of  the  Ashes  of  Plants. 
511 
liarities  must  be  abandoned.  We  have  elsewhere  said  that,  as  the 
most  nutritive  constituents  of  plants  are  in  all  cases  accompanied 
by  the  scarce  and  consequently  valuable  minerals,  it  is  of  advantage 
to  any  particular  vegetable  produce  that  it  should  be  high  in  the 
scale  of  mineral  exhaustion,  because,  in  the  absence  of  direct  exa- 
mination of  its  vegetable  composition,  such  a fact  is  in  favour  of 
its  nutritive  qualities.  In  this  respect  the  grain  of  maize  closely 
assimilates  to  that  of  wheat,  and  recorded  analyses,  as  well  as  some 
which  we  have  lately  made,  exhibit  a close  similarity  in  their 
nutritive  characters. 
Kohl  Rabi. 
The  following  are  analyses  of  the  bulb  and  leaves  of  this  plant, 
the  crop  bAng  grown  by  the  Rev.  A.  Huxtable  on  the  thin  soil 
of  the  chalk  downs  of  Dorsetshire. 
Per  centage  of  Water  and  Ash  in  the  Bulb  and  Leaves  of  Kohl  Rabi : — 
Bulbs  . 
Leaves  . 
Water. 
88-21 
84-89 
Ash. 
•95 
2-80 
Ash  calculated 
on  dry  substance. 
• • 8-09 
..  18-54 
It  is  probable  that  the  proportion  of  water  in  the  recent  speci- 
men is  rather  higher  than  the  above,  as  the  plants  had  necessarily 
been  exposed  a considerable  time  before  reaching  the  laboratory. 
The  composition  of  the  ash  was  as  follows : — 
Composition  in  100  parts  of  the  Bulb  and  Leaves  of  Kohl  Rabi : — 
Bulbs. 
Leaves. 
Silica  .... 
•82 
9-57 
Phosphoric  Acid  . . 
13-46 
9-43 
Sulphuric  Acid 
11-43 
10-63 
Carbonic  Acid  . . 
10-24 
8-97 
Lime  . . 
10-20 
30-31 
Magnesia  .... 
2-36 
3-62 
Peroxide  of  Iron  . 
•38 
5-50 
Potash 
36-27 
9-31 
Soda 
2-84 
. . 
Chloride  of  Potassium  . 
none. 
5-99 
Chloride  of  Sodium 
11-90 
6-66 
Total  . . 
luo-oo 
99-99 
The  above  composition  is  in  many  respects  similar  to  that  of 
turnips,  and  does  not  require  any  special  comment. 
Carrots. 
In  our  second  report  (Jour.  R.  A.  S.  E.,  vol.  viii.  part  1)  will 
be  found  the  analvsis  of  White  Belgian  Carrots;  but  as  this 
2 l 2 
