3a6 



PHILOSOPHICAL TK AN S ACTIONS. 



[anno 1660. 



I put tliein ill thus, that the water in these might not have more scope to eva- 

 jjorate than that in the other phials. Thus they stood the whole ']^ days in the 

 same window with the rest ; when, on examination, I found none of the water 

 in these wasted or gone oft". Though I observed, both in these, and the rest, 

 especially in hot weather, small drops of water, not unlike dew, adhering to 

 the insides of the glasses, above the surface of the inclosed water. 



At the end of the experiment, the water in these two glasses that had no 

 plants in them, exhibited a larger quantity of terrestrial matter than any of 

 those that had the plants in them; the sediment at the bottom of the phials 

 was greater, and the nubeculae, diffused through the body of the water, thicker; 

 and vi that which was in the others, some of it proceeded from certain small 

 leaves that had fallen from that part of the stems of the plants that was within 

 the water, where they rotted and dissolved. The terrestrial matter in the rain 

 water was finer than that in the spring water. 



The experiment was repeated the year following ; the plants being all spear- 

 mint, the most kindly, fresh, sprightly shoots I could choose. The water and 

 the plants, weighed as above, and the phials set in a line in a south window ; 

 where they stood from June 2, to July 28, which was just 56 days. 



The plant set in h was all along a very kind one, having run up to above 2 



