Notes . 
169 
A solution from the soil was obtained by repeatedly washing a weighed amount 
of dry soil with 100 c.c. of water. The amount of NaCl in this solution was 
estimated in the same manner as that from the leaves. 
The amount of sodium chloride in the soil-water has no influence upon the 
proportion found in the plant tissues. This is what one would expect from the 
plant’s power of selective absorption. Kerner (2) demonstrated this fact in the case 
of Stratiotes aloides , Nymphaea alba, Char a foetida, and Phragmites communis. 
The soil may contain varying quantities of NaCl. Warming (3) states that 
when a soil dries slowly it may contain as much as 2-3 per cent. NaCl before all but 
halophytic plants will be expelled from it ; if a soil dries quickly only 1 per cent, is 
needed to act in the same manner. 
The data recorded in the subjoined table show that a large amount of NaCl in 
the soil does not necessarily mean a large amount in the leaves nor vice versa. 
In analysis I 5 gr. of perfectly dry soil contain o-oi per cent. NaCl. The soil was 
obtained from under a plant of Ulmus campestris growing six miles from high tide 
mark. The ash of the leaves contained 0-37 per cent. NaCl. In analysis II the 
amount of NaCl present in the soil was the same as in I, the sample being taken 
from beneath a plant of the same species growing about one mile from the sea. The 
leaf-ash in this case, however, contained 0*71 per cent. NaCl, i. e. almost twice 
as much as in case I. In analysis III the plant grew 440 yards from high-water 
mark and was sheltered by buildings from the sea winds, and the soil contained three 
times as much NaCl as in the two previous cases, whereas the leaf-ash did not contain as 
much as that taken from plants growing in a more exposed position further inland. 
Similar results were obtained on analysis of the soil and leaf-ash, the experimental 
plant being Acer P seudo-platanus , as may be seen from the data Nos. VI, VII, VIII. 
The variations, it will be noted, are not so great as in the case of Ulmus campestris. 
The NaCl in the atmosphere. 
The facts recorded in the table prove that it is the amount of NaCl in the 
atmosphere and absorbed by the leaves which is responsible for the amount of 
the salt found in them. 
The NaCl from the sea may (i), according to Ackroyd (6), be carried consider- 
able distances inland either as salt spray from the sea which is carried to the land to 
distances varying with the force of the wind ; or (ii) the salt may be dried by 
evaporation and then carried further inland with the dust ; or (iii) the salt may be dis- 
solved in the rain. Ackroyd (7) also mentions that during the great storm of 1839 
which ‘visited Liverpool and various parts of the kingdom, on January 6th and 7th, 
the trees and hedges in many places — e. g. Huddersfield and Longton — appeared to 
be covered with a white frost which, on analysis, proved to be a briny deposit which 
the wind had brought from the Irish Sea \ 
Lesage (4) found that sodium chloride penetrates the plant tissues of Lepidium 
sativum and Raphanus sativus in large quantities. 
Lewis (5) showed that if the leaves of Camellia japonica , Ilex Aquifolium, 
Syringa vulgaris, Cavendishia acuminata, and Arum maculatum are immersed in 
3*0420 per cent. NaCl solution and in sea-water they absorb NaCl. In the case of 
N 
