170 



FARMERS' REGISTER— VEGETABLE PHYSIOLOGY. 



opened, should be guarded against. The drying 

 process is continued after the hay is gathered lor 

 the cart, and until it is deposited in the barn. 



Fine Stock. 



The public are under many obligations to Mr. 

 Corbin Warwick of this city for his several exer- 

 tions, to improve the breed of our stock. Exclu- 

 sive of the cattle and sheep, which he purchased at 

 Mr. Meade's sale in Frederick, he has just re- 

 ceived from England by the Lady Anne Ellis at 

 Norfolk — two bulls and a cow, of the best British 

 breeds. The bulls are yearlings, and noble look- 

 ing animals they are of that age — one is the sliort- 

 horned, Durham stock, roan color, excellent for 

 the dairy and for beef The other is of the Here- 

 ford breed, titted for the draft as well as for beef 

 The latter is larger with a remarkable dewlap 

 and breast, and big head with his curling hair, 

 red with white face, &c. The heifer is a two year 

 old, a beautiful creature of the Durban stock — and 

 she is alieady with calf — she was bulled on the 

 21st October last, by Maggot of famous lineage — 

 his pedigrees are before us, prepared by the Rev. 

 Henry Berry — and one of the dams was a 14quai"t 

 cow. In truth, Mr. W. has been supplied with 

 the genealogy of all the cattle* — and it appears they 

 are all of the best blood. They arrived in this ci- 

 t}' in the Patrick Henry on Thursday night — and 

 will be removed to his farm on the James River. 

 When we consider the high reputation, wliich the 

 Durham and the Hereford breeds bear — and the 

 great expense of bringing them to this country — 

 the three estimated at near ^2000, we cannot "but 

 ofFeT our thanks to Mr. AV. for the enterprising 

 spirit which he displays in these attempts to im- 

 prove our stock. — {^Richmond Enquirer, July 2. 



VEGETABLE PHYSIOLOGY. 



Extract from the Foreign Quarterly Review, for 1833. 



First period of nutrition. — This comprises the 

 introfluction of the food into the plant. As vege- 

 tables do not possess the power of locomotion, it is 

 necessary that their food siiould be so generally dif- 

 fused in nature, that they shall run no risk of pe- 

 rishing from their inability to search for it. Now 

 it is a fundamental principle in vegetable physio- 

 logy, that every thing capable of being imbibed 

 into the tissue must previously be brought to a 

 state of solution ; but water is present every where 

 in the earth, and in the atmosphere, and the ma- 

 terial which constitutes the chief food of plants is 

 carbonic acid, which is almost constantly to be 

 found dissolved in all water. The root is the only 

 true absorbing organ of this nourishment; for al- 

 though, under certain circumstances, the leaf and 

 some other organs may be made to absorb mois- 

 ture, these are not to be considered as the organs 

 originally destined for the introduction of food, 

 any more than the pores in the skin of animals, 

 which possess a like property, may be considered 

 as their mouths. Neither is it by the whole sur- 

 face of the root that this absorption takes place, 

 but only through the " spongioles," v.hich are 

 small expansions of cellular tissue situated at their 

 extremities. It is not clearly ascertained, Avhether 

 the force which regulates the absorption of the spon- 

 gioles is wholly vital, or w hether it is the result of a 

 vital action, in combination with the hygroscopic 



*For which, see No. 2 Farmers' Register, p. 127-S. 



property of the cellular tissue. De CandoUe had 

 formerly attributed this action of the spongioles to 

 their hygroscopicity alone; but he is now disposed 

 to consider it dependant, to some extent at least, 

 on the vital force. It does not, however, appear, 

 that because there is a cessation of this absorption 

 in the dead plant, and a continuance of it only in 

 the living one, that we must therefore conclude it 

 to be the result of a vital action in the spongioles 

 themselves; for if it were really due to their hy- 

 groscopic property only, still the immediate remo- 

 val of the absorl;ed fluid, by the organs which 

 cause its progression through the plant, would con- 

 tinually reneu' the conditions necessary to secure a 

 momentary repetition of its action. This absorp- 

 tion also has more of the aspect of a mechanical 

 than of a vital operation, from the circumstance of 

 all plants being equally indifferent as to the quality 

 of the solutions which they imbibe, the quantity 

 being regulated chiefly by the state of liquidity in 

 which they occur; a more liquid solution of some 

 substances, deleterious to the health of the indivi- 

 dual, being more readily imbibed by it than others 

 which are more viscous, though composed entirely 

 of materials which are highly nutritious. 



From the great uniformity in the means em- 

 ployed for absorbing them, and the general simi- 

 larity of the matters absorbed, arises a great re-' 

 semblance between the nutritive apparatus of all 

 vegetables; which makes these organs ill adapted 

 to the parposes of classification, and compels us to 

 search among the reproductive organs for the cha- 

 racteristics necessary to establish a scientific ar- 

 rangement of plants. 



The usual aliment of plants we have stated to 

 be water, containing carbonic acid in solution, or, 

 we may add, at least containing some proportion 

 of animal or vegetable matter capable of being con- 

 verted into carbonic acid. But, besides this, air 

 and various salts and other matters are absorbed 

 in solution. Where, however, more substances 

 have been found in the ashes of plants, than were 

 supposed to have composed the materials by which 

 they had been nourished, we must not conclude 

 that the plants have created these substances, as 

 some have imagined, but must consider them to 

 have been extracted, little by little, from some 

 medium in which they really existed, though in 

 such minute quantity as to be incapable of being 

 detected by chemical tests. We may easily allow 

 that plants surpass us in their powers of abstrac- 

 ting the minutest portions of any material dissemi- 

 nated through a given menstruum. 



Second period of nutrition. — The water intro- 

 duced by the absorption of the spongioles is called 

 "sap, or lymph." It is then conveyed directly to 

 the leaves, without sustaining any appreciable 

 change in its progress, otherwise than by mixing 

 with the vegetable juices it meets with in its course. 

 The particular route which the ascending sap takes 

 has often been a matter of discussion and dispute; 

 but it has been clearly ascertained, by repeated ex- 

 periments, that it ascends along that portion of the 

 cellular tissue which constitutes the woody fibre, 

 and not through the vascular tissue, which is in- 

 tended primarily for the conveyance of air, though 

 its tubes may occasionally be found filled with 

 fluid. With respect, however, to the mode in 

 which the sap is conducted along this cellular tis- 

 sue, there is still much uncertainty. De Candolle 

 favors the hypothesis of its passing along the inter- 



