on Vegetation. i )j 



nous fubftances, I found that they were occafioned by the 

 Oxygenation of the fnow ; and that thefe effects were to be 

 afcribed to a particular combination of oxygen in this con- 

 gealed water. I put iooo grammes of fnow in ajar, and 

 iooo grammes of diddled water in another. I poured into 

 each of the jars an equal quantity of the fame folution of 

 turnfole. I placed both the jars in a warm temperature, and, 

 after the fnow melted, I remarked that the dye was redder 

 in the fnow water than in the diitilled water. I repeated 

 this experiment, and with the fame remit. I put into a jar 

 iooo grammes of diftilled water, and into another iooo 

 grammes of fnow. Into each of the jars I put 6*5 grammes 

 of very pure and clean fulphat of iron. In the lirft there 

 was precipitated 0*150 grammes of the oxvd of iron, and 

 o # oio grammes in the other. As theoxyd of iron was pre- 

 cipitated from a folution of the fulphat by oxygen;) it thence 

 follows, that the fnow contained more oxygen than the dif- 

 tilled water ; and it follows from the firft experiment, that 

 this quantity of oxygen was confiderable enough to redden 

 the tincture of turnfole. 



It is fully d« monftrated by thefe two experiments, that fnow 

 LS oxygenated water, and that it mult confequently have 

 on vegetation an action different from that of common ice. 

 The experiments of Dr. Ingenhoufs, on the germination of 

 feeds, have taught us that the prefenee and contact of oxv- 

 gen are abfolutely neceffary for the plant to expand. They 

 Jiave (hewn alio that the more abundant the oxygen is the 

 more rapidly will the feeds grow. Molt plants fuffercd to 

 attain to their perfecb maturity (bed on the earth a part pf 

 their feed. Thefe feeds, thus abandoned and expofed to the 

 action of cold, are prefcrved by the fnow which covers them, 

 at the fame time that they find in the water, it produces by 

 melting, a portion of oxygen that has a powerful action on 

 the principle of germination, and determines the feeds that 

 would have periflied to grow, to expand, and to augment the 

 number of the plants that cover the furfacc of the earth. 



A very 



