24 
be found in the tubers as well as in the leaves, on calcarious soils. If the view of Raspail be correct, 
that the presence of saline matters in tissues is the essential of their organization and the true source 
of their distinction from the mere proximate principles of which they are composed, it is a necessary 
consequence that the organizing portion of the plant — the leaf—should contain the essential saline 
matters, without which, or other isomorphous substitutes, it could not be developed nor carry on its 
functions ; and if the leaf does not flourish the plant cannot attain perfection. In this view of the 
case, it is proper to determine the situation of plants in the saline groups according to the analysis of 
the leaf, if they be cultivated for foliage or roots only, unless the amount of mineral matter removed 
by the roots be very much the greatest. 
The influence of cultivation is not to be overlooked in grouping plants. Under natural circum¬ 
stances all the grain-bearing plants require little azotized matter, but from the development which 
many, such as wheat and barley, have acquired, they have become azotized plants, and are not to be 
maintained in their present state without a large supply of this food made to the roots. Many 
garden vegetables are also of this kind; the cabbage in nature consists of a few tough leaves and 
inhabits soils of ordinary fertility on the sea side; its present luxurious development., by which it 
attains a weight certainly a hundred times greater in several varieties, is the result of supplying 
food to the root in tillage, and if the supply be diminished the characters of the variety are soon lost 
and the vegetable degenerates. 
The following table will show the position of most cultivated plants, so far as evidence exists at 
present. The conditions under which the classification has been made should be borne in mind. 
Plants requiring much azote 
in the soil, 
Lime, 
Seed bearing 4 Potash, 
Soda with 
Sulphur, 
Lime, 
^Foliage or root crops, Potash, 
Soda with 
Sulphur, 
Plants requiring little or no 
azote in the soil, 
Seed bearing 
Foliage or root crops, 
( Lime, 
Potash, 
{ 
Lime, 
Potash, 
( Hemp seed, Cotton, Hop, 
\ cultivated Peas. 
{ Com, Madia, Wheat, Rice, 
\ Oats, Bailey. 
t Rape seed, Colza, Mustard 
( seed, Linseed. 
t Tobacco, Potatoes, Hemp, 
( Indigo, Madder, 
( Sugar cane, Carrots, Parsnips, 
) Mangel-wurzel, Beets, Spinach. 
{ Turnips, Kohlrabi, Ruta baga, 
l Cabbages, Onions, Asparagus. 
{ Field Beans, Pindars, 
\ Vetches. 
( Rye, German and Polish Millet, 
( Buckwheat. 
f Pomaceous fruits, Lupius for fallow- 
< ing Clovers, Spurry, Lucern, Sain- 
( foin ; all cut before seed. 
( Meadow Grasses, 
( Jerusalem Artichoke. 
