JOURNAL 



OF 



NATURAL PHILOSOPHY, CHEMISTRY, 



AND 



THE ARTS. 



APRIL I7gg. 



ARTICLE L 



A Jiatical Ifiquiry ifiU the Source of Nutrition in Succulent Vegetables. By Mr. J. GoUGH.* 



Kendall, Feb. 7, 1799. 



s 



UCCULENT plants are commonly fuppufed to derive a greater proportion of nutriment 

 from the atmofphere, than vegetables of a lefs humid conftitution ; and this idea is fupported, 

 at leaft in appearance, by a fingularity in the economy of the plants under confideration. If 

 the fempervivum teclorum, or any of our indigenous fedums, be fufpended in the dry air of 

 a chamber, they will live for a long time ; whereas, other vegetables wither foon after their 

 conneilion with the ground is interrupted. Many perfons, attending to the preceding fadts, 

 and reafoning from analogy, have concluded, that fempervivum and fedum, with the reft of 

 the fucculent tribe, derive this fupply not from the earth but from the atmofphere, becaufe 

 they c^n fubfift independent of the former : but natural hiftory points out a fecond analogy, 

 which, although it is found in the animal kingdom, fliould not be overlooked, on account of 

 its ftridt coincidence with the foregoing deviation from the prevailing habits of the inferior 

 clafs of organized bodies. The chaineleon bears hunger for months together, when in con- 

 finement : this peculiarity, added to the difficulty of obferving it take its prey, perfuaded 

 the ancients that the reptile in queftion is nourilhed by the air alone, but the induftry 

 of later naturalifts -j-, has ihewn this notion to be falfe, by proving it to feed on flies } 

 and tliat the fame powers of abftinencc are. extended to ferpents, fpiders, and many more 



* Communicated by the author. f Vide Rail Synop. animalium Quadrup. 



Vol. III.— April 1799. B animals. 



