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THE REJECTIONS OF PLANTS. 
and if it were retained in the pot, which we have no reason to doubt,, affords a 
striking illustration of the subject in question. We have never witnessed such 
marked effects as those alluded to, although we have had frequent occasion to 
regret the sudden exposure of many plants to the full power of the sun. 
As we have before shown, it is possible to injure some plants by an extreme 
degree of solar light as well as by a defalcation of it, and in this as in all other 
subjects, there is a happy medium to be attained, but it requires diligently to be 
sought after. We have presented our readers with the result of some of our 
researches, and we shall now be most happy to insert the communication of any 
correspondent whose inquiries have extended beyond our own, or who will further 
elucidate the subject in any of its numerous bearings. 
THE REJECTIONS OF PLANTS. 
When the theory relative to the excrementitious discharges of plants was first 
promulged, it naturally provoked a considerable degree of astonishment and incre- 
dulity among horticulturists of all classes ; and many practical gardeners, under 
the impression that it was purely fallacious and absurd, made several attempts to 
refute it, and expose its alleged inconsistencies. As the controversy it occasioned 
has now in a great measure subsided, and the prejudices of different individuals 
have either been mollified or removed, it appears almost needless to bring forward 
any further arguments in its support than have already appeared in various works, 
more especially as the most convincing proofs of its correctness are daily occurring 
both in garden and field. That many plants and vegetables do emit an excremen- 
titious slime, is a fact which we consider perfectly incontrovertible ; how, otherwise, 
is the deterioration of any soil by growing in it successive crops of one kind of 
plant (notwithstanding it may be plentifully manured) to be accounted for ? Is 
it not clear that the deterioration must proceed, not so much from the abstraction 
of nutritious, as from the transfusion of deleterious particles ? But much more 
palpable evidence than this may be adduced ; which is, that if plants, such as 
bulbs, are placed in a vessel of water in a growing state, and that water is not 
daily removed, in a few days the roots will be enveloped with a viscid, slimy 
substance, which has evidently exuded from them, and unless this is washed away 
by a fresh supply of water, the health of the bulbs will be materially injured. 
Assuming, then, this theory to be established, and almost universally admitted, we 
intend offering a few general remarks on the particular influence of vegetable fseces 
on certain plants, and then drawing from them some practical inferences relative to 
the cultivation of those plants which are most materially affected thereby. 
It must be obvious to all who have investigated this subject, that some plants 
deteriorate the soil much sooner than others, and consequently that their rejections 
are either more copious, or of a more virulent character ; but we are not aware 
that the cause of this difference has yet been explained. We are inclined to 
