142 Effects of Guano on Plants, 6^c. 



coming into contact with that part of the soil containing 

 the ingredients of the seed — this manure being then chiefly 

 favorable to the production of foliage alone, if continued 

 through many generations will by degrees convert the 

 stamens, pistils, and the parts destined by nature to prepare 

 the seed, into leaves or petals, and finally obliterate the 

 seed. These flowers, if grown in a poor soil, scarce in 

 nitrogenous substances, will again, as is well known, revert 

 to their normal single seed bearing state. 



Several of my experiments with Guano proved to me 

 that it shortened the internodes, or portions of the stem be- 

 tween each leaf; this was particularly evident in seedling 

 orange and lemon trees, and is a sure indication of fruit or 

 seed bearing; indeed the spurs, which are well known as 

 the fruit producing parts of many trees, are but shortened 

 branches where the internodes are reduced to a mere noth- 

 ing, and where, consequently, the axillary action is concen- 

 trated into a small space. I have, therefore, no doubt of 

 the beneficial action of Guano on fruit trees. Many exper- 

 iments are, however, yet desirable. Such as Avhether Guano 

 acts beneficially on the receptacle of the seed, which is the 

 fruit of the strawberry and raspberry ; whether on the ex- 

 terior covering of the seed, which is the apple, peach, plum, 

 &c. ; or on the kernel or nut, or on the pulpy envelop of 

 the seed, as the gooseberry, grape, melon, gourd, &c. I 

 hope that these ideas will give rise to numerous experi- 

 ments this year, and that those who make them wid not 

 hesitate freely to communicate them for the general benefit. 



I will merely add farther, that I should consider it advis- 

 able, in all experiments on fruits, to try both the Guano 

 itself as well as a weak solution of it in water — it is highly 

 probable that the solution will be efficacious where the re- 

 ceptacle or the exterior of the seed is most valuable, where- 

 as in corn, peas, beans, &c., those phosphates which are in- 

 soluble in water, and are very necessary, would be thus 

 lost to the plant. 



At another period I may possibly resume this subject, as 

 it seems to me that these ideas open new views on the phy- 

 siology of plants, and certainly show of how much impor- 

 tance it is for those who study this subject to become better 

 acquainted, from personal observation, with the action of 

 the soils on vegetable life. It is from the want of this 



