78 



THE GUIDE TO NATURE. 



most instructive method to connect the 

 main points of the theory of the nutri- 

 tion of plants, so far as they concern the 

 food materials, with the description of an 

 experiment in artificial nutrition made 

 with a highly organized plant. I think 

 that in this manner the essential and 



have added these three points : ( i ) Con- 

 venience of supplying the chemicals in 

 tahlet form. (2) Novelties in situations 

 of growing plants. ( 3 ) A germinating 

 case for scientific or popular observation 

 and experiment. 



This is how I came to use chemicals in 



A LUXURIANT EGG-SHELL GARDEN. 



Several common plants grown three feet tall from sawdust in egg-shell. Sawdust kept moist 



with water during germination and afterwards with the solution. 



important points come into view more 

 clearly than with any other mode of ex- 

 position. In the year i860 I published 

 the results of experiments which demon- 

 strated that land-plants are capable of 

 absorbing their nutritive matters out of 

 watery solutions, without the aid of soil, 

 and that it is possible in this way not 

 only to maintain plants alive and grow- 

 ing for a long time, as had long been 

 known, but also to bring about a vigor- 

 ous increase of their organic substance, 

 and even the production of seeds capa- 

 ble of germination." 



I have utilized all that this honored 

 botanist and others have recorded re- 

 garding artificial nutrition of plants, and 



tablet form for feeding plants. I was 

 familiar, as are most teachers of botany, 

 with Sachs' solution from experiments 

 made several years before in a university 

 laboratory ; but it took time for the sug- 

 gestion to arise that the solution could 

 be ustd aside from technical experi- 

 ments, and by anyone as a common 

 plant food. I bit one day light came. I 

 ordered some of the mixture in bulk, put 

 up loose in two-ounce packages. Later, 

 as I saw a physician leave tablets for 

 a oatient and heard him refer to the con- 

 venience of these over the old method 

 with powders and mysterious mixtures, 

 the suggestion came to mind — Why not 

 put up those nutrient chemicals in tab- 



