[249] Experiments on the production of dephlogisticated air from water with various substances: by Lieut.-General Sir Benjamin, Count of Rumford; Phil. Trans., vol. lxxvii. p. 84.
[250] Experiments upon Vegetables, discovering their great power of purifying the common air in the Sunshine, and of injuring it in the Shade and at Night; to which is joined, A new method of examining the accurate degrees of Salubrity of the Atmosphere, by John Ingenhousz, Councillor of the Court, and Body Physician to their Imperial and Royal Majesties, F.R.S., &c. London: printed for P. Elmsley, in the Strand, and H. Payne, Pall Mall, 1779.
[251] The Kingdoms of Nature, their life and affinity: by Dr. C. G. Carus; Scientific Memoirs, vol. i. p. 223.
[252] In Biologie, by G. R. Treviranus, vol. ii. p. 302, the following passage occurs:—“If we expose spring water to the sun in open or even closed transparent vessels, after a few days bubbles rise from the bottom, or from the sides of the vessel, and a green crust is formed at the same time. Upon observing this crust through a microscope, we discover a mass of green particles, generally of a round or oval form, very minute, and overlaid with a transparent mucous covering, some of them moving freely, whilst others, perfectly similar to these, remain motionless and attached to the sides of the vessel. This motion is sometimes greater than at others. The animalcules frequently lie as if torpid, but soon recover their former activity.”
[253] On the Structure of the Vegetable Cell: by Mohl.—Scientific Memoirs, vol. iv. p. 113. Outlines of Structural and Physical Botany: by Henfrey.
[254] Dr. Carus, in the memoir already quoted, says:—“But since, in the organization of the earth, light and air, as constituting a second integrant part, stand opposed to gravitation, and since the plant bears a relation, not only to gravitation, but to light also, when its formation is complete it will necessarily present a second anatomical system, namely, that of the spiral vessels, which have been very justly considered, of late, as the organs that perform in plants the functions of nerves.”
[255] Mr. Crosse’s Experiments in the Journal of the London Electrical Society, and Mr. Weekes in the Electrical Magazine, and a communication appended to Explanations: a Sequel to the Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation.
[256] Die Metamorphose der Pflanzen: Goethe, sect. 78.
[257] Lindley’s Elements of Botany.
[258] See the very curious experiments of C. Matteucci. Traduit et extrait du “Cimento.”—Archives des Sciences Physiques et Naturelles; Quelques Expériences sur la Respiration des Plantes. Nov. 1846.