136 Dr. Meyen's Researches in Physiological Botany. 



XVIII. — Report of the Results of Researches in Physiological 

 Botany made in the year 1839. By F. J. Me yen, M.D., 

 Professor of Botany in the University of Berlin*. 



On the Nutrition and Growth of Plants. 

 M. Lampadius f has instituted some new experiments on the 

 vegetation of wheat in different soils, and on the quantity of 

 earthy matters contained in the wheat plants so cultivated ; 

 from which he arrives at the conclusion that the quantity of 

 earthy matter in the plants produced on the different soils 

 (viz. those rich in alumina, silicic acid, lime or magnesia) re- 

 mains always the same, and that these substances are not 

 taken up mechanically by the roots, but are selected by the 

 Vegetative Power by means of the roots, and are then depo- 

 sited in different combinations in the plants for the formation 

 of their several parts. 



The facts from which these conclusions were drawn were 

 the following : A piece of field was divided into 5 beds, each 

 20 Prussian feet square. Each bed received first of all 5 lbs. 

 of manure (a mixture of cow- and horse-dung), then on the 

 1st bed were strewn 5 lbs. of finely powdered quartz, on the 

 2nd the same quantity of alumina, on the 3rd the same of 

 chalk, and on the 4th 5 lbs of carbonate of magnesia ; the 5 th 

 was left without any mineral manure at all. On each bed were 

 sown 2 Pruss. cubic inches of wheat, about 675 grains. The 

 next summer the vegetation appeared most vigorous on the 

 bed strewn with alumina, and the produce of grains of wheat 

 on the 5 beds, was, according to weight, as follows : — 



Produce. 



Bed oz. dr. 



1 24 2 



2 28 6 



3 26 2 



4 21 4 



5 20 



After incineration it appeared that the grains which had been 

 produced from the different beds contained almost equal 



* Translated from the German, under the direction of the Author, by 

 Henry Croft, Esq. 



On commencing the publication of Professor Meyen's Report for 1839, it 

 is with much concern that we have at the same time to record the death 

 of the author, whereby Natural History sustains a heavy loss. Translations 

 of his valuable Reports for the years 1835 and 1837, by Mr. W. Francis, 

 have been published ; the former in the Lond. and Edinb. Philosophical 

 Magazine, vol. xi. pp. 381, 435, 524 ; xii. 53 ; the latter in a separate vo- 

 lume. — See Annals Nat. Hist. vol. v. p. 211, and Mag. Nat. Hist. vol. iv. 

 p. 408. 



f Erdmann's und Marchand's Journal fur practischu Chemie, Bd. xviii. 

 p. 257—269. 



