342 JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. [ October 12 , 1882 . 
“ By the simplest experiment anyone can satisfy himself that rain 
water filtered through field or garden soil does not dissolve out a 
trace of potash, silicic acid, ammonia, or phosphoric acid.” “The 
soil does not give up to the water one particle of the food of plants 
which it contains. The most continuous rain cannot remove from 
the field, except mechanically, any of the essential elements of its 
fertility.” “ If rain or other water, holding in solution ammonia, 
potash, phosphoric and silicic acids, be brought in contact with 
the soil, these substances disappear almost immediately from the 
solution ; the soil withdraws them from the water. Only such 
substances are completely withdrawn by the soil as are indispen¬ 
sable articles of the food of plants ; all others remain wholly or in 
part in solution.” “ If freshly precipitated phosphate of lime, or 
phosphate of magnesia, be dissolved in water saturated with car¬ 
bonic acid, and filtered in like manner through soil, there will not 
be found a trace of phosphoric acid in the filtered water. A solu¬ 
tion of phosphate of lime in dilute sulphuric acid, or of phosphate 
of magnesia and ammonia in carbonic acid water, comports itself 
in the same manner. The phosphoric acid of the phosphate of 
lime and the phosphoric acid and ammonia of the magnesian salt 
remain in the soil.” “ Charcoal reacts in a similar manner with 
many soluble salts ; it removes colouring matter and salts from 
solution “but the constituents of the soil take part in its action, 
and hence it must in many cases be quite different from that of 
charcoal.” 
“ Potash is found in all our land plants, but soda forms only an 
exceptional constituent of their ashes. From sulphate and nitrate 
of soda the soil withdraws only part of the soda, but the whole of 
the potash from the corresponding potash salts.” Liebig con¬ 
vinced himself that in a garden soil, rich in lime and 2£ acres in 
extent, 10,000 lbs. of potash would be absorbed from a solution of 
silicate of potash, and retained for the use of plants. “A similar 
experiment,” he says, “made with a solution of phosphate of 
magnesia and ammonia in carbonic acid water, showed that a 
2^-acre field would withdraw 5000 lbs. of this salt from such a 
solution. A loam (poor in lime) produces the same effect.” 
“ These facts give us some conception of the powerful action of 
soils, and of the strength of their attraction for three of the chief 
elements of the food of our cultivated plants, which, in consequence 
of their solubility in pure and carbonic acid water, could not be 
retained in the soil did the latter not possess this power of 
attraction.” 
“There can be no doubt, from the action just described of soil 
on potash, ammonia, and phosphoric acid, that the majority of our 
cultivated plants cannot receive out of a solution from the soil 
their essential mineral constituents.” “ These substances are 
present in the soil somewhat like colouring matter in charcoal or 
iodine in starch, fit for absorption by the rootlets of plants, but 
not by themselves soluble in rain water or removable by this 
solvent until the soil is saturated with them. It is more than 
probable that it is assigned to the majority of our cultivated 
plants to receive their nourishment directly from the portions of 
the soil which are in immediate contact with their rootlets, and 
that they die when their food is presented to them in solution.” 
“ From the action of soils already described, it follows that plants 
must themselves play some peculiar part in the absorption of their 
food. As organised living structures, their existence is not quite 
dependant on external causes.” “ They select from the soil those 
substances which they require, but which can only pass into the 
interior of their organisms by the co-operation of a cause which 
resides within the rootlets.” 
“By its decomposition in the soil humus forms a source of 
carbonic acid, by which the fixed elements of food are rendered 
soluble and capable of being distributed in all directions.” “ Like 
carbonic acid water, the sulphate, as well as the other soluble 
salts of ammonia, possesses the property of rendering the earthy 
salts soluble in water.” 
“ We know of no other way in which the earthy phosphates are 
dispersed through the soil than by means of carbonic acid water. 
