256 Mrs. Ibbetson on the [April, 



to be of exactly the same colour as the earth in which they are 

 found, nearly resembling the bark in their structure, and decay- 

 ing in the same way ; for that substance will seldom bear the 

 Contact of the earth, which quickly dissolves and putrefies it. 

 I took up a quantity of these underground plants, and picked 

 them oat from the mould ; but when placed in a very little earth, 

 in a few days they had all disappeared ; the richer the earth is, 

 the more of these plants are discovered in it. The only thing 

 that arrests their growth, is the hard baking of the soil on the 

 surface, which, preventing the air from reaching them, blinders 

 their springing up. I had thorough conviction of this, after 

 trying a baked and gravelly soil ; scarce any underground plants 

 could be found ; but when I discovered a large crack in the same 

 earth, I examined the soil, and it was full of them, as far as the 

 opening reached. 



It is, therefore, to this species of plant the soil is indebted for 

 the greatest part of its richness, and not to the woody plants of 

 the upper ground, which seldom bestow manure worth having, 

 unless it is in an almost uninhabited country, where the woods 

 rot and die away, having, perhaps, a century in which to consume 

 and return to their state of mould : then, indeed, they silently 

 pass through all those various processes, which having for along 

 space the assistance of air, form savannas almost too rich for 

 agriculture. But this requires such a length of time as can only 

 be had in an almost uninhabited region. 



I shall now show the effect of the trench in which I put a 

 variety of plants. After an interval of three months, I opened it 

 carefully on June 1 ; there was no alteration except in the weeds 

 and grasses ; the first had thrown out suckers ; the grasses, a 

 poor miserable set of roots which ran among the earth ; all the 

 branches of trees were alive ; the cabbages, carrots, &c. See. all 

 in a perfect state of preservation. The next opening was in 

 September. Still all was alive and well ; but the weeds had 

 again thrown out suckers, though before cut off, and the grasses 

 spread upwards. The branches were in the same state as before, 

 the leave* of the cabbages began to look brown and moist, and 

 a degree of fermentation seemed to have commenced. The 

 third opening was in November: all the leaves had fallen from 

 the brandies, but they were still alive : the weeds had not sprung 

 up again, but they were still existing, though if they had been 

 exposed to the open air they would not have been so : the earth, 

 therefore, would certainly appear to possess the power of sus- 

 pending their decomposition, and rendering the process far more 

 slow and torpid than it would be under ordinary circumstances. 

 The cabbages, which were before in a state of fermentation, 

 were now evidently advancing to putridity ; but it was only the 

 leaves that were undergoing this change ; for the stalks (though, 

 i) were yet still perfect. The original potatoes w r ere also 

 beginning to decay ; but the roots were alive with little fibres. 



