ON CHEMISTRY. 
9 
time in the water, but do not appear to increase in any great degree ; 
unless we except certain bulbous speces, which develope leaves and 
flowers in tolerable perfection. 
Plants, or rather rooted cuttings, so formed, do not appear to take 
up much of the colouring matter of simple infusions. In fact, as I 
stated in a paper of the 7th Vol. of the Gardener’s Magazine, young 
balsams, when dissected, gave no evidence of the presence of the 
colour from a strong infusion of logwood, in which they had been 
kept for many days; but these rooted cuttings have the marvellous 
property of preserving water from putridity for a very long period. 
It is known that flowers kept in water speedily cause it to become 
fetid, and full of aniinalculae. Now, I have by me at this instant, 
a portion of the water in which I struck a melon cutting, during the 
month of August. It remained clear, bright, and untainted, so long 
as the plant continued in it. I poured off a portion into a phial, 
about a mouth since, and it appears to be sweet and colourless to 
this day. 
The energy exerted by the vital principle, is astonishing, and be¬ 
yond the ken of mortal understanding. It appears to me that water 
is the pabulum of vegetable life, as perhaps, it was originally the 
source of all created matter; hut that it undergoes some inexplicable 
change when in contact with the roots of plants, and blended with 
the soil. Probably it is decomposed by the nutritive matters in the 
soil, and becomes the simple sap of the plant, in consequence of this 
peculiar decomposition ; during which process, as I have argued 
elsewhere, “ electric agencies are developed, which constitute the as¬ 
cending current that propels and carries forward the prepared ali¬ 
ment, and deposits it in the vessels appropriated to the purposes of 
assimilation and distribution.” 
A plant in a pot will live and thrive in pure sandy-loam, when no 
manuring substance whatever is added to the soil, provided it be sup¬ 
plied with a sufficiency of water. It has been found that little or 
no waste of the substance of the soil has taken place during a very 
long period, but experience also proves, that plants, with very few 
exceptions, grow better when the soil has certain portions of vegeta¬ 
ble matters in it. Now these matters remain comparatively inactive 
and unchanged, however frequently the soil be watered, provided no 
plant he growing among them ; but if the roots of a living vegetable 
be there, the matters become changed, more water is consumed, and 
the soil will require a renewal of the decomposable substances, or a 
change of the plant that it supports, in order to keep it in heart. 
In concluding this article upon water, I conceive the conjecture 
