221 
sels without lime, continued fresh and vigorous. 
These experiments with lime prove, says M. de Saus- 
sure, an attraction, and, consequently, a formation 
of carbonic acid by plants which vegetate in sun- 
shine ; from whence we collect, that plants growing 
in the light, form carbonic acid with the oxygen of 
the atmosphere *. 
501. The foregoing conclusion seems to be fairly 
deduced from the results of the experiments ; but 
M. de Saussure farther considers them to prove, that 
the presence of carbonic acid is necessary to vegeta- 
tion, because the plants ceased to vegetate, apparent- 
ly from this acid being withdrawn t- This inference, 
however, is completely at variance with the fact, that 
vegetables grow in air that has been entirely deprived 
of its carbonic acid (499.) ; and it is also contradicted 
by other experiments of a similar nature, conducted 
in the shade. For in the shade, says M. de Saussure, 
not only have the plants not died in recipients which 
contained lime, and were inverted in lime-water, but 
they have flourished better than in similar recipients 
which did not contain that substance. In ten days, 
a plant, confined with lime in the shade, acquired 
seven grains in weight ; the volume of air lost four 
and a half cubic inches : it was become very impure, 
and contained x |^. of carbonic acid J. But in the re- 
cipient without lime, the plant acquired only five 
grains in weight, and the atmosphere contained 
* Annales de Chimie, torn. xxiv. p. 144. 145. 
t Ibid. torn. xxiv. p. 145. J Ib. t. xxiv. p. 14,6. 
