deeper and deeper coloured, but will not precipitate 
to the bottom of the glaffes, as the mineral water will, 
if there be any confiderable quantity, by reafon of its 
much greater fpecific gravity. On the whole there- 
fore he concludes very juftly, That there is in all wa- 
ter a confiderable quantity of the earthy matter. And 
in order to determine whether the Vegetation of plants 
was chiefly owing to bare water or not, rather than to 
the terreftrial matter therein contained, he made with 
very great accuracy and care feveral experiments. 
Which experiments, becaufe they were done with an 
uncommon care and exaCtnefs, are a fufficient num- 
ber of them, and are followed by very ingenious re- 
flections, ferving to explicate many difficulties of phi- 
loibphy, and to fet the whole affair of Vegetation in a 
very good light, I ffiall give the regifter as follows : 
Anno Dom. 1691, he chofe feveral glafs phials, that 
were all, as near as poffible, of the fame fhape and 
bignefs. After he had put what water he thought fit 
into every one of them, and taken an account of the 
weight of it, he {trained and tied over the orifice of 
each phial a piece of parchment, having holes in the 
middle of it large enough to admit the item of the 
plant he defigned to fet into the phial, without con- 
fining or (heightening it fo as to impede its growth. 
His intention in this was to prevent the inclofed wa- 
ter from evaporating or afcending any other way than 
only through the plant to be fet therein. 
Then he made choice of feveral (prigs of Mint and 
other plants, that were, as near as he could poffibly 5 
judge alike found, frefli, and lively. Having taken the 
weight of each, he placed them in a phial, ordered 
as above,, and as the plant imbibed and drew off the 
water, he took care to add more of the fame from 
time to time, keeping an account of the weight of 
all he added. (Each of the glaffes were, for better dif- 
tinCcion, and the more eafy keeping a regifter of all 
the circumftances, noted with a different mark or let- 
ter, as A, B, C. &c. and all let in a row in the fame 
window, in fuch a manner that all might partake alike 
of air, light, and fun. 
Then they continued from July the 20th to October 
the 5th, which is juft 77 days, when he took them out, 
weighed the water in each phial, and the plant like- 
wife, adding to its w r eight that of all the leaves that 
had fallen off, during the time it had (food thus, and 
laftly he computed how much each plant had gained, 
and how much water was fpent upon it. 
j the particulars are as fellow : 
The plant weighed, when put in, July the 20th, juft 
27 grains*, when taken out, October the 5th, 42 
grains, fo that in the fpate of 77 days it had gained 
in weight 15 grains. 
The whole quantity of water, expended during the 77 
days, amounts to 2558 grains. Confequently the 
weight of the water had taken up 170 Tt times the 
grains as much as the plant had gained in weight* 
This will be made plainer by the following Table. 
jjWeight of the | 
plant when firft 
put into water. 
Weight of the 1 
plant when tak- 
en out of the 
water. 
Weight gained by 
the plant du- 
ring the 77 
| days. 
Weight of the wa- 
ter expended up- 
on the plant. 
Proportion of the in- 
creafe of the plant 
to the expence of 
the water. 
A 
Common Spear-mint. 
j 15 grains. 
Spring Water. 
27 grains. 
42 grains. 
2558 grains. 
as 1 to 170 
B 
1 
Common Spear-mint. 
' 
Rain water. 
28 4 grains. 
1 45 t grains. \ 
1 7 i grains. 
3004 grains. 
as 1 to 1 71 |4* 
•ft* 
C 
- 
Common Spear-mint. 
Thames water. 
« 
28 grains. 
\ 54 grains. 
26 grains. 
2493 grains. 
as 1 to 95 44. 
D 
Common Solanum , or Nightfhade. 
Spring water. 
49 grains. 
106 grains. 
:*v» 
J 57 grains. 
3708 grains. 
as 1 to 65 f-f. 
E 
• 
Lathy r us, feu Cataputia. 
Ger. fpring water. 
98 grains. 
101 4- grains. 
3 4- grains. 
25 01 grains. 
as 1 to 714 ±. 
The fpecimen D had feveral buds upon it, when firft 
fet into the water *, thefe, in fome days, became fair 
flowery, which were at length fucceeded by berries. 
Several other plants were tried, which did not thrive 
in water, nor fucceed any better than the Cataputia 
foregoing. 
The phials F and G were filled, the former with rain, 
and the other with fpring water, at the fame time as 
thofe above-mentioned were, and flood as long as they 
did, but they had neither of them any plant, the de- 
fign of which was in order to learn, whether any wa- 
ter exhaled out of the glaffes, otherwife than through 
the bodies of the plants. 
The orifices of thefe two glaffes were covered with 
parchment, each piece of it being perforated with an 
hole of the fame bignefs with thofe of the phials above. 
In thefe was fufpended a bit of (lick about the thick- 
nefs of the (tern of one of the aforefaid plants, but 
not reaching down to the furface of the inclofed wa- 
ter, that the water in thefe might not have more 
fcope to evaporate than that in the other phials. 
Thus they (food the whole 77 days with the refty 
when, upon examination, none of the water was 
found to be wafted, or gone off; though he obferved 
both in thefe and the reft, efpecially after very hot 
weather, fmall drops of water, not unlike to dew, 
adhering to the infides of the glaffes, i. e. that part 
of them that was above the furface of the inclofed 
water, 
I 3 S The 
