24 



be found in the tubers as well as in the leaves, on calcarious soils. If the view of Raspail be coiTect, 

 that the presence of saline matters in tissues is the essential of their organization and the true source 

 of their distinction from the mere proximate principles of which they are composed, it is a necessary 

 consequence that the organizing portion of the plant — the leaf — should contain the essential saline 

 matters, without which, or other isomorphous substitutes, it could not be developed nor carry on its 

 functions ; and if the leaf does not flourish the plant cannot attain perfection. In this view of the 

 case, it is proper to determine the situation of plants in the saline groups according to the analysis of 

 the leaf, if they be cultivated for foliage or roots only, unless the amount of mineral matter removed 

 by the roots be very much the greatest. 



The influence of cultivation is not to be overlooked in grouping plants. Under natural circum- 

 stances all the grain-bearing plants require little azotized matter, but from the development which 

 many, such as wheat and barley, have acquired, they have become azotized plants, and are not to be 

 maintained in their present state without a large supply of this food made to the roots. Many 

 garden vegetables are also of this kind ; the cabbage in nature consists of a few tough leaves and 

 inhabits soils of ordinary fertility on the sea side ; its present luxurious development, by which it 

 attains a weight certainly a hundred times greater in several varieties, is the result of supplying 

 food to the root in tillage, and if the supply be diminished the characters of the variety are soon lost 

 and the vegetable degenerates. 



The followino- table will show the position of most cultivated plants, so far as evidence exists at 

 present. The conditions under which the classification has been made should be borne in mind. 



Plants requiring much azote 

 in the soil, 



'^Seed bearing 



> Foliage or root crops, 



Lime, 



Potash, 



Soda with 

 Sulphur, 



Lime, 



Potash, 



Soda with 

 . Sulphur, 



Hemp seed, Cotton, Hop, 

 cultivated Peas. 



Com, Madia, Wheat, Rice, 

 Oats, Barley. 



Rape seed, Colza, Mustard 

 seed. Linseed. 



( Tobacco, Potatoes, Hemp, 

 \ Indigo, Madder. 



( Sugar cane. Carrots, Parsnips, 

 ( Mangel-wurzel, Beets, Spinach. 



^ Turnips, Kohlrabi, Ruta baga, 

 \ Cabbages, Onions, Asparagus. 



Plants requiring little or no 

 azote in the soil, 



Seed bearing 



Foliage or root crops, 



Lime, 

 Potash, 



Lime, 

 Potash, 



Field Beans, Pindars, 

 Vetches. 



Rye, German and Polish Millet, 

 Buckwheat. 



■ PoiTiaceous fruits, Lupiiis for fallow- 

 ing Clovers, Spurry, Lucern, Sain- 

 ' foin ; all cut before seed. 



k Meadow Grasses, 

 I Jerusalem Artichoke. 



