The Second Part.

the Earth wanted a Pound and a halfe of what it was formerly; yet I was not satisfi’d, doubting the Earth was not dry: I put it into an Oven the Second Time, (after the Bread was drawn) and after I had taken it out and weighed it, I found it to be the Same Weight: So I Suppose there was no Moisture left in the Earth. Neither do I think that the Pound and Halfe that was wanting was Drawn away by the Cucumber but a great Part of it in the Ordering was in Dust (and the like) wasted: (the Cucumbers are kept by themselves, lest You should send for them.) But yet in this Tryal, Eleutherius*, it appears that though some of the Earth, or rather the dissoluble Salt harbour’d in it, were wasted, the main Body of the Plant consisted of Transmuted Water. And I might add, that a year after I caus’d the formerly mentioned Experiment, touching large Pompions, to be reiterated, with so good success, that if my memory does not much mis-inform me, it did not only much surpass any that I made before, but seem’d strangely to conclude what I am pleading for; though (by reason I have unhappily lost the particular Account my Gardiner writ me up of the Circumstances) I dare not insist upon them. The like Experiment may be as conveniently try’d with the seeds of any Plant, whose growth is hasty, and its size Bulky. If Tobacco will in These Cold Climates Grow well in Earth undung’d, it would not be amiss to make a Tryal with it; for ’tis an annual Plant, that arises where it prospers, sometimes as high as a Tall Man; and I have had leaves of it in my Garden neer a Foot and a Halfe broad. But the next time I Try this Experiment, it shall be with several seeds of the same sort, in the same pot of Earth, that so the event may be the more Conspicuous. But because every Body has not Conveniency of time and place for this Experiment neither, I made in my Chamber, some shorter and more Expeditions Tryals. I took a Top of Spearmint, about an Inch Long, and put it into a good Vial full of Spring water, so as the upper part of the Mint was above the neck of the Glass, and the lower part Immers’d in the Water; within a few Dayes this Mint began to shoot forth Roots into the Water, and to display its Leaves, and aspire upwards; and in a short time it had numerous Roots and Leaves,