1853 . 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
27 
Plant your favorite climber, whether rose, wistaria, 
or honeysuckle, at the foot of this tree. It will soon 
cover it, from top to bottom, with the finest pyramid of 
verdure. The young shoots will ramble out oh its side 
branches, and when in full bloom will hang most grace¬ 
fully or picturesquely from the ends. 
The advange of this mode is that, once obtained, your 
support lasts for fifty years; it is so firm that winds do 
not blow it down; it presents every side to the kindly 
influences of sun and air, and permits every blossom that 
opens, to be seen by the admiring spectator. How it looks 
at first, and afterwards, in a complete state, we have 
endeavored to give you a faint idea in this little sketch. 
Vegetable Nutrition. 
Some writers affirm that all kinds of vegetables 
derive their nutrition principally from the atmos¬ 
phere ; that a rich soil only furnishes the plant 
with power to draw the nutritious gasses from the 
surrounding air. To prove this, it is said that 
some perfectly clean sand was obtained and mois¬ 
tened with distilled water, and the solutions of 
certain salts added to stimulate the young plants 
that had germinated, to enable them to draw 
from the air their principal nourishment; and that 
the experiment succeeded in producing perfect 
plants, and ripened seed. 
I have been a pretty close observer of vegeta¬ 
ble physiology, embracing all the functions of the 
various organs of plants, &c., and have long since 
come to the conclusion that this theory is errone¬ 
ous. I am perfectly satisfied that plants obtain 
the material that adds to their substance, prin¬ 
cipally, if not entirely, from the earth; and that 
the action of the air upon them is very similar to 
its action upon the animal economy. It forms no 
part of the substance of nutrition, but acts as a 
purifier of the circulating fluid, and as the source 
of heat or caloric. I am satisfied that the leaves 
act the part of the lungs in animals, refining the 
nutriment that has been taken up by the roots and 
conveyed to the sap, and preparing it for appro¬ 
priation by the various organs of the plant, to the 
formation of wood, fruit, &c. 
If the theory of atmospheric nutrition were 
true, it seems to me the following difficulties would 
be insurmountable: some soils are so rich that 
wheat and corn cannot be grown upon them. 
Many of our rich bottom lands will produce im¬ 
mensely large corn and wheat plants, but no grain 
—they u run all to stalks and straw.” Ground is 
often found too rich for some fruit trees. They 
make the most luxuriant growth of wood, but 
produce no fruit. On the other hand, many soils 
make very little wood, but produce abundance of 
fruit on the trees. I presume no one will ques¬ 
tion these facts, as they are very common. Then, 
if plants derive most of their nutrition from the 
air by means of the vigorous action of the plants, 
why do the plants in the above cases not produce 
fruit, corn, &c. lam aware that I shall be an¬ 
swered by the advocates of the atmospheric the¬ 
ory, that the soil did not enable the plants to col¬ 
lect from the air, the 'particular aliment required 
for the formation of fruit, notwithstanding the ap¬ 
parent vigor of the plants. But I am not satis¬ 
fied with this answer. I admit the plants do not 
attract the particular kind of aliment from the 
air, but I insist that the air is not the place to 
look for it. To me the cause of the failure to 
produce fruit, &c., is very obvious—the earth or 
soil was deficient, not the air, in the element ne- 
necessary to their growth. 
Let us look at another point. It is known that 
wheat grown in the Genesee country—the whitest 
in the world, is deficient in gluten, the most nu¬ 
tritious portion of that grain. That same wheat 
when grown in the south, say in Cecil or Talbot co., 
Maryland, becomes rich in gluten. Again, there 
are farms almost adjoining in Maryland, that pro¬ 
duce wheat entirely different in its quality of glu¬ 
ten. Now if the elements of nutrition of which 
the wheat is formed, are derived from the air and 
not the soil, how is it that the quality of the wheat 
is so different when grown on different soils? 
That the air exercises great power upon the plant 
I not only admit, but my theory of nutrition and 
of vegetable life, claims. As before said, the nu¬ 
tritious matters are taken up by the roots, and 
carried by the ascending sap of the plant to the 
leaves, in which they are exposed in their broad 
surfaces to the action of the air. The purified 
sap then returns, vitalised, as it were, downwards I 
to the branches and body of the plant, its nutri- | 
tious principle taken up and appropriated for the | 
formation of wood,, fruit, &c., as may be required. 
In the case of all annual plants, such as wheat, 
corn, &c., the whole of the circulating fluid is j 
exhausted, the roots having ceased their func- j 
tions as soon as the fruit is ripe, and the whole j 
plant becomes dry straw. : 
I have hinted above that the air has something 
to do with the vitality of the plant, with its liv¬ 
ing principle. In this I believe that the air is 
the food that sustains or nourishes the vital prin¬ 
ciple. It is not life itself, nor the origin of 
life. As the earth furnishes the food that sup¬ 
ports the material of the plant, the ak finishes 
the food that sustains the vital principle. There is 
a kind of combustion continually going on in plants 
and animals, through the aid of the air, from which 
animal and vegetable heat is generated, and this 
heat sustains the individual in life. The living 
principle itself, is derived from the seed from 
which the plant grew, and was originally impart- « 
ed to the first plants at the creation. Do you not ja) 
ee in this view of the question, a beautiful illus- rfl* 
