186 HOW CROPS GKOW. 



Chem., xlviii, 474-7.) Such instances might be greatly 

 multiplied. 



The idea that a part of the silica is accidental is further 

 sustained by the fact observed by Saussure, the earliest in 

 vestigator of the composition of the ash of plants, (Re- 

 pherches sur la Vegetation, p. 28:2,) that crops raised on a 

 iilicious soil are in general richer in silica than those grown 

 on a calcareous soil. Norton found in the ash of the chaff 

 of the Hopeton oat from a light loam 56.7 per cent, from 

 a poor peat soil 50.0 of silica, while the chaff of the potato- 

 oat from a sandy soil gave 70.9 per cent. 



Salin-Horstmar obtained some remarkable results in the 

 course of his synthetical experiments on the mineral food 

 of plants, which fully confirmed him in the opinion that 

 silica is indispensable to vegetation. He found that an 

 oat plant, having for its soil pure quartz, (insoluble silica,) 

 witli addition of the elements of growth, soluble silica ex- 

 cepted, not only grew well, but contained in its ash 23 |, 

 of silica, or as great a proportion as exists in the plant 

 raised under normal conditions. This silica may, however, 

 have been mostly derived from the husk of the seed, for 

 the plant was a very small one. 



Sachs, in 1862, was the first to publish evidence indi 

 cating strongly that silica is not a necessary ingredient of 

 maize. He obtained in his early essays in water-culture a 

 maize plant of considerable development, whose ashes con* 

 tained but 0.7 | of silica. Shortly afterwards, Knop pro 

 duced a maize plant with 140 ripe seeds, and a dry-weight 

 of 50 grammes, (nearly 2 oz. av.,) in a medium so free from 

 silica that a mere trace of this substance could be found in 

 the root, but half a milligramme in the stem, and 22 milli 

 grammes in the 15 leaves and sheaths. It was altogether 

 absent from the seeds. The ash of the leaves of this plant 

 thus contained but 0.54 per cent of silica, and the stem 

 but 0.07 per cent. Way & Ogston found in the ash of 

 maize, leaf and stem together, 27.98 per cent of silica. 



