364 Agricultural and Horticultural Chemistry. 



leaves to a healthy green and crisp condition. The plants 

 with which these effects were best observed were the gar- 

 den lettuce and the common Windsor bean. The solution 

 of the hydrosulphuret of ammonia employed, was prepared 

 by mixing a saturated solution of the compound with fifty 

 times its bulk of water; such a solution had a most nau- 

 seous, disgusting smell, and contained of course a large 

 quantity of sulphuretted hydrogen. The plants under ex- 

 periment were selected from many, and were of the same 

 age and size, and, as far as possible, in the same healthy 

 state of growth. Some were watered with common water, 

 others with a diluted solution of hydrosulphuret of ammo- 

 nia. At first, only a few drops of the solution were given ; 

 but finding that this produced little or no effect, the dose 

 was increased, and as much as half an ounce a day and 

 sometimes even more, was given to each plant; it was 

 found that those thus treated became stronger and sturdier; 

 their leaves were of a bright, deep green : the space be- 

 tween the nodes or the distance from leaf to leaf was 

 shorter, and the stems were stronger, and the whole plant 

 more flourishing than in those watered in the ordinary way, 

 although all other circumstances were alike, and care was 

 taken to place all under the same condition by exposing 

 them equally to air and light and giving them the same 

 quantity of water every day. Plants in a languid state 

 from over doses of nitrate of potash or soda, or other saline 

 manures, if not too much injured by their previous treat- 

 ment, appeared to recover more rapidly when watered with 

 the solution of hydrosulphuret of ammonia, than when 

 merely treated with common water. In some of these lat- 

 ter cases a much stronger solution was employed than that 

 already mentioned, containing two drachms of the satu- 

 rated solution of hydrosulphuret of ammonia in fifty of 

 water, and of this, eight drachms were given daily. For 

 some time after watering the plants, the earth retained a 

 strong smell of sulphuretted hydrogen, and the water which 

 drained through, when tested by a salt of lead, evidently 

 contained a large quantity of that gas." 



These and similar experiments naturally make us be- 

 lieve, that sulphur, and more particularly sulphate of am- 

 monia, exercise great influence on the growth of vegetables, 

 and are valuable to plants as sources of nourishment. It 

 is a beautiful provision in the order of the creation that 



