EXPERIMENTS ON THE GEOWTIl OF BEANS. 



38i 



VII. F.Kperiments ir it Jioiit mafjnesia. — Commencement June 

 10. Progress as in Experiment VI., and gathered as it was 

 making no visible progress, b and c received on July 17, 0*1 

 gramme magnesia, and on August 4 normal solution, gathered 

 September 27 ; height of b, 23 centimetres ; of c, 42 centimetres. 

 Both had male flowers without pollen, and no female flowers. 



On comparing his experimental plants with those which grew 

 in the ground, both in respect to weight of the crop and to 

 amount of ash and its composition, Stohmann concluded that 

 we may indeed convert a plant of maize into a water-plant, but 

 that maize cannot grow in a normal condition in solutions of its 

 food. Further, his experiments showed in a positive manner 

 that the soil played a determinate part in the nutriment of 

 plants — absorption of alkalies — and that plants in the absorp- 

 tion of their food must themselves take an active part (compare 

 Henneberg's 'Journal fiir landwirthschaft, 1862,' s. 1, and 'An. 

 der Chem. und Pharm.,' bd. cxxi. s. 285). 



APPENDIX F (page 109). 



EXTERDIENTS ON THE GROWTH OF BEAXS IN TOWDERED TURF. 



To complete the experiments on vegetation described at 

 page 106, the results of the entire crops are now given in the 

 following table : — 



Dr)/ substance of the bean plants in grammes. 



These numbers completely confirm the conclusions drawn 

 from the weight of the seeds alone. If the crop from the pure 

 C C 



