376 M E M O I R S e/'/A^ 
there would be no need of manures, nor of tranfpknting them from 
place to place, fince the rain falls in this field and in that 
indififercntly, in one fide of an orchard or garden, as well as in 
another 5 nor could there be any reafon, why a tra6l of land fhould 
yield wheat one year and not the next, fince the rain fliowers 
down alike in each. 5. Vegetables are not formed of water, but 
of a certain peculiar tcrreftrial matter: The plant in E attraded 
2501 grains of the fluid mafs, and yet had received but 3 grains 
and an half of increafe from all that quantity 5 the mint in 
L, tho' it had at firft the difadvantage to be much lefs than that 
in I, yet being (tt in water wherewith earth was plentifully 
mixed, and that in I only in water without any fuch additional 
earth, the former had vaftly outgrown the latter, weighing at 
lead 145 grains more than it, and fo had gained above twice as 
muchj in like manner that in K, tho' it was a great deal lefs 
when put in the water, than that in I, and was alio injured and 
impaired by infe61:s 5 yet by being planted in water wherein earth 
was diflblved, whereas the water wherein I flood had none, it 
not only overtook, but confiderably lurpaffed the other, weighing 
at laft 29 grains more than that in I, and had not expended lb 
much water as that, by above 2400 grains^ the plant in N, tho* 
at firft a great deal Ids than that in M, yet being let in the foul 
crafs water, that was left in the ftill, after that, in which M was 
{ct^ was drawn off, it at laft gained in weight above double what 
that in the thinner and finer water had done, the proportion of 
the augment of that plant that throve moft, was to the fluid mafs 
as I to 455 nay, in the Cataputia it was but as i to 714: The 
mint in B took up 39 grains of water a-day, one day with ano- 
ther, which was much more than the whole weight of the plant 
originally, and yet with all this it gained not in weight one 
fourth of a grain a day 5 that in H took up 255 grains of the 
fluid a day, which was near twice as much as its original weight, 
it weighing when firft let in the water but 127 grains, and after 
all, tlie daily increale of the plant was no more than 2 to grains, 
6. Spring and rain-water contain pretty near an equal charge of 
vegetable matter, and river-water more than either of them, the 
plants in the glafles A, B, C, were at firft of much the fame fize 
and weight ^ at the end of the experiment the mint in A had 
gain'd 15 grains out of 2558 grains of fpring-water 3 that in B 
17 J grains out of 5004 grains of rain watery but that in C had 
got z6 grains only, out of 2493 grains of river-water; fo that 
thefe proportions will hold in the main 5 nctwithftanding this, 
the Doiflor does not doubt, but the water that falls in rain at 
fome- 
