462 



FARMERS' REGISTER. 



[No. 8 



many persons were collected to witness the result, 

 but as he passed amongst llicm he perceived the 

 rod to become agitated in an unaccountable man- 

 ner, wiiile passing a particular spot, wiiich was 

 crowded by these persons who were looking on ; 

 he retracted his steps, but still the rod wasatiecied 

 in the same way; at length, he inquired if a lady, 

 who stood close to the si-ot, liad atiy considerable 

 quaiitiiy <>l" money with her, when she produced a 

 very large quantity of silver in her reticule ! alter 

 this was removed, the rod performed as usual. 



Now 1 have never iieard any attempt to account 

 for the wonderlLil power which is certainly possessed 

 by this person ; possibly, it may be, that there is 

 an aflinity between persons of moist constitutions, 

 aod the moisture of the earth, and the rod may 

 operate as a sort of conductor: would your friends 

 and contributors do what they can to throw light 

 on the interesting subject '? 



To those who have not had the means of ascer- 

 taining, by actual observation, the Iruih of what is 

 above staled, it might be inieresling to remark, 

 that JNir. Ingouville is a most respectal)le nsan, 

 advancpcl in years, the cultivator of his own es- 

 tate ; indi>pendent in circumstances ; has never 

 once practised )br reward, and will accept of none; 

 and what is Iteiler than all, makes no secret about 

 it ; declares lie is quite ignorant ol' the means by 

 which he is enabled to operate, but is ready, at all 

 limes, to communicate all that he knows iibout it 

 ibr the benefit, or to satisfy th»» curiosity, of any 

 who will call on him for the purpose. 



i have been thus particular as to time, place, 

 and persons, in the hope that there might be those 

 amongst your readers who may, from their know- 

 lediXtt ol' the circumstances, be able to corroborate 

 what I have said relating thereto. The names of 

 those whom 1 have mentioned, must be fiimiliar to 

 ail who have visited the Island of Jersey ; and I 

 trust I might through the medium of the pages of 

 the Cabinet, become acquainted with some, with 

 whom I may renew the pleasurable recollections 

 of the period which I passed in that very beauti- 

 lul and deiiglitliil sput. 



James Pi^ddek. 



2lst Jpril, 1839. 



For tlio fanners' Register. 



ESSAY ON VEGETABLE PHYSIOLOGY. 



By George D. Armstrong, Prof, of Wat Philosophy 

 and Chemistry, in Washington College, Va. 



[Continued from page 4^9.] 



Chapter XVin. 



VEGETABLE EXCRETIONS FROM THE LEAVES 

 AND STEM — FROM THE ROOT. ROTATION 

 OF CROPS. 



Besides those substances which are found depo- 

 sited in the bark and wood of plants, and which 

 we must suppose, ii'not us'^'ful, at least to exert no 

 deleterious influence upon their growth, as there is 

 no eilbrt ever made by plants themselves, to get 

 rid o! them ; there are others, which we must 

 conclude to be of a different character, as we find 

 them constantly thrown cfl' by plants during their 



healthy growth. As the roots of plants appear 

 to be capable of making no selection in absorbing 

 their food from the soil, but take up every thing 

 which is presented to them in a sufficiently fluid 

 form, a power of rejecting such matter as is found 

 unsuitable to their nourishment, is necessary to 

 enable them to keep their vessels from being 

 clogged with foreign matter, and thus rendered un- 

 fit Ibr the perlbrmani'e of their vital functions. A 

 part of this matter thus rejected liy plants exudea 

 from the stem, leaves and flowers, and a part is 

 thrown off by the roots, and dcfiosited in the soil. 

 The elements thus rejected by plants, are not 

 thrown oli' in their simple elemenfarj' condition, 

 but dill'erenily combined with each other, so as to 

 form a class of substances, which form their man- 

 ner of production, have been termed "vegetable 

 excrements." In this piirticular, these is a stri- 

 king resemblance between the vital action of planta 

 and animals, and this excrementiiious matter 

 thrown off by plants may be considered as i)recisely 

 analagous to that portion of the food of animals 

 which is voided after all that was nutritious had 

 been selected from amongst it. 



The following notice of some of the substances 

 excreted by the stems and leaves of plants is taken 

 li'om a work of Prof, l^indley. ''Acid excretions 

 are formed by the hairs of the chick-pea, the stag- 

 horn sumach and somf other species; and it ia 

 supposed that th^ singular propeity which some 

 lichens possess of imbedding themselves in calcare- 

 ous rocks is owing to their excretion of oxalic acid. 

 The stinging jiower of the nettle is produced by 

 an acrid matter excreted by the hairs with which 

 their leaves and stalks are covered. The nettles 

 ofEurope simply produced an uneasy sensation, but 

 some of those of India have brought on lock-jaw, 

 and even death itself, by the torments which they 

 infiict. A discharge of sticky matter by the hairs 

 or by the bark of plants, is of very common oc- 

 currence. It is this which gives their viscidity to 

 such plants as the rose acacia, to the buds of the 

 horse chesnut, and to the young leaves of the 

 beech tree. In many cases this sticky matter is 

 analogous in composition to common bird-lime. 

 Wax, or some substance analogous to it, is of very 

 common occurrence on the surface of plants. In 

 s"ine instances it is excreted in such quantities as 

 to render its coll'^ction an object of trade. The can- 

 dle-berry mystle (inyrica cerifcra) has its berries co- 

 vered with a thick coatol vegetable wax, forming in 

 general about one-ninth of the whole berry. It is 

 obtained by throwing the berries into boiling water, 

 when the wax is melted, rises to the surface, and 

 is collected for use. The wax palm (cernxylon 

 andicola) has its trunk covered with a coat of wax 

 resembling myrtle wax in its character. Saccha- 

 rine matter, in dilierent forms, is also a common 

 excretion Irom many plants. European manna is 

 discharged by the flowering ash (fraxinus ornus) 

 either in consequence of vvounds artificially inflicted 

 on the branches, or of the puncture of insects. 

 The manna spoken of in scripture is yielded by a 

 species of tamarisk, and by the camels-thorn, a 

 plant which is common in the deseits of southern 

 Asia. But the most curious instance of matter 

 excreted from the leaves, is afforded by the fi-ax- 

 inell^. The leaves of this plant are covered with 

 little brown glands which excrete a species of vol- 

 atile oil. In warm weather this oil is converted into 

 [ vapor and surrounds the plant, us an inflammable 



