THE GEAPE. 11 



organic substances of the manure pass in such, large 

 quantities into the plant, that they are observable in 

 the fruit, as, for example, in the cauliflower of the 

 Westland, the smell of the putrid fish which is used to 

 manure it can be recognized. 



The publication of these facts at a time when it is 

 asserted that plants do not bear a single trace of the 

 organic constituents of the soil, is not without danger, 

 but I venture nevertheless to allege them. I venture 

 also to maintain, that no wine-grower who prepares 

 good wine would give- his vines putrid manure, 

 although it has become the fashion among scientific 

 writers to copy from one another the assertion that 

 plants take up from the earth only carbonic acid, 

 water, and ammonia, and prepare from them all 

 organic substances. The leaves of the vine, which 

 contain a considerable quantity of alkali, constitute 

 an excellent manure for the plant. At the vintage only 

 the fruit is removed from the field, and the leaves 

 fall to the ground, when their ashes necessarily com- 

 pose the best manure for future vine leaves. 



Only in this manner can the fact be explained, 

 that the vine requires so little inorganic manure, and 

 often contents itself with substances which it obtains 

 principally from the weather-beaten rocks on whose 

 slope it is planted. 



The following analysis will give an idea of the 

 inorganic constituents to be met with in the plant. 

 "We give them as examples, and without attempting 



