a 4 4. MtfceUanea Curio fa. 



other Salts, promote Vegetation. I am forry 

 I cannot fubfcribe to the Opinion of thofe 

 Learned Gentlemen, who imagine Nitre to 

 be effential to Plants ; and that nothing in 

 the Vegetable Kingdom is tranfa&ed without 

 it. By all the Trials I have been able to 

 make, the thing is quite otherwife ; and when 

 contiguous to the Plant, it rather defcpoys 

 than nourifhes it. But this Nitre and other 

 Salts certainly do ; they loofen the Earth, and 

 feparate the concreted Parts of it ; by that means 

 fitting and difpofmg them to be affumed by 

 the Water, and carried up into the Seed or 

 Plant, for its Formation and Augment. There's 

 no Man but rauft obferve, how apt all forts 

 of Salts are to be wrought upon by Moi- 

 fture ; how eafily they liquate and run with 

 ft • and when thefe are drawn off, and have 

 deferted the Lumps wherewith they were in- 

 corporated, thofe muft moulder immediately, 

 and fall afunder of Courfe. The hardeft 

 Stone we meet with , if it happen , as fre- 

 quently it does, to have any fort of Salt m- 

 termix'd with the Sand, of which it ^ confifts, 

 upon being expos'd to an humid Air, in a 

 fliort time diflblves and crumbles all to pieces ; 

 and much more will clodded Earth or G lay, 

 which is not of near fo compact and io- 

 lid a Conftitution as Stone is. The Tame way 

 likewife is Lime ferviceablc in this Aftair. 

 The Husbandmen fay of It, that it does not 

 fatten, but only mellows the Ground: By 

 which they mean, that it does not contain 

 any thing in it felf that is of the fame Nature 

 with the Vegetable Mould or afford any 

 Matter fit for the Formation of Plants ; but 



roeerly 



