a 
1885. | Botany. 1099 
BOTANY .! 
THE GROWTH OF PLANTS WATERED WITH Acip Soxutions.—In 
the September and October numbers of the AMERICAN NATURAL- 
Ist for 1883, the writer published the results of an examination 
of the effects of watering, with acid solutions, growing plants of 
the silver-leaf geranium, and he there stated his intention of con- 
tinuing his experiments in this direction by growing the same 
plant under similar or identical conditions upon siliceous, feld- 
spathic and calcareous soils. ese experiments were made in 
the summer of 1884, and the results obtained form the substance 
of this paper. 
The conclusion seemed warranted by my previous experiments 
that the acids had a tendency to increase the ash or mineral in- 
gredients of the plant, and this inference led me to suppose that 
if the soils used were highly mineralized the deleterious action of 
the acids upon the plant tissue would be diminished and at the 
same time the introduction into the plant of mineral substances 
increased. The soils were prepared and the plants potted about 
July īst, the proportion of pulverized mineral in all cases being 
from twenty-five to thirty per cent of the whole, for the silica 
common cement sand was used, and the earth was taken from 
garden mold. The strengths of the acid solutions used were as 
follows : Of hydrochloric, nitric, sulphuric and carbolic 10° of 
the concentrated acid to one liter of water; of oxalic, tartaric, 
tannic, citric and formic 20% of the saturated solutions to one 
liter of water. Ordinary flesh-colored feldspar from granite veins 
in the gneiss rock of Manhattan island was powdered and used 
for the feldspathic tests, and dolomitic marble from Westchester 
county similarly treated and mixed in thoroughly with the mol 
to make a calcareous soil. 
_ The tables following show the results obtained in all my exper- 
iments, including those of 1882. The first set of tables shows 
the state of leafiness of the plants at different times, and the sec- 
ond the percentage of ash with the weight of the dried plant at 
the end of the experiment. 
Experiment of 1882 with garden mold for soil : 
: June 25. July 13. Aug. 24. 
Hydrochloric . 6 fall leaves 6 full leaves 5 full leaves 
itric Sees 5 ee se 2 “oe 
Carbolic 4 s 2 “ none 
Formic... 4“ 6 “s 5 full leaves 
Salicylic ie 6 se 7 g 4 sc 
Sulphuri y i 5 (2i 2 e 
Tartaric z 7 “ 9 2 9 ‘“ 
Tannic Chace 6 «t 9 “ 9 c 
Citric E EE 5 (73 7 é 7 “6 
Water. Sees Il “ 13 e 17 c 
Cina ng i 5 a 
* Edited by PRorEssor CHARLES E., Bessey, Lincoln, Nebraska, 
