444 MISSOURI STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



the monastery garden have a peculiar interest; nor is the fact without 

 interest that the early missionaries of our race who converted Germany 

 to Christianity carried with them into the German garden and the Ger- 

 man language some of the English names for plants and flowers. — Ameri- 

 can Garden. 



elemp:nts essential to plant growth. 



Growth in the vegetable as well as animal kingdom is the result of 

 the consumption of food. All plants from the tiniest to the giant Red- 

 wood, take a portion of their food, organic, as well as the inorganic or 

 mineral elements, by the aid of water, from the soil and from the air, by 

 the pores in tneir leaves and branches. 



AIR AND WATER. 



The air, composed mainly of oxygen and nitrogen, is the com- 

 pound in which all plants live, and from which they derive a large por- 

 tion of their food. 



Water, composed of one equivalent of oxygen and one of hydrogen, 

 has some properties which deserve careful attention. Its powers as a 

 solvent, incorporating into its own mass, both gasses and solids, is truly 

 remarkable. It absorbs from the air a portion of oxygen, nitrogen, car- 

 bonic acid, or almost any other gaseous substance or vapor it may con- 

 tain. Its affinity for certain solids, as lime, ashes, clay, etc., is truly 

 wonderful, and the value of manures depends largely on their capability 

 of absorbing moisture. Water is the chief medium by which growth el- 

 ements are conveyed to the roots, and conveyed in the sap to all parts 

 of the plant structure. It also enters the leaf pores of every growing 

 thing. 



CARBONIC ACID. 



The compound formed by two equivalents of oxygen and one of 

 carbon, is called carbonic acid. Water absorbs a little more than its 



