THE 



GARDENER'S MAGAZINE, 



MARCH, 1841. 



ORIGINAL COMMUNICATIONS. 



Art. I. Observations o?i Liebigs " Organic Chemistry." 

 By R. Lymburn. 



In the treatise lately produced by Professor Liebig, at the 

 instance of the British Association, on Organic Chemistry 

 applied to Agriculture and Physiology ; he states his opinion 

 that sound principles will not be obtained in the art of 

 cultivation, till physiologists, chemists, and practical men, 

 unite their efforts in a mutual endeavour to elicit information. 

 Impressed with the justness of these statements, I propose in the 

 present Essay to go through the different subjects treated of 

 in the work, and make what remarks thereon have occurred to 

 me in my practice. The truths brought forward by the learned 

 professor are profound, and deeply interesting ; the inferences 

 drawn therefrom are very startling, and, if true to their utmost 

 extent, must produce a great revolution in practice. The subject 

 is as yet full of difficulties. 



It has been attempted, by analysing soils and manures 

 and the constituents of plants, and by submitting plants and 

 parts of plants to forced experiments, to arrive at some 

 definite conclusions. We cannot, however, fully rely on the 

 results produced by pieces of plants, or even whole plants, in 

 forced circumstances. The products of a plant torn up from 

 the soil in which it grew, and its leaves enclosed in the con- 

 fined air of a glass vessel, may be very different from what 

 would have been furnished in natural circumstances, could the 

 products have been properly collected. It is yet uncertain what 

 is the true action of the fibres of the roots on their food : they 

 seem to assist in decomposition, as well as absorption, but how 

 is not yet certain. The circumstance of two pots of charcoal 

 equally watered and heated through the summer, the one con- 

 taining a growing plant suflfering a greater decomposition of the 

 charcoal than the other, as lately stated by Dr. Lindley, should 

 be decisive of this question : the roots may, however, partly 

 act by removing the atmosphere of carbonic acid formed around 

 the pieces of charcoal ; and thus renewing the oxygen to hasten 

 1841. — III. 3d Ser. h 



