260 Mrs. Ibbetson on the [April, 



where the wood at the second cutting of the leaves and stem is 

 quite green and soft ; but after it has stood a miserable log, ex- 

 posed to wind and water, and all sorts of weather, the wood 

 increases in strength and hardness till it becomes as hard as the 

 wood of a minor tree, such as the acacia, the oleander, &c. It 

 may, therefore, be truly said that, like the human body, the minute 

 vessels grow into solid fibres, and the vessels are no longer per- 

 vious to the juices, which becoming sweet and thickening, the flow 

 of the sap is much impeded ; and hence absorption and secretion 

 decrease with old age. The glands which, in the first instance, 

 afforded their assistance to the decayed parts, are no longer able 

 to act with vigour sufficient to remove the vitiated matter ; hence 

 the rot settles and increases, the line of life shifts from place to 

 place to avoid it, and grows injured and weakened ; and what is 

 of most consequence to the plant is, that the vital and muscular 

 strength lessens, and the vegetable is no more capable of that 

 mechanical power of action on which its health principally 

 depends. It is impossible for any person who has not examined 

 the interior of plants, to conceive what constant motion they 

 possess ; we must, therefore, look on them as an apparatus 

 adapted for the performing of a variety of chemical processes, 

 to which they are excited by their irritability, which, therefore, 

 must keep them in constant action, till the sort of torpor which 

 precedes death lessens that exertion. Placing them in the earth 

 greatly contributes to bring on this state by suspending the 

 proper process : with each fermentation they lose a certain por- 

 tion of latent caloric, which, when the last passes away at the 

 commencement of putrefaction, life itself goes with it. What 

 then is the life which disappears thus slowly, which becomes 

 extinct like a passing sigh ? does it pass off with the caloric, or 

 is it caloric itself, thus confined and made latent in the woody 

 part of the vegetable ? I am not competent to answer this ques- 

 tion ; still it is not possible to pass it over, in treating of the 

 nature of vegetables : the exposure to air makes the life evapo- 

 rate sooner, because it hastens its fermentation ; when hay 

 exposed to the dew throws off such a quantity of caloric, it is 

 then disengaging all that it possesses, and which has been con- 

 cealed in the various parts of the plant, and death ensues : if this 

 passes in the air, it is done so quickly as to fire the vegetable ; 

 but if under ground, it merely evaporates as the air or moisture 

 reaches it, and, therefore, requires an immense time : still death 

 is the consequence of both. Darwin, I believe, is incorrect 

 when he says that barley acquires not half its sweetness till after 

 life is extinct, and that this is the process that kills it ; but I 

 have repeatedly made barley grow after fermentation has taken 

 place. Every thing which injures the life of the plant brings on 

 the saccharine fermentation : thus pears and apples are gathered 

 to sweeten them. 



Many processes will bring on this first step towards putrefac- 



