V E G

V E G

afforded the greatest part os, if not all the Matter,with which they are Nourished, and by whichthey grow and ciicrease in Bigness. This Opinion,Countenanced by very great Names, that Learnedand Ingenious Naturalist Dr. John Woodward, Au-thor of the Natural History of the Earth, thoughtvery well worth taking into serious Examina-,ticn.

And in the first place, he carefully Examin’d allforts of Water, and found, that the clearest finestSpring-water which he could any where meet with,exhibited even to the naked Eye, great Numbersof exceeding small Terrestrial Particles, and thatall other Crasser Waters had these in yet muchgreater Quantity ; and also, that they were of amuch larger Bulk

He found this Terrestrial Matter contained inall Water, to be of two kinds: The one properlya Vegetable Matter, but consisting of very differentParticles; some of which arc proper for die Nou-rishment of some kinds of Plants ; others for dif-ferent sorts, 0 't. The other kind of Earthy Mat-ter, he found to be purely of a Mineral Nature ; jand this also was of very various and differentkinds.

The former sort of Vegetable Earthy Matter,abounds plentifully in all Waters; but for the Mi-neral, ’tis found mostly in Spring-water, next tothat,'in River-water, and least of all in Rain-wa-ter tho* even there it is also to be found plenti-fully.

This Fact (he faith) any one may discover, by ionly keeping Water for a competent 1 ime with-out stirring it, in a clear Glafs-viol, close stopt, to !keep out Dust, Gse. For then he will observe, Thatthese very small Terrestrial Particles, which before \were scarcely visible singly, will now combine to- !gether into larger and more conspicuous Masses,.which, by degrees, will join together, and formClouds as it were in the Water, which will growdaily more and more Opacous and d hick, by thecontinual accession of new Matter. And if theEarthy Matter in the Water, be chiefly of the Ve-getable kind, it will turn the Water green, theusual Colour of Vegetables; and this will growdeeper and deeper Colour’d, but will not precipi-tate to the Bottom of the Glass, as the MineralMatter will, if there be any considerable Quantity,by reason of its much greater Specifick Gravity.On the whole therefore he concludes, very justly,That there is in all Water, a considerable Quantityof Earthy Matter : And in order to determine whe-ther the Vegetation of Plants was chiefly owing tobare Water, or not rather to the Terrestrial Mattertherein contained, he made, with very great Ac-curacy and Care, the following Experiments, as

you will find in a Discourse of his Read before theRoyal Society, and publifh’d in their Transailions,N. 253.

Which Experiments, because they are done withan uncommon Care and Exactness, are a sufficientnumber of them, and are follow’d by very Ingeni-ous steflexions, serving to explicate many Difficul-ties in Philosophy, and to set the whole Affair ofVegetation in a very good Light; I shall give theReader as followeth.

A. D. 1691, I chose (faith he) several GlassViols, that were all, as near as possible, of the fameshape and bigness. After I had put what Water 1thought fit into every one of them, and taken anAccount of the Weight of it, I st raised and ty'dover the Orifice of each Viol, a peice of Parch-ment, having an Hole in the middle of it, largeenough to admit the Stem of the Plant I de-fign’d to set in the Viol, without confining orstraitning it, so as to impede its growth. My in-tention in this, was to prevent the enclosed Waterfrom evaporating or ascending any other way,than only through the Plant to be set therein.

Then I made choice of several Sprigs of Mint,and other Plants that were, as near as I could pos-sibly judge, alike fresh, found, and lively. Hav-ing taken the Weight of each, I placed it in a Violordered as above; and as the Plant imbibed anddrew off the Water, I took care to add more of thefame from time to time, keeping an account of theweight of all I added. Each of the Glasses were forbetter distinction,and the more easie keeping a Regi-ster of all the Circumstances, noted with a differentMark or Letter, A, B, C, G?c. and all set in a roWin the lame Window, in such manner, that allmight partake alike of Air. Light, and Sun. Thusthey continued from July the 20th, to October ;th,which was just 77 Days. Then I took them out,weigh’d the Water in each Viol, and the Plant like-wise, adding to its weight that of all the Leavesthat had fallen off during the time it stood thus.And lastly, I computed how much each Plant hadgained, and how much Water was spent upon it.The Particulars arc as follows.

A. Common Spear Mint, set in Spring-water .

The Plant weigh'd, when put in July 20, just27 Grains; when taken out, October 5th, 42 Gr.’So that in this space of 77 Days, it had gain’d inweight 15 Grains.

The whole Quantity of Water expended duringthese 77 Days, amounts to 25 58 Gr. Consequently,the weight of the Water taken up, was 170-^times as much as the Plant had got in weight.

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A. Common