1 90 ORIGIN OF ORGANIC MATTER 



sulphates, and especially alkaline phosphates, in the ashes of 

 plants. These are not uniformly distributed throughout the 

 entire plant, but are chiefly accumulated, as E. Wolff's experi- 

 ments have shown, in the leaves, and still more abundantly in the 

 seeds. As the careful observations made in relation to their 

 occurrence appear to prove that a plant can scarcely thrive without 

 these salts, for although it may bear scanty blossoms, it never 

 arrives at fructification, it can scarcely be doubted that they 

 constitute an essential requirement of vegetable life and are true 

 elements of nutrition. 



We will here briefly notice some few facts which may serve as 

 illustrations of the above remarks. Liebig was principally led to 

 the establishment of these hypotheses by the following analyses of 

 the ash of fir and pine- wood taken from trees which grew in various 

 localities. Saussure found 1'187# of ash in the wood of pine-trees 

 growing on Mont Breve, and 1*1 28 J in the same kind of wood 

 from Mont La Salle. The following is the analysis of 100 parts of 

 the ash of the pine-wood of Mont Breve : 



Carbonate of potash .... 3'60 ; in the potash there were 0*415 of oxygen. 

 lime .... 46-34; lime 7*327 



magnesia .... 677 J magnesia 1-265 



Sum of the carbonates.... 5671 ; Sum of the oxygen.... 9*007 



A hundred parts of the ash of the pine- wood from Mont 

 La Salle yielded no magnesia, but gave the following result : 



Carbonate of potash .... 7'36 ; in the potash there were 0'85 of oxygen. 

 lime .... 5T19 ; lime 8'10 



Sum of the carbonates.... 56'55 ; Sum of the oxygen.... 8'95 



This relation is still more strongly manifested in two analyses 

 of pine-ash made on French (Allevard) and Norway pine by Ber- 

 thier, for here the difference between the soluble and insoluble 

 salts in the two ashes is much more considerable than commonly 

 occurs. In the ash of the French wood, Berthier found : 



Potash and soda .... 16'8; in which there were 3'57 parts of oxygen. 



lime .... 29-6; 8 -36 



magnesia .... 3'3; 1-26 



Sum of the bases .... 497; Sum of the oxygen 13-19 



The same observer found the following results in his examina- 

 tion of Norwegian pine : 



