' 320 On the Food of Plants. 
Thus, it appears, that in both sets of experiments the re- 
sults were similar. 
From these facts, compared with other facts with which 
we are conversant, such as the flowering of bulbous roots in 
water, and more especially the vast increase of the withy- 
tree, recorded by Mr. Boyle, our attention is naturally turned 
in the first place to water, as the supposed nutriment of 
plants. 
In the experiments before us, both the cabbage and the 
wheat of No. 1. were well supplied with water; but in the 
space of six months the former had not increased in either 
weight or bulk ; and the latter, in eight months, produced 
only two miserable stems. 
In Catalonia, more especially in the vicinity of Barcelona, 
the soil is principally quartz, from decomposed granite; yet 
being well watered, and plentifully supplied with hight and 
heat, the crops of every kind are most abundant. 
M. de Saussure remarks, that ‘* we deceive ourselves ex- 
ceedingly when we imagine that the fertility of any district 
depends wholly on the nature of its soil, because abundance 
and scarcity in crops arise principally from the degree of 
heat and humidity in the air with the quantity and quality 
ef -the exhalations with which it is charged.’ He adds, 
**T have seen, in Sicily and Calabria, rocks and gravel arid 
and uncultivated, such as in Switzerland would have been 
altogether barren, which there produced more vigorous 
plants than are to be seen on the richest and best cultivated 
lands amongst the Helvetic. mountains *.” 
It is aarohieting to see, in a warm cliagate, the rapid 
growth of vegebibles when they are well supplied with water. 
The smallest cutting of a vine will, in the space of fifteen 
or sixteen months, cover the front of an extensive edifice, 
or form a spacious harbour from which the assembled family 
may gather in abundance of the most Juxuriant grapes. In 
such a situation the seeds of limes, oranges, and lemons, 
will, in four or five years, produce a shady grove; and mul- 
berry trees, when wholly stripped of their leaves for the na- 
* Voyage dans les Alpes, 1319. : 
triment, 
