Extracts from Bei'zelius's Annual Report for 1843. 195 



The plants were moistened with distilled water free from ammonia, 

 and were protected from external influences by being covered. In the 

 sand they germinated and grew, but they were stinted, — some of them 

 flowered, others did so imperfectly, but they produced no fruit, not even 

 those which according to M. Boussingault bear fruit when cultivated in 

 soils free from nitrogen compounds. In the mixed earth the plants 

 grew luxuriantly ; they flowered and produced ripe fruit. 



A quantity of grain equal to that planted was calcined, and the com- 

 position of the ashes determined ; when the plants had finished vegeta- 

 ting, they were dried and burnt, and the ashes weighed and analyzed. 

 The principal results of these analyses, are that the ashes of the plants 

 grown in the sand weigh in general twice as much as the ashes of the 

 grains sown, and sometimes more. The ashes of the plants cultivated 

 in the mixture, were two and a half times as great as those cultivated 

 in the sand from the same weight of seed, and in the case of the tobac- 

 co five times as much. To account for the origin of that portion of 

 ashes of the plants grown in the sand which did not originate from the 

 seed, the sand was analyzed after being well washed with boiling wa- 

 ter ; it contained — 



Silicic acid, - - 97-900 Magnesia, - - 0-009 

 Potash, - - - 0-320 Alumina, - - 0-876 

 Lime, - - - 0-484 Oxide of iron, - 0-315 



The same sand was exposed during a month in water, through which 

 carbonic acid was continually passed ; the solution resulting from it was 

 evaporated to dryness, and the residue analyzed. This last operation 

 proved that the liquid had extracted silica, potash, lime and magnesia. 

 From this it is readily seen that the sand here used, as well as feld- 

 spathic sand of the ordinary soil, furnishes plants with alkalies and 

 earthy oxides. M. Wiegmann has proved in a conclusive manner the in- 

 accuracy of the opinion which admits that elements are formed in the 

 various parts of plants, by the following experiment. He sowed some 

 seeds of ci-esses, in very small fragments of fine platinum wire con- 

 tained in a platinum crucible, and watered it with distilled water. The 

 cresses grew perfectly well, but the ashes of the plants had the same 

 weight as the ashes of the seeds from which the plants were grown. 

 The conclusions from these results are that inorganic matter is neces- 

 sary to the organization of plants, — that where it fails they perish, al- 

 though it is possible that the whole or a part of the inorganic matter 

 found in the ashes is not indispensable to the growth of the plants, and 

 it is possible that potash, soda, lime, magnesia, alumina and oxide of 

 iron, may substitute one another, as in minerals when the earth contains 

 more of one than of the other. There is still room for many modifi- 

 cations of these experiments. 



