cn. n. 



COURSE OF THE SAP. 



raise the sap a hundred feet, I confess I do not see. 

 But I guess that some day it will be seen that tur- 

 gescence, acting on living organisation, is the main 

 mechanical power m the ascent of the sap. Cut a tree, 

 indeed, or grub it if you please, and place it on its 

 roots in a pond, and turgescence will by no means send 

 the water up the dead wood. On the contrary, all but 

 the immersed end of the tree, and its immediate 

 neighbourhood, will dry as if it were m the timber-yard. 

 This is as far as my horse Turgescence will carry me, 

 which is not very far. And I end as I began — we are 

 all in the dark about it ! 



According to an experiment of Hales, which has 

 been since verified by others, the sap rises with a force 

 sufficient to support the pressure of a column of water 

 of double the height which would burst an ordinary 

 hogshead cask. And w^e see that it ascends to pro- 

 digious heights, yet we are ignorant how or by what 

 agency. 



We see also the miraculous and universal system of where is 



the sap 



transubstantiation with which we are surrounded in the elaborated? 



W hence 



vegetable world, yet we are not only ignorant of the g^-o^X in 

 chemistry which produces this transubstantiation — depositfd? 

 which, from absorbed moisture and gases, forms the 

 immense variety and tlie immense quantity of all ' the 

 proper juices ' and ' peculiar acids ' of all the various 

 woods, bark, leaves, flowers, scents, fruits, seeds, &c., of 

 that most exquisite kingdom, — but w^e are even ignorant 

 in what part of the plant the elaboration takes place. 



