1816.] ’ the Wide Mouth Shoal. 443 
Knoll called Tillum, and the Grove near Hollywell on with the 
Chalk Pit and three Bergs. 
Marks for avoiding the Shoal.—In coming up the Channel, and 
when round Beachy Head, where is a spot called Greenland, keep 
this spot open with the Bluff Head, and steer E. and by N. by the 
compass, you will avoid the shoal, and fetch Dungeness Light- 
house. 
Bring either of the three windmills on with the sea houses at 
East Bourne, and there is good anchorage in hard blue clay, and 
safer riding than at Dungeness. 
ArticLe VI. 
On the upright Growth of Vegetables. By John Campbell, of 
th Carbrook, F. R.S.E. ‘ 
(Read to the Wernerian Society.) 
To what physical cause are we to ascribe the upright growth of 
vegetables? It is owing, perhaps, to our familiarity with this ap- 
pearance, and its obvious subserviency to the grand purposes effected 
by vegetable production, that so little attention has hitherto been 
directed to the solution of this interesting question. Ever present 
to our observation, invariable and noiseless in its progress, vegetation 
moves on unheeded. We admire the elegance of the slender flower, 
and almost reverence the grandeur of the lofty tree; but we think 
not of inguiring by what agency they are elevated above the mass 
of earth in which they germinate. 
Some vague and gratuitous conjectures have indeed been long ago 
' offered upon the subject. An affinity for air, for light, or some 
other favourite aliment, has been deemed sufficient explanation of 
the phenomenon ; but such conjectures, directly contradicted as 
they are by facts, discoverable even on a slight examination, could 
never have maintained their ground, had the question ever been 
brought into general discussion. Even in the present day there are 
still some of our philosophers who are not weaned from their pre- 
dilection for the agency of light; and on their account it may be 
proper to remark that, whatever may be the true cause of the up- 
right growth of vegetables, it is demonstrable that affinity for light 
is not that cause ; for, although light may be requisite for the 
_ vigorous growth of plants after a certain period, it has been found 
to be of no advantage, if not hurtful, to them in the earliest stage 
of vegetation; and, what is quite decisive on the point, is the fact 
that in all stages of vegetation plants will grow without light, 
though they do not grow vigorously; and as their growth, when 
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