If it is true that one of the chief effects of humus, or the decaying 
remains of plants in soils or in manures, consists in its forming a 
source of carbonic acid, with which the air and the water of the 
ground is enriched : if it is also true that this carbonic acid water 
renders the earthy phosphates soluble, and thus contributes to 
their distribution in the soil, then there can be no doubt that the 
salts of ammonia, which possess the same solvent property, can in 
this respect replace the organic matters, and thus exert an equally 
favourable influence on the growth of plants.” “The same sol¬ 
vent property is also possessed among the salts of soda by Chili 
saltpetre and common salt. It has been recently shown that these 
two salts, even in the most dilute solutions, dissolve earthy phos¬ 
phates to a very appreciable extent, and that consequently they 
must play a part in the process of the nutrition of plants similar 
to that which is ascribed to carbonic acid and water (to the 
humus) and salts of ammonia.” 
“ The seeds of the cereals, particularly Wheat, contain phosphate 
of lime, and in preponderating quantity phosphate of magnesia. 
In many kinds of Wheat the quantity of phosphate of magnesia is 
four times, often ten times, greater than that of phosphate of 
lime ; and in like manner in the grain of Rye, Oats, and Barley 
the magnesia salt exceeds very greatly the phosphate of lime. 
These proportions are so constant that they cannot be ignored in 
the cultivation of these plants. The comportment of the salts” 
(nitrate of soda and common salt) “ above mentioned towards 
phosphate of magnesia and ammonia and phosphate of magnesia 
appears, therefore, of special interest.” 
Liebig goes on to show that the solubility of tribasic phosphate 
of magnesia is, in a solution of nitrate of soda, 4'5 grains in a 
gallon ; and, in a solution of common salt, 5'3 grains in a gallon ; 
and that the solubility of phosphate of magnesia and ammonia is 
much greater—viz., in a solution of nitrate of soda, 9 8 grains in a 
gallon ; in a solution of common salt, 8'G grains in a gallon ; in a 
solution of sulphate of ammonia, 8 - G grains in a gallon. “It is 
quite conclusive from these facts,” he adds, “ that water contain¬ 
ing a very small quantity of common salt, nitrate of soda, or 
sulphate of ammonia acquires thereby the power (which alone it 
does not possess, or only in a slight degree), of dissolving phos¬ 
phoric acid in the form of earthy phosphates. These feeble solu¬ 
tions, therefore, react towards earthy phosphates like solutions of 
carbonic acid in water.” 
It also appears to me to be equally conclusive that to estimate 
the value of phosphates of lime and magnesia without reference to 
the salts of ammonia, or to the organic matter capable of yielding 
carbonic acid which is present in the manure, must be incorrect; 
and that, “like the salts of ammonia or a watery solution of 
carbonic acid produced by the decay of organic matter in manures, 
a solution of these salts” (nitrate of soda and common salt), 
“ wherever they come in contact with spots containing accumu¬ 
lations of earthy phosphates not fixed by the soil, must become 
saturated with these phosphates, and thus convert them into a 
condition in which they can be diffused through the ground.”— 
Inquirer. 
At a general meeting of the Koval Horticultural Society, 
held October 10th, Geo. F. Wilson, Esq., F.R.S., in the chair, the 
following candidates were unanimously elected Fellows—viz., Mrs. 
Gilbert a Beckett, Dr. M. F. Anderson, A. F. Govett, H. Herman, 
Mrs. Montagu, Mrs. Frank Schneider, and Dr. J. P. Stratton. 
- The “ Belgique Horticole,” referring to Erythroch^ete 
pAlmatifidA, of which we recently gave an illustration, states 
that the plant was introduced from Japan to the St. Petersburgh 
Botanic Garden about 1864 by M. Maximowicz. 
- At a meeting of the Horticultural Club, Ashley’s Hotel, 
Henrietta Street, Covent Garden, held on Tuesday night, a very 
excellent portait of Mr. John Lee, the Chairman, was un¬ 
covered. It was subscribed for by the members of the Club, and 
suspended in the room as a mark of the high esteem in which 
Mr. Lee is held by a large circle of friends. 
- Mr. George Boothby, Louth, has sent U3 flowers of a 
seedling Fuchsia, which he considers an improvement on any 
others of the type. The flowers are certainly very large and 
double, the petals broad and nearly pure, the sepals elegantly 
reflexed and deep coral red. If the habit of the plant is good 
and the flowers are freely produced, the variety will be valuable 
for decorative purposes. 
- A correspondent desires to accord the following word 
of praise of single Dahlias :—“For effect in masses they are 
charming, and as single specimens they are very telling. In 
groups, with colours blended, they make showy beds, and are 
