PART FIRST. 



PROCESSES OF VEGETATION. 



CHAPTER I. 



REMARKS ON THE FOOD, STIMULANTS, ETC. OF PLANTS. 



9 



ART. 1. On Earth and its use to Plants. 



EARTH or soil is the base on which most 

 vegetable substances must live and receive their 

 nutriment. It is true, tulips, hyacinths, and other 

 succulent bulbs, have sometimes been found and are 

 frequently brought into a state of vegetation and 

 flowering in water alone, or at least with a very 

 small portion of nutriment ; but such plants do not 

 during their process of growth obtain their proper 

 qualities, nor will they vegetate freely the succeed- 

 ing year if planted in their natural soil. 



" Nearly all vegetables," says the learned 

 Chaptal " derive their support from the earth. 

 There are however some, the seeds of which being 

 deposited upon trees by birds or by the winds, ger- 

 minate and grow, appearing to be in the situation de- 

 signed for them by nature ; such are the mistletoe, 

 the mosses, &c. There are others that float upon 

 the water or fasten themselves upon dry rocks, upon 



