534 Consideration of Light in its 



stances usually deemed to be their elements. Roots, branches, 

 leaves, and fruits, living and growing, are not mere masses of 

 oxygen, hydrogen, and carbon. No : they are, in fact, w^hat 

 they seem to be, organised beings of a vs^onderful conformation, 

 endowed with life, and with the powers of assimilation and 

 nutrition. No effort of the analytic chemist could either 

 restore the vital principle, or remodel the structure in which 

 it had once produced such astonishing changes. We know 

 that dead vegetable substances are resolvable into divers ele- 

 mentary products ; but there we stop : our ignorance con- 

 strains us to submit to the customary use of terms ; and we 

 are content with asserting that oxygen, hydrogen, and carbon 

 form the basis of most bodies. It would, however, be more 

 wise to assert nothing, and to rest satisfied with the discovery 

 that vegetable matter is reducible by analysis to certain sub- 

 stances. These substances ought, in fact, to be considered the 

 products of electro-chemical action upon inert vegetable matter 

 simply, and not by any means as constituting the absolute pri- 

 mary components of the vegetable being itself, when actuated 

 by the vital principle. " Vegetable chemistry," " chemical 

 action of vegetables," "vegetable elements," — these, and 

 other technical expressions, are, I conceive, neither more nor 

 less than conventional terms, by which we express, as well 

 as we are able, — 1st, The agency of the vital principle in 

 effecting changes during the life of the plant ; and, 2dly, The 

 results of this chemical analysis on decomposable vegetable 

 remains after the extinction of life. 



With much respect, 

 I am, Sir, your obedient servant. 



The Author of The Domestic 

 Amust 6. 1833. Gardener's Manual. 



Art. III. A Consideration of the Relatiotis of Light to the perfect 

 Display of the Beauties of Form and of Hue in Plants and in 

 Flowers. By Anon. 



The following observations on the subject of light, more 

 especially with reference to the kind of light best adapted to 

 the displaying of flowers, have originated in the strikingly dif- 

 ferent effect produced by two exhibitions of plants and flowers 

 which I lately saw : one collection, exhibited in a room gene- 

 rally supposed to be admirably calculated for such a pur- 

 pose, received no light but from the roof or dome, and 

 that softened by shades ; the other, shown in a large, merely 



