192 
ON THE NUTRITION OF PLANTS. 
It is boiled for half an hour, strained with pressure, and 
there is added to it, 
Sugar, in pieces, 40 grammes. 
It is concentrated until the solution is reduced to 125 
grammes, which is again strained, and aromatised with a 
few drops of tincture of orange or lemon. 
This jelly has the advantage of being preserved intact for a 
very long time. When it is prepared without sugar, it con- 
tracts, after being kept a few days, a slight fishy taste ; but 
this never occurs when sugar has been added.— Ibid, from 
Gazette des Hop. 
ART. LV. — EXAMINATION OF THE VIEWS ADOPTED BY 
LIEBIG ON THE NUTRITION OF PLANTS. Read before the 
Botanical Society of Edinburgh, Feb. 13 ; 1845. 
By Dr. Seller. 
Dr. Seller contrasted Liebig's view of the mineral na- 
ture of the food of plants with that which represents their 
food as organic, and traced out the consequences deducible 
from this last hypothesis as affecting not merely the vegeta- 
ble, but the animal kingdom also, the latter being ultimate- 
ly sustained solely by vegetable substances. He showed 
that, whereas the view adopted by Liebig in nowise restricts 
the duration of the organised kingdoms, so long as they re- 
main exempt from the influences of destructive agencies 
from without, the opposite view involves the conclusion 
that the whole of organic nature is hastening rapidly to dis- 
solution from inherent causes; and he affirmed that were 
certain data somewhat more- carefully considered, the period 
of the final extinction of plants and animals, in accordance 
with this hypothesis, might be pretty nearly determined. 
