328 On ike Roots differing in each Soil. 



a particular sort of wheat {Triticitm movncorcum) intheMysora 

 country, which was not suited to the soil, though it did admira- 

 bly higher up towards the Carnatic— obliged to ol)e\, all the 

 wheat that was produced was so tainted with blight, that it 

 yielded in a bushel not a quarter measure of flour. When for 

 want of other ground they are obliged to put a jilant into 

 clay instead of sand, they hll the holes where the seeds are to 

 be placed with sand, or strew the ground over with it to some 

 depth*, that the embryo of the plant, finding its on n soil, may 

 draw from it its vative juices, nor have to struggle with adverse 

 land, till, strong and vigorous, it is enabled to bear it. But they 

 sa}', " take what precautions they will, it is never equal to that 

 ivhich grows in its proper soil." I think I mav observe, that it 

 stands to reason that this must be the case ; and that, as every 

 plant has its favourite earth, it must grow better and finer, if 

 manured in that soil, than i?i. any other: and as Nature has been 

 so bountiful to us as to bestow a great variety of the necessary 

 plants, and adapted thoin to almost every soil ; should not our 

 industry snppli/ what remains to be done, and seek and fix the 

 plants suiting each ditrercnt sort of ground ? And would not the 

 person who did this be a belief actor to vunikind? The manner 

 in which our wheat is now tainted, calls aloud for some remedy; 

 ;ind the introduction of the immense number of vew ulteats 

 well accounts for the increase of this disorder; for they are placed 

 in any ground, nor the f|uestion thought of " From what soil 

 do they com.e?'* But I have strayed to farming again, when I 

 intended to pursue my presi^vt subject. — " The consequence that 

 must follow the proofs I have given of the leaves in part fccdii-g: 

 the plants." iV ■i-in..'ri<s ,-i^j,<; .v,;-, ■, • 



If the leaves contribute thtis to the nutriment of tlie plant, 

 ."ind that the water taken in by tlic hairs is decomposed, and con- 

 verted into oxygen and hydrogen, the first giveji out to purify 

 the air, and the latter secreted for the ii.se of ti:e seeds ; ho\v 

 can it be also retained to be given out in perspiration ? The plan 

 is perfectly contradictory ; and I wonder not that the inimitable 

 Mirbel expressed some doubts of its truth ! The idea therefore 

 of plants perspiring jj a 77z/,v^oyte ; and those figures taken for 

 bubbles of water given out of the plant, are on the contrary in- 

 struments beautifully adapted to the receiving and inhaling all 

 the various juices the atmosphere has to bestow, and convert 

 them into volatile oils, resins, and all the liquids the plant is 

 afterwards found to yield. But another argument appears to 

 ip.e still more to show the fallacy of the former opinions. It 

 was believed that the ^\'ater taken ^ from the dews and rains 



* Sec Biicl)annan. 



