22 FRUIT GARDEN COMPANION. 



slates, or tiles ; of the last kinds are the fleshy 

 plants. As the earth furnishes the greatest number 

 of plants, and all those which are of the most im- 

 portance to man, its influence upon vegetation is of 

 the greatest consequence, and at the same time one 

 of the most difficult of which we can treat. 



" Plants are not, like animals, endowed with 

 powers of locomotion ; but are always fixed to a 

 limited portion of the soil. They depend on the 

 small space which they occupy for the supply of 

 their wants ; they can place under contribution only 

 those portions of the surrounding air, earth, and 

 water that come in contact with them ; it is neces- 

 sary, then, that they should find immediately around 

 them the nutritive principles requisite for their 

 growth, and for the exercise of their functions ; it 

 is necessary that they should be able to extend their 

 roots, in order to draw from the soil its nourishing 

 juices ; and to fasten themselves in the earth, so as 

 to be secure from being dried by heat or uprooted 

 by winds." 



Art. 2. — On the Food of Plants. 



The food of trees and plants is found to be, in 

 most cases, either animal or vegetable substance in 

 a decaying state ; and is absorbed by their roots 

 principally in aqueous solution or water ; plants also 

 imbibe some nutriment from the atmospheric air 

 by the leaves, which imbibe moisture through their 

 pores ; they also imbibe nutriment from the at- 

 mosphere of decomposed animal and vegetable mat- 

 ter which is carried to them by high winds, &c, 

 from high-ways and other places adjacent to them. 



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