Note a — BOOK III.
Reading edition
It is not to be doubted, that although Vegetables delight in peculiar Soils, yet they owe not their Life and Growth to the Earth it self, but to some agreeable Juices or Salts, &c. residing in the Earth. Of this the great Mr. Boyl hath given us some good Experiments. He ordered his Gardener to dig up, and dry in an Oven some Earth fit for the Purpose, to weigh it, and to set therein some Squash Seeds, (a kind of Indian Pompion). The Seeds when sown were watered with Rain or Spring-water only. But although a Plant was produced in one Experiment of near 3 l. and in another of above 14 l. yet the Earth when dried, and weighed again, was scarce diminished at all in its Weight.
Another Experiment he alledges is of Helmont’s, who dried 200 l. of Earth, and therein planted a Willow weighing 5 l. which he watered with Rain or distilled Water: And to secure it from any other Earth getting in, he covered it with a perforated Tin Cover. After five Years, weighing the Tree with all the Leaves it had born in that time, he found it to weigh 169 l. 3 Ounces, but the Earth to be diminished only about 2 Ounces in its weight. Vid. Boyl’s Scept. Chym. Part 2. pag. 114.