136 Dr. Meyen’s Researches in Physiological Botany. 
XVIII.— Report of the Results of Researches in Physiological 
Botany made in the year 1839. By F. J. Meven, M.D., 
Professor of Botany in the University of Berlin*. 
On the Nutrition and Growth of Plants. 
M. Lampaptivustf has instituted some new experiments on the 
vegetation of wheat in different soils, and on the quantity of 
earthy matters contained in the wheat plants so cultivated ; 
from which he arrives at the conclusion that the quantity of 
earthy matter in the plants produced on the different soils 
(viz. those rich in alumina, silicic acid, lime or magnesia) re- 
mains always the same, and that these substances are not 
taken-up mechanically by the roots, but are selected by the 
Vegetative Power by means of the roots, and are then depo- 
sited in different combinations in the plants for the formation 
of their several parts. 
The facts from which these conclusions were drawn were 
the following: <A piece of field was divided into 5 beds, each 
20 Prussian feet square. Each bed received first of all 5 lbs. 
of manure (a mixture of cow- and horse-dung), then on the 
Ist bed were strewn 5 lbs. of finely powdered quartz, on the 
2nd the same quantity of alumina, on the 3rd the same of 
chalk, and on the 4th 5 lbs of carbonate of magnesia; the 5th 
was left without any mineral manure at all. On each bed were 
sown 2 Pruss. cubic inches of wheat, about 675 grains. The 
next summer the vegetation appeared most vigorous on the 
bed strewn with alumina, and the produce of grains of wheat 
on the 5 beds, was, according to weight, as follows :— 
Produce. 
Bed Of. sar, 
Eo os cah cacugnacdavcusesa ce gganbenae 24 pi 
Mu entap Me pev eked dadwelticceciien 28 6 
a oeiaskiecds overs oves tier anes 26 2 
A: icin ucwcananstecceeeen cad back 21 4 
DP whi vk duhosdes dens toaabolaniaies 20. 0 
After incineration it appeared that the grains which had been 
produced from the different beds contained almost equal 
* Translated from the German, under the direction of the Author, by 
Henry Croft, Esq. 
On commencing the publication of Professor Meyen’s Report for 1839, it 
is with much concern that we have at the same time to record the death 
of the author, whereby Natural History sustains a heavy loss. Translations 
of his valuable Reports for the years 1835 and 1837, by Mr. W. Francis, 
have been published; the former in the Lond. and Edinb. Philosophical 
Magazine, vol. xi. pp. 881, 435, 524; xii. 53; the latter in a separate vo- 
lume.-—See Annals Nat. Hist. vol. v. p. 211, and Mag. Nat. Hist. vol. iv. 
. £08. 
3 + Erdmann’s und Marchand’s Journal fiir practische Chemie, Bd. xviii. 
p. 257—269. 
