HORTICULTURAL ROCIETV OF LONDO.V. 



335 



I found thut in small quantity it produced decidedly beneficial 

 effects ; in some cases when it was applied to plants in an un- 

 healthy state from the action of other substances, it had the effect 

 of invigorating them, and of restoring their leaves to a healthy, 

 green, and crisp condition. The plants with which these effects 

 were best observed were the garden lettuce and the common 

 Windsor bean. The solution of the hydrosulphuret of ammonia 

 employed was prepared by mixing; a saturated solution of the com- 

 pound with fifty times its bulk of water : such a solution had a most 

 nauseous disgusting smell and contained of course a large quan- 

 tity of sulphuretted hydrogen. The plants under experiment 

 were selected from many, and were of the same age, and size, and 

 as far as possible in the same healthy state of growth. Some were 

 watered with commnn water, others with a dilute solution of 

 hydrosulphuret of ammonia. At first only a few drops of the 

 solution were given, but finding that this produced little or no 

 effect, the dose was increased, and as much as half an ounce a 

 day, and sometimes even more, was given to each plant ; it was 

 found that those thus treated became stronger and sturdier, their 

 leaves were of a bright deep green, the space between the nodes, 

 or the distance fr om leaf to leaf, was shorter, and the stems were 

 stronger, and the whole plant more flourishing than in those 

 watered in the ordinary way, although all other circumstances were 

 alike, and care was taken to place all under the same condition, by 

 exposing them equally to air and light, and giving them the same 

 quantity of water every day. Plants in a languid state from 

 over doses of nitrate of potash, or soda, or other saline manures, 

 if not too much injured by their previous treatment, appeared to 

 recover more rapidly when watered with the solution of hydro- 

 sulphuret of ammonia, than when merely treated with common 

 water. In some of these latter cases a much stronger solution was 

 employed than that already mentioned, containing two drachms 

 of the saturated solution of hydrosulphuret of ammonia in fifty 

 of water, and of this eight drachms were given daily. For some 

 time after thus watering the plants, the earth retained a strong 

 smell of sulphuretted hydrogen, and the water which drained 

 through, when tested by a salt of lead, evidently contained a 

 large quantity of that gas. 



These and similar experiments naturally make one enquire 

 whether the influence of sulphur on the growth of vegetables has 

 not been rather overlooked ? It is a beautiful provision in the 

 order of the creation that plants in decaying give rise to the 

 formation of those very substances requisite for the support and 

 growth of fresh plants. We know that plants in decaying evolve 

 ammonia, carbonic acid, and other substances which constitute 



