Nebraska advertiser., 1856-12-06

portance, but we know very little com
pared with what remains unknown, toll
wards their solution. We can see that
soil, moisture, air, warmth, and light,
are necessary to their growth, but this
gives only shallow insight Of How they
grow, and What are the requirements
of that growth. Further light may
be had from an examination Of the
plants themselves, their constituent
elements and that Of their means Of
sustenance, and these Chemistry best
explain and develope.
OF whatthen, do plants exist? What
are their proximate and ultimate ele-
ments? The prozimate constituents
of plants vary widely in their charac-
ter and are readily distingushable-by
taste, form, color, etc, from each other.
This is lucidly ILLUSTRATED by Stock
hardt, as folloEs:-Grapes, carrots,
and many fruits and roots have a sweet
taste, they contain sugar. The branches
and leaves of the grape vine have a
sour taste; they contain an acid salt.
Those of the worm-wood have a bitter
taste; they contain a peculiar bitter
principle. The latter also possess a
powerful odor, which proceeds from a
v0Iatile oI. In the seed Of our various
kinds Of grain and in the tubers of the
potato plant, we find a substance re-
sembling meal, starch; in the seed Of
the rape and fax plants, a lubricous
fluid, fat OIL. From the cherry and
plum trees there exudes a viscous mat
ter, soluble in water; from fir and pine
trees a similar product, but insoluble
in water; we call the former gum the
latter resin. That which gives mechan-
ical support to plants, forming as it
we're their bones and blood-Tessels re-
ceives the name of vegetable fibre, or
when it has become tough, insoluble,
or ~indigestible, the name Of poody fibre.
In the sap of plants we meet with a
substance, which coagulates by boil
ing, like the white of an egg or the
albumen of the blood; in peas or other
leguminous fruits, a substance which
is extremely like cheese; in the seed
of rye, wheat, oats, and other kinds
of grain, a substance whose compost
ton is identical with that Of the flesh
of animals; the first is called vegetable
al6umen, the second vegetable caseiin,
and the third gluten. Finally on the
combustion of the plant, we find a.
residue consisting Of an earthly or
saline powder, which neither burns up
nor volatilizes by heat; this contains
its mineral constituents"
All these proximate substance are
further reducible into ultimate con-
stituents. But little use can be made
of the information thus far attained as
regards supplying nourishment to.
plants. By closer examination and a
severer scrutiny, we learn that all this
boundless variety OF substance is COM
posed in fact Of four simple elements;
Oxygen, Hydrogen, Carbon, and Nit
rogen. In endlessly varied combina-
tons Of quantity and form, all vegeta-
bic and animal life S made up of these
organic constituents. How wonderful
the Power which gives such an infinite
and beautiful diversity from means APP
parently so inadequate to such a result.
These elementary substances may not
only be characterized as organic, or
''the principal elements Of all organ
lied substances" but as eOmbuSti6le
and putresci6Ie, since both heat and
corruption, or putrefaction-the one
rapidly and the other sIowly--has the
power of dispensing them in gaseous
combinations.
These elements have often been de-
fined and commented upon. We shall
in another number briefly indicate their
character, and then 60 on to a CLASH
fcation of the proximate elements Of
plants, and the further consideration
af the elements Of vegetable growth,
taking Stockhardt's Agricultural
Chemistry as U chief authority.
N Il