558 Agricultural Chemistry—Turnips. 



the mineral matters are distributed, not as constituents of the 

 organized substance of the plant, but in its vessels and fluids, 

 ovvins: their quantity and character, to a great extent, to the ex- 

 ternal influences just referred to, but little, comparatively, to the 

 selective processes of the organism. 



The following mean results of analysis seem to show that the 

 more the truly vital processes have been exercised, the more 

 special does the composition of the mineral matter become : — 









Leaf Ash. 



Bulb Ash. 











Mean of 24 

 Analyses by- 

 Mr. D. 

 Campbell. 



Mean of 24 

 Analyses by 

 Dr. Gilbert. 







Chloride of potassium. 

 Chloride of sodium 



Phosphoric acid * . . 

 Sulphuric acid . . 

 Carbonic acid . 





22-05 



4- 84 

 0-19 

 6*15 



30-53 

 0-82 



5- 05 

 12-55 

 17-82 



44-84 



0- 34 



1- 79 



6- 86 

 11-40 



1-46 



7- 89 

 10-63 

 14-79 









100-00 



100-00 





These results being the mean of so many analyses as twenty-four 

 in each case, the general character of the distinctions they exhibit 

 may be fully relied upon. It is to be regretted that we have not 

 an actual analysis of the ash of the seed of the Norfolk white, to 

 place by the side of those of the leaf and of the bulb. We know, 

 however, that phosphoric acid, potass, and magnesia are eminently 

 seed-ash constituents, and that the existence of the vehicular ele- 

 ment, chlorine, in a perfectly ripened seed is doubtful. The in- 

 crease in the percentage of the more special, and decrease in 

 that of the less special constituents, is clearly shown in the results 

 given above, as we proceed from the earlier formation to the later 

 one, the composition of which is more influenced by the peculiar 

 elaborative action of the organism. Of the soda salts, indeed, 

 the actual amount is somewhat larger in the bulb than in the leaf, 

 but their proportion to the potass ones is much less. 



It has been observed that the ash analyses of green crops seem 

 to afford confirmation of the much discussed theory of the substi- 

 tution of potass by soda in plants, but that those of grain crops, 

 on the other hand, do not serve the same purpose. It seems to 

 us, however, that if in green and succulent substances, in which 



* In the analysis of the leaf and bulb ash, the phosphoric acid is calcu- 

 lated from the bone-earth precipitate, taking no account of the small quan- 

 tity of iron salt usually present. 



