Note g — BOOK I.
Reading edition
That the Air is the principal Cause of the Vegetation of Plants, Borelli proves in his excellent Book De Mot. Animal. Vol. 2. Prop. 181. And in the next Proposition, he assureth, In Plantis quoque peragi Aeris respirationem quandam imperfectam, à quâ earum vita pendet, & conservatur. But of this more when I come to survey Vegetables.
Some Lettice-Seed being sown upon some Earth in the open Air, and some of the same Seed at the same time upon other Earth in a Glass-Receiver of the Pneumatick Engine, afterwards exhausted of Air: The Seed exposed to the Air was grown up an Inch and half high within Eight Days; but that in the exhausted Receiver not at all. And Air being again admitted into the same emptied Receiver, to see whether any of the Seed would then come up, it was found, that in the Space of one Week it was grown up to the Height of two or three Inches. Vid. Phil. Trans. No. 23. Lowth. Abridg. Vol. 2. p. 206.