CVCLOPEDIA: 
OR, A NEW 
UNIVERSAL 
DICTIONARY 
OF 
ARTS and SCIENCES. 
¥F O 
OOD of Prants, in Agriculture and Vegetation, the 
various kinds of ae attenuated and elaborated materials 
which are abforbed from the furrounding seach lee. or 
taken 8p from the foil, in érder to their nourifhment and 
fupport. It feems not improbable but that many of the 
more fluid and elaftic m a of nature may contribute in 
this way. e e ers were extremely 
anxious to afcertain the alae of the eee cr food o 
plants, but their inquiries on the fubjeét were far from fatis- 
ory. They afcribed che — pi neva of crs ants 
‘ feveral different matters, as water arth, fire, &c.; 
w 
Va as ftrongly in 
Body contended for its being air, while 
food forward in ee of earth, and nitre 1e foo 
e© matter, however, ees 1ued in “this unfettled 
tation, and the manner. ow 
attention of thofe who are 
foil, 
-ever highly a of 
engaged in the Sieuloor ge of the as upon the know-. 
ledge of thefe ina great meafure depends, not only the im- 
of different forts of se as dis e agr Neulturalife 
Should indeed be in of the full and c eS 
knowled e of the means oy ahr all the various for 
ufeful-feld plants are beft capable. of. being raifed, tie 
tiahan and Prefton 
Now free Square, Londos, 
e 
of viz. atmofpheric air, and moitt fo 
O D. 
ported, and vai to perfection. 
notion of thefe 
affiiting him 
crops, as well as he moft advantageous ftates and 
Ania of the ground for affording the nourifhment and 
re of ae ea in the moft ealy, abundant, and ex- 
fone ma 
“The relerches of dodtor Ingenhoufz throw confiderable 
exact. 
A juf and 
light not n the nature of a ood of plants, but: 
ifemte on a renovation and improvemen foils. It ie 
contended by this a Sa hilefopher, 4 in an able effay, 
h volume of the Annals of Agri- 
to inqu s 
which de i inevizably perifh, and 
w hich alone i 18 fufficient to continue their life. ies one . 
veaiaeld 
oft 
ee dérived “cith 
animal or vegetable fubftances; which food being ea 
into the ftomach or fome refervoir deftined. for that i ane 
ey are in conta 
ily, the. earth ‘cod the ‘atmofpheric-air, ae no urifhen an 
muft, he thinks, opr ‘either of them, or in both ys 
earth is. neceffary t o the planta,.as the orly means to fix 
ae peD S i ae by {preading through it thei r. 
3, but s generally ifture, falts, air, . 
Re. cae has rete ern from this cireumitance e, fo. 
that the filaments of ‘the roots pump from the foil all: aa 
B. - 
