THE ASH OF PLANTS. 181 
first charred at a heat of low redness, and then leached 
with water, which dissolves the chlorides, and separates 
them from the unburned carbon and other matters, chlo- 
rine is invariably mentioned. In the tables of analyses, 
the averages of chlorine are undeniably too low. This is 
especially true of the grains. 
The average of chlorine in the 26 analyses of wheat by 
Way & Ogston, p. 150, is but 0.08" |,, it not being found at all 
in the ash of 21 samples. In Zoeller’s later analyses, chlorine 
is found in every instance, and averages 0.7°|,. Weber’s 
analysis, as compared with the others, would indicate a 
considerable range of variability. Weber extracted the 
charred ash with water, and found 6°|, of chlorine, which 
is six times as much as is given in any other recorded anal- 
ysis of the wheat kernel. This result is in all probability 
erroneous, 
Like soda, chlorine is particularly abundant in the stems 
and leaves of those kinds of vegetation which grow in soils 
or other media containing much common salt. It accom- 
panies soda in strand and marine plants, and, in general, 
the content of chlorine of any plant may be largely in- 
creased or diminished by supplying it to, or withholding 
it from the roots. 
As to the indispensableness of chlorine, we have some- 
what conflicting data. Salm-Horstmar concludes that a 
trace of it is needful to the wheat plant, though many of 
his experiments in reference to the importance of this ele- 
ment he himself regards as unsatisfactory. Nobbe & 
Siegert, who have made an elaborate investigation on the 
nutritive relations of chlorine to buckwheat, were led to 
conclude that while the stems and foliage of this plant are 
able to attain a considerable development in the absence 
of chlorine, (the minute amount in the seed itself excepted,) 
presence of chlorine is essential to the perfection of the 
kernel. 
On the other hand, Knop excludes chlorine from the 
