1847.] Distribution of Inorganic Matter in Vegetables. 179 



circumstance that alumina is one of the most abundant elements 

 in the soil; that silica, which seems quite as insoluble, under some 

 circumstances, as alumina, is by no means rare in plants. The 

 cause of the absence of alumina is considered by Will and Fre- 

 senius, to be wholly due to its insolubility in phosphoric and car- 

 bonic acids. It is well known that Saussure, in his earliest 

 analyses w^as mistaken when he stated that the ashes of the 

 bilberry, pine, and rose laurel, contained respectively 17.5, 14.8, 

 and 28.8 per cent of alumina. 



5. I might in this place propound the question, if alumina is 

 of no use as a constituent of the inorganic matter of vegetables, 

 what is the function which it exercises in the growth of vegeta- 

 bles? What function does it fulfil in the soil? Silex, lime, mag- 

 nesia, oxides of iron and manganese, potash and soda, chlorine 

 and iodine, all abound more or less in the ash of plants; while 

 alumina, one of the most common of earths, is excluded from ex- 

 ercising an agency in building up their inorganic structure. 

 The question I will not attempt to decide in this place; but 

 I may suggest the most obvious answer to the enquiry, Wz., 

 that the function of alumina is wholly mechanical in the soil; 

 that it serves simply to hold together the materials composing the 

 mixture in which vegetables are to grow. 



6. I have already stated that only a few analyses of the inor- 

 ganic matter of forest and fruit trees have as yet been made. 

 These however are interesting; and hence I propose in the first 

 place to transcribe a few of them to the pages of the Journal. 



The analyses are full, and trustworthy, and valuable; but I 

 hope it may not be deemed presumptuous, if I remark in this 

 place, that certain facts which I shall state in the proper place, 

 diminish materially their value. These facts do not relate to the 

 mode of analysis, or to the accuracy of the results obtained, but 

 to the selection of the ash employed in the analysis. This remark, 

 however, applies only to the ash of the woody part of vegetables, 

 and not to the seeds. 



Analysis of 100 grs. of the ash of the seeds of the Pinus picea 

 and sylvestris, by M. Poleck.* 



Annalen der Chemie unci Pharmacie, t. L., p. 414. 



