318 
Oj yegetaiion. 
Experiment CXXII. 
That the leaves of plants do imbibe elaf- 
tick air, I have fonie reafon to fufped from 
the following Experiment, viz. In May I 
fet fome well rooted plants of fpear-mint 
in two glafs cifterns full of water, which 
ciftems were fet on pedehals, and had in- 
verted chymical receivers put over them, as 
in ( Fig. 35.) the wearer being drawn up to 
a a, half way their necks : In this inclofed 
nioill hate the plants looked pretty florid 
for a month, and made, as I think, fome 
fev/ weak lateral flioots, tho* they did not 
grow in height ; they were not quite dead 
till after fix wrecks, when it was found that 
the water was rifen in both glafles from 
a a towards Z Zf in bulk about 20 cubick 
inches : But as there w^as not fo exad an ac- 
count taken of the different temperature of 
the air, as to heat and cold, as there ought 
to have been, I am not certain, whether 
that rifing of the water might not be owing 
to a greater coolnefs of the air at the fix 
weeks end, than when they were firft placed 
under the glaffes 3 and therefore do not de- 
