 2: 9. THE END. ERRATA. Page 139, line laft but one, read diftinguithes, for diftinguith. “—— 121, line 14, for from, read form. ———= §28, line laft but two, for fo, read no. DIRECTIONS TO THE BINDER. Pleafe to put Plate I. and the Explanation of it, facing each other, - at the-end of Seétion I. between pages 8 and 9, Plate II, at the end of Seé&. II. between p- 18 and 19, Plate III. at the end of Se. IN. between. p. 38 and 39. Plate IV. at the end of Se&. IX. between p. 182 and 183. Plate V. VI. VII. at the end of Sect. XI. between p. 282 and 283. Plate VIII. at the end of Se&. 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