Miscellanies. 181 



This article and the next, were translated by a lady and communicated by Mr. 



C. U. Shepard. 



2. New observations vpon the action of sulphate of lime. — The 

 sulphate of lime (plaster of Paris, or gypsum) is employed with great 

 success in agriculture. 



It is especially in the culture of sainfoin, as well as in other artifi- 

 cial meadows, that its good effects have been proved. The sainfoin 

 has even such an affinity with the lime, that the presence of the he- 

 dysarum onobrychis is almost always the indication of a calcareous 

 soil, as the colts-foot (tussilago farfara) is of the blue clay, the aren- 

 aria rubra of a thin gravel, and the wild sorrel (oxalis acetosella) of 

 the presence of iron. These are some of the botanical indications 

 which answer very well in the analysis of soils for agriculturists 

 in general. It does not appear nevertheless even to the present 

 time, that plaster has been of great assistance in horticulture. But 

 chemists are not agreed as to the manner in which the sulphate of 

 lime acts upon vegetation. In employing it, it is scattered with the 

 hand upon the crops when the leaves are in their full developement 

 towards the end of April, or the commencement of May, at a moist, 

 cloudy time but not rainy ; and those who perform the operation think 

 in general, that they administer a stimulant, while some suppose that 

 it is useful in obtaining for the leaves a favorable moisture; but the 

 clover and the sainfoin naturally contain in their stalks a considerable 

 quantity of gypsum, and when the soil appears tired of producing 

 these plants, it is commonly thought that the soil becomes exhausted 

 of its gypsum, and that it is no longer in a state to furnish to them the 

 necessary ingredient. This observation leads to the presumption al- 

 so, that the sulphate of lime enters, by a dose more or less consider- 

 able, into the composition of these plants. In this uncertainty, too 

 much publicity cannot be given to any experiments which are likely 

 to settle the question ; and this consideration engaged M. Bec- 

 querel, member of the Institute, to communicate to the Academy of 

 Sciences (in the session of the 7th of Nov., 1831) some observations 

 made by M. Peschier, Apothecary of Geneva, upon the influence 

 which the sulphate of lime exercises in vegetation. M. Peschier had 

 disposed two equal vases filled with silicious sand slightly moist, and 

 in each of which he had sown water cresses ; one of the vases had 

 been watered with pure water, and the other, with water containing 

 sulphate of lime in solution. Afterwards be reduced to ashes, the 



cresses of the two vases, which had vegetated during the same time, 



t 



