Prof. Norton on the Analysis of the Oat. 235 
nearly three times the per-centage of ash yielded by that from the 
Hopeton oat No. 1. The potato oat leaf came from an extraor- 
dinary crop on a rich loam; the Hopeton oat leaf from a very 
inferior straw on a poor soil. 
In separating the leaf from the stalk, I took the whole leaf from 
the knot to which the bottom is attached, thus including the part 
which wraps around the stalk. 
It occurred to me that there might be a difference in the quan- 
tity of ash yielded by this latter part, compared with that portion 
of the leaf which projects from the stalk. I accordingly separated 
the leaf of a Sandy oat into two parts, and separately determined 
the ash with the following result. 
Taste XVII. 
| jAsh calculated dry. 
Aah from top of the leaf en ek ok | )" 
do, from bottom, . a ‘ : : : : 13-66 
This difference in the quantity of these two ashes, is what we 
should have been led to expect from the previous determinations 
of ash in the straw, where it was in a majority of cases most 
abundant at the top. 
_ There are fewer disturbing causes in the circulation of the leaf 
than in that of the straw, and we may perhaps rely with more 
straw. The following extended analysis is of the ash from what 
may be considered a fair specimen of a healthy leaf, neither ex- 
cessively luxuriant, nor at all stinted in its growth. It is from the 
same Hopeton oat of which the straw ash analyses were given in 
Table XII. 
Composition of Ash from the Leaf of Hopeton Oats, from Mr. 
. Harbottle, Hexham, Northumberland. 
Tasre XVIII. 
_Rer-contage.. 
Sulphuric acid, . z ; , 14-50 
Chlorid of sodium, (common salt,) . 229 
eee, Gee ee } 14-89 
a a eo ke See oe 
Phosphates of lime, magnesia, and iron, . ore 
ime Meee oe ee 5M 
Magnesia, § = 
Soluble silica, ease arate 45-75 
epg Ne 5 ig ere age og 2 a SA OG, gk Se 
99°30 
The watery solution contained about 37 per cent. of this ash, 
and from the above amount of sulphuric acid, it is quite plain that 
about 30 per cent. were sulphates. The soluble and insoluble 
silica together constitute more than half of the ash. 
