No. 133.] • 381 ^ 



cannot generally afford it ; and, on the whole, I think they are 

 right. They must, however, and will, do as they please. Mr. 

 13runson, of Huron, Ohi^, has done more at cultivating the plant, 

 probably, than any other man in our country. He recommends 

 it highly. He says it will pay well. He wrote a lengthy com- 

 munication on the manner of growing it, and published it. This 

 was some years ago. How he progressed with it afterwards, I 

 cannot say ; nor have I heard or seen what progress others have 

 made in the culture of the article, or whether much or any. 



George Dickey stated that the madder of commerce command- 

 ed, at a general price, twelve cents per pound. 



The secretary quoted the following transactions of the society 

 for the promotion of agricultuie, arts, and manufactures, institu- 

 ted in the State of New York : Vol. 1. The second edition revised, 

 Albany, 1801. 



I 



From the Journal de Physique, 1798. 



THE EFFECTS OF OXYGEN IN ACCELERATING GER- 

 MINATION. 



Mr. Humboldt discovered, in 1793, that simple metalic sub- 

 stances are unfavorable to the germination of plants, and that 

 their oxydes favor it in proportion to their degree of oxydation. 

 This discovery induced him to search for a substance with which 

 oxygen might be so weakly combined as to be easily seperated ; 

 and he made choice of oxygenated muriatic acid gas, mixed with 

 water. Cresses (Lepidium Satirum) seed put into it showed germs 

 in six hours ; in water, thirty-two hours. The seeds exhibited 

 an enormous quantity of air bubbles. These do not appear in 

 the water till thirty or forty minutes. 



Tliese experiments, announced in Humboldt's Flora, and in his 

 aphorisms, on the chemical physiology of plants, have been re- 

 peated by others; they were made at a temperature of from 12 to 1^ 

 Reaumer (near 64° Fahrenheit). In the summer 1799, Humboldt 

 began a new series of experiments, and found, that by joining 

 the stimulus of caloric to that of oxygen, he was enabled still 

 more to accelerate the progress of vegetation. He took the seeds 



