24 



THE FOOD OF TKEES IS IMBIBED 



TT. 11. 



No. 1. From a ridge-bed, covered with matting at 

 night, in which early potatoes and radishes were 

 growing, I took half a dozen radishes, rubbed off all the 

 side-roots, and laid them sideways in the earth, in a 

 flower-pot, with their heads out of the earth, and their 

 immature white end-roots in the air, over the side of 

 the flower-pot. All grew. 



No. 2. Of another half-dozen, I cut the red bulbs 

 across the middle, rubbed the side-rootlets off the 

 upper halves, and planted them in a flow^er-pot. All 

 grew. 



No. 3. I tied half a dozen others to sticks, so that 

 their heads and red bulbs were in the air, and their 

 immature white roots buried about two inches in the 

 earth. All died. 



It is true that each experiment, for the first week, 

 flagged with every warm g learn 



Purpureus veluti cum flos succisus aratro 

 Languescit moriens ; 



and this flagging took place in celerity and intensity 

 mversely as I have numbered the experiments. But 

 they revived with every shower, and this in celerity 

 and perfection directly as their numbers. Some plants 

 even of No. 3 recovered their drooping partially after 

 showers for the first few days. But this, I think, only 

 goes to prove the position with which I started in the 

 first edition of this treatise, that vegetables imbibe 

 from all mature parts which are exposed to moisture, 



