a Glass-Tube about ten Inches long, the Bore about one sixth of an Inch in Diameter, fill'd with very fine and white Sand, which I kept from falling down out of the Tube into the Vial, by tying a thin piece of Silk over that end of the Tube that was downwards. Upon Immersion of the lower end of it into the Water, this by little and little ascended quite to the upper Orifice of the Tube. And yet, in all the fifty six Days which it stood thus, a very inconsiderable Quantity of Water had gone off, viz. scarce twenty Grains; though the Sand continued moist up to the top till the very last. The Water had imparted a green Tincture to the Sand, quite to the very top of the Tube. And, in the Vial, it had precipitated a greenish Sediment, mix'd with black. To the bottom and sides of the Tube, as far as 'twas immers'd in the Water, adher'd pretty much of the green Substance describ'd above. Other like Tubes I fill'd with Cotton, Lint, Pith of Elder, and several other porous Vegetable Substances; setting some of them in clear Water; others in Water tinged with Saffron, Cochinele, &c. And several other Trials were made, in order to give a mechanical Representation of the motion and distribution of the Juices in Plants; and of some other Phænomena observable in Vegetation, which I shall not give the Particulars of here, as being not of use to my present design.
(Q, R, S, &c.) Several Plants set in Vials, ordered in like manner as those above, in October, and the following colder Months. These throve not near so much; nor did the Water ascend in nigh the quantity it did in the better Seasons, in which the before recited Trials were made.
Some Reflections upon the foregoing Experiments.
- *In Plants of the same kind, the less they are in Bulk, the smaller the Quantity of the fluid Mass, in which they are set, is drawn off; the Dispendium of it, where