VOL. XXI.] PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACriONS. 3Q1 



almost double the bulk that either of them had ; and with a less expence of 

 water too. So likewise the mint in l, in whose water was dissolved a small 

 quantity of good garden mould, though it had the disadvantage to be less when 

 first set than either of the mints in h or i, whose water was the very same with 

 this in L, but had none of tiiat earth mixed with it ; yet in a short time the 

 plant L not only o\ertook, but much out-stripped those, and at the end of the 

 experiment was very considerably larger and heavier than either of them. In 

 like manner the mint in n, though less at the beginning than that in m, being 

 set in that thick, turbid, feculent water, that remained behind, after that in 

 which M was placed, was distilled off", had more than doubled its original weight 

 and bulk : and received above twice the additional increase of the plant in m, 

 which stood in the thinner distilled water ; and, which is not less considerable, 

 had not drawn off" half the quantity of water that that had. 



The reason why I limit the proportion of the augmentation of the plant to the 

 quantity of proper terrestrial matter in the water, is, because all, even the ve- 

 getable matter, to say nothing of the mineral, is not proper for the nourish- 

 ment of every plant. There may be, and doubtless there are, some parts in 

 different species of plants that may be much alike, and so owe their supply to 

 the same common matter; but it is plain that all cannot: and there are other 

 parts so differing, that it is no ways credible they should be formed all out of 

 the same sort of corpuscles: so far from it, that there want not good indications, 

 as we shall see by and by, that every kind of vegetable requires a peculiar and 

 specific matter for its formation and nourishment ; yea, each part of the same 

 vegetable does so ; and there are many and different ingredients that go to the 

 composition of the same individual plant. If therefore the soil, wherein any 

 vegetable or seed is planted, contains all or most of these ingredients, and 

 those in due quantity, it will grow and thrive there ; otherwise it will not. If 

 there be not as many sorts ot corpuscles as are requisite for the constitution of 

 the main and more essential parts of the plint, it will not prosper at all : if 

 there be these, and not in sufficient plenty, it will starve, and never arrive to 

 its natural stature : or if there be any of the less necessary and essential cor- 

 puscles vvantuig, there will be some failure in the plant ; it will be defective in 

 taste, in smell, in colour, or some other way. But though a tract of land 

 may happen not to contain matter proper for the constitution of some one pe- 

 culiar kind of plant ; yet it may for several others, and those differing n)uch 

 among themselves. The vegetative particles are blended together in the earth, 

 with all the diversity and variety, as well as all the uncertainty conceivable. So 

 that it is not possible to imagine how one, uniform, homogeneous matter, 

 having its principles or original parts all of the same substance, constitution. 



