244 



SCIENCE OF GARDENING. 



Part II. 



sola soda), when it grows in inland situations, afford the vegetable alkali ; when it grows 

 on the sea-shore, where compounds which afford the fossil or marine alkali are more 

 abundant, it yields that substance. Du Hamel found that plants which usually grow 

 on the sea-shore, made small progress when planted in soils containing little common 

 salt. The sun-flower, when growing in lands containing no nitre, does not afford that 

 substance ; though when watered by a solution of niti-e, it jdelds nitre abundantly. The 

 tables of De Saussure show that the ashes of plants are similar in constitution to the soils 

 in which they have vegetated. De Saussure made plants grow in solutions of different 

 salts ; and he ascertained that, in all cases, certain portions of the salts were absorbed by 

 the plants, and found unaltered in their organs. Even animals do not appear to possess 

 the power of forming tlie alkaline and earthy substances. Dr. Fordyce found, that when 

 canary-birds, at the time they were lapng eggs, were deprived of access to carbonate of 

 lime, their eggs had soft shells ; and if there is any process for which nature may be con- 

 ceived most likely to supply resources of this kind, it is that connected with the repro- 

 duction of the species. 



1 166. It seems a fair conclusion, as the evidence on the subject now stands, that the dif- 

 ferent earths and saline substances found in the organs of plants, are supplied byAe soils 

 in which they grow ; and in no cases composed by nev/ an-angements of the elements in 

 air or water. What may be our ultimate view of the lav. s of chemistry, or how far our 

 ideas of elementary principles may be simplified, it is impossible to say. We can only 

 reason from facts. We cannot imitate the powers of composition belonging to vegetable 

 structures ; but at least we can understand them : and as far as our researches have 

 gone, it appears'that in vegetation compound foi-ms are uniforaily produced from simple 

 ones ; and the elements in the soil, the atmosphere and the earth absorbed and made parts 

 of beautiful and diversified structures. The views winch have been just developed lead to 

 correct ideas of the operation of those mam.ires which are not necessarily the result of de- 

 cayed organised bodies, and which are not composed of different proportions of carbon, 

 hydrogen, oxygen, and azote. — They must produce their effect, either by becoming a 

 constituent part of the plant, or by acting upon its more essential food, so as to render it 

 more fitted for the purposes of vegetable life. 



SuBSECT. 2. Of the different Species of Mineral Manures. 



1167. Alkaline earths, or alkalies and their combinations, which are found unmixed with 

 the remains of any organised beings, are the only substances Avhich can with propriety be 

 called fossil manures. The only alkaline earths which have been hitherto applied in this 

 M^ay ai-e lime and magnesia ; though potassa and soda, the two fixed alkaHes, are both used 

 to a limited extent in certain of their chemical compounds. 



11 68. The most common form in ivhich lime is found on the surface of the earth, is in a 

 state of combination with carbonic acid or fixed air. If a piece of limestone or chalk 

 be thrown into a fluid acid, there will be an effervescence. This is owing to the escape 

 of the carbonic acid gas. The lime becomes dissolved in the liquor. "VMien limestone 

 is strongly heated, the carbonic acid gas is expelled, and then nothing remains but the 

 j)ixre alkaline earth ; in tliis case there is a loss of weight ; and if the fire has been very 

 liigh, it approaches to one half the weight of the stone ; but in common cases, limestones, 

 if well dried before burning, do not lose much more than 35 to 40 per cent., or from 

 seven to eight parts out of twenty. 



1 1 69. IVlien burnt lime is exposed to the atmosphere, in a certain time it becomes mild, 

 and is tl:ie same substance as that precipitated from lime-water ; it is combined with car- 

 bonic acid gas. Quick-lune, when first made, is caustic and burning to the tongue, 

 renders vegetable blues green, and is soluble in water ; but when combined \\-ith carbonic 

 acid, it loses all these properties, its solubility, and its taste : it regains its power of effer- 

 vescing, and becomes the same chemical substance as chalk or limestone. Very few 

 limestones or chalks consist entirely of lime and carbonic acid. The statuaiy marbles, 

 or certain of the rhomboidal spars, are ahnost the only pure species ; and the different 

 properties of limestones, both as manures and cements, depend upon the nature of the in- 

 gredient mixed in the limestone ; for the true calcareous element, the carbonate of Hme, 

 is uniformly the same in nature, properties, and effects, and consists of one proportion of 

 carbonic acid 41 '4, and one of lime 55. When a limestone does not copiously effer- 

 vesce in acids, and is sufficiently hard to scratch glass, it contains siliceous, and probably 

 aluminous earth. WTien it is deep brown or red, or strongly colored, of any of the shades 

 of brown or yellow, it contains oxide of iron. When it is not sufficiently hard to scratch 

 glass, but efferv'esces slowly, and makes the acid in which it effervesces milky, it contains 

 magnesia. And when it is black, and emits a fetid smell if rubbed, it contains coaly or 

 bituminous matter. • Before any opinion can be formed of the manner in which the 

 different ingredients in limestones modify their properties, it will be necessary to con- 

 sider the operation of pure lime as a manure. 



