1847.] Distribution of Inorganic Matter in Vegetables. 181 



Metallic oxides, .... 0.25 



Loss, ...-.- 5.25 



100.00 



The most important facts brought out in the foregoing analyses, 

 are the great amount of phosphates, phosphoric acid and alkalies, 

 in the seeds of plants; elements, which we have already remark- 

 ed, as indispensable to it in its young state. 



The same fact appears in Shepard's analysis of the ash of the 

 cotton seed, already published in this Journal. 



Analysis of the ash of the Tobacco — by Will and Fressenius: 



It is necessary to make only one remark in this place, namely, 

 that it is possible to ascertain by analysis, the entire amount of 

 the inorganic constituents which any given cultivated crop takes 

 from the soil annually, and which, under some circumstances, the 

 different parts of the same plant which are left to decay upon the 

 soil, will restore to it. By a careful analysis of the soil from 

 which these fixed constituents are drawn, we may construct a 

 scale, upon which may be recorded the losses to which the great 

 storehouse, the soil, is subjected — the nature and kind of drains 

 which flow from it; and hence, too, the nature and kind of sup- 

 plies by which these drains must be met. 



6. The foregoing remarks, together with the analyses, which 

 are intended to illustrate them, and to show the importance of the 

 investigations, contain, however, an imperfect and unsatisfactory 

 view of the ash of vegetables. It is true, that they serve several 

 important purposes, namely, the fact that the inorganic matter of 

 trees and seeds differ with the species from which the ash is ob- 

 tained; and furthermore, it does not appear that these differences 

 are accidental: though it is still true that certain elements maybe 

 replaced by others, without apparent injury to the growth of the 



