426

feEQUEL of Mr Naismitii’s Inquiry

of itself, is a very unfit receptacle for the roots of cultivatedplants, will be readily admitted. We have seen above, that it isequally unfit for the accommodation of the lumbricus terrestris.But it is not because there is a mixture of moss in the groundthat this reptile shuns a place, but because the earths in which itdelights are absent: for it frequents the edges of mosses in whichland water has mixed these earths. As the soils in which thelumbricus abounds most are the most fertile, it is probable thatsuch soils not only afford the greatest abundance of vegetablefood, but also give the most favourable reception to the roots ofcultivated plants. Hence it may be inferred, that a mixture ofthe earths is one of the first steps in any attempt to make peat-moss fertile.

Cor. 4 th. Lime has been represented as the universal correct-or of the sterility of peat-moss. By its alkaline quality, it is saidto neutralize the acids, and dispose the refractory vegetable sub-stances to putrefy. This fertilizing quality ought certainly tohave operated on the moss in the flower pot No. 2, where theforce of the alkali was fully applied, by boiling the moss for along time in plenty of lime water ; yet the effect was equivocal.The plants were indeed all along the most forward; but as theywere the weakest, they seem to have been most sparingly nourish-ed, and that nourishment exhausted before they arrived at ma-turity. In fact, those acids with which moss is said to be stored,have not yet been detected ; or if any have been found in anyparticular moss, they are accidental, not necessary ingredients ofthat substance. Caustic lime applied to moss has a tendency toharden it, rather than to dissolve it. Lime mixed in solid soilsis well known to be an excellent ingredient for promoting ferti-lity. It may also be advantageously applied on moss in whichother earths have been mixed ; but alone, it will have no sucheffect. This is well illustrated in Mr Naismith’s Essay abovecited, in which an experiment is recorded where moss was mixedwith -Jth of lime, and no plant succeeded on it; but when a largeproportion of poor earth was added, tire mixture became veryfertile.

Cor. 5th. The great proportion of cold stagnant water whichpeat-moss contains, so long as it is in its natural growing state,is the chief cause of its incapacity of producing land plants. Itis shown, in the first part of this Inquiry, that at an average fromthe surface 7 feet down, about -Jths of the whole mass is stagnantwater. Though the solid part were of the most fertile quality,no land plant could establish its roots in such a watery mixture.But this great body of water, excluded from the genial influenceof the sun’s rays, by the plexus of vegetable filaments by whichit is covered, and continually rising in gelid exhalation, mustchill every plant requiring a mild temperature which it reaches,and fpread its baneful influence over the adjacent country, affefting