Prof. Norton on the Analysis of the Oat. 327 
tures, and those of Boussingault in his own works. As all the 
results hitherto presented in this paper are original, I merely refer 
to these without introducing them. 
I have now finished the course that I at first marked out for 
the inorganic division of this chapter. The plant has been divi- 
ed into seven parts, the top, middle, and bottom straws, the leaf, 
the chaff, the husk, and the grain. The leaf was again subdivi- 
ded into a bottom and top part. Of each of these nine parts it 
as been shown— 
1. That it varies from every other, both in the quantity of its 
ash, and the composition of that ash. 
2. That variations also exist between the ash from different 
specimens of the same rown on different soils. 
3. That in these variations, although often very great, the di 
tinctive character of the part is always preserved ; the composi- 
tion of the ash from the husk, for instance, never being like that 
from the straw or leaf. 
4. That the soil has a direct influence on the quality of the 
ash. 'This has been proved in several instances, and particular 
deficiencies pointed out. 
5..That each part is furnished with an ash—in quantity and 
quality peculiarly adapted to the function which the part is de- 
signed to fulfill. 
The silica, for instance, is in the straw so distributed as most 
effectually to strengthen those parts which need its supporting 
power; in the leaf it sustains an extended surface.of pores in 
contact with the atmosphere ; in the chaff it forms an impervious 
coating for the husk, until that part has also received a supply 
which enables it to protect the grain, upon which the perpetua- 
tion of the species : 
Equally beautifiil are the facts which we discover respecting 
the alkaline sulphates and phosphates. We find little of the lat- 
ter in the whole length of the straw, in the leaf, or in the chaff. 
But when we arrive at the grain, the alkaline sulphates disappear, 
and the phosphates take their place; these have passed up the 
whole length of the stalk, avoiding the leaves and the chaff, and 
at last, by a law infinitely more unerring than any which human 
wisdom can devise, deposited themselves in the very place where 
phosphoric acid is most needed, in order that, as part of the food, 
it may build up the bones, the framework of the animal body. 
ese are only two of the many theoretical deductions that we 
have been enabled to draw during our gradual ascent. : 
But it is not only such theoretical and physiological questions 
that have been elucidated by these analyses; they indicate many 
man. 
composition of every part of the healthy plant being 
known, the eoniat for Siwinees healthy crop are obvious, The 
