Part 43

If in this Series of Crops each Sort were so just as to take only such Particles, as are peculiarly proper to it, letting all the rest alone to the other Sorts to which they belonged, as the Doctor imagines; then it would be equal to them all, which of the Sorts were sown first or last: But let the Wheat be sown after the Barley, Pease, and Oats, instead of being sown before them, and then it would evidently appear, by that starv’d Crop of Wheat, either that some or all of those other Grains had violated this natural Probity, or else that Nature has given to Vegetables no such Law of Meum and Tuum.

A Charlock could not rob a Turnep, and starve it, more than several Turneps can do, unless the Charlock did take from it the same Particles which would nourish a Turnep; and unless the Charlock did devour a greater Quantity of that Nourishment than several Turneps could take.

Flax, Oats, and Poppy, could not burn or waste the Soil, and make it less able to produce succeeding Crops of different Species, unless they did exhaust the same Particles which would have nourish’d Plants of different Species: For let the Quantity of Particles these Burners take be never so great, the following Crops would not miss them, or suffer any Damage by the Want or Loss of them, were they not the same Particles which would have nourished those Crops, if the Burners had left them behind, quiet and undisturbed. Neither could Weeds be of any Prejudice to Corn, if they did draw off those Particles only that suit the Bodies of Weeds, the rest lying all quiet and undisturbed the while. But constant Experience shews, that all Sorts of Weeds, more or less, diminish the Crop of Corn.

If these Things were, as the Doctor affirms, why do Farmers lose a Year’s Rent, and be at the Charge of fallowing and manuring their Land, after so few Crops; since there are many more Sorts of Grain as different from these and one another, as those are which they usually sow?

They still find, that the first Crops are best; and the longer they continue sowing, the worst the last Crops will prove, be they of never so different a Species; unless the Land were not in so good Tilth for the first Crop as for the subsequent; or unless the last sown be of a more robust Species.

This Matter might be easily clear’d, could we perfectly know the Nature of those supposed unsuitable Particles; but, in Truth, there is no more to be known of such of them, than that they are carried away by the Atmosphere to a Distance, according to the Velocity of the Air; perhaps several Miles off, at least, never like to return to the Spot of Ground from whence the Plants have raised them.

But we must not conclude, that these Particles, which pass through a Plant (being a vastly greater Quantity than those that abide in it for its Augment), are all unsuitable, because no one of them happens to hit upon a fit Nidus: For since the Life of Animals depends upon that of Plants, ’tis not unreasonable to imagine, that Nature may have provided a considerable Overplus for maintaining the Life of individual Plants, when she has provided such an innumerable Overplus for continuing every Species of Animals.

But suppose these cast-off Particles were, when taken in, unfit for the Nourishment of any manner of Vegetables: Then the Doctor must fansy the Wheat to be of a very scrupulous Conscience, to feed on these Particles, which were neither fit for its own Nourishment, nor of any other Plant; and at the same time to forbear to take the Food of Barley, Pease, and Oats, letting that lie still and undisturb’d the while, as he says it does, tho’ he gives no manner of Reason for it.

’Tis needless to bring stronger Arguments, than the Doctor’s Experiments afford, against his own vulgar Opinion, of Plants distinguishing the particular Sort of terrestrial Matter, that, he says, is proper to each Sort of Vegetable, in these Words; viz. ‘Each Sort takes forth that peculiar Matter that is proper for its own Nourishment, the rest lying all quiet and undisturb’d the while.’

He says, that great Part of the terrestrial Matter, mixed with the Water, passes up into the Plant along with it; which it could not do, if only the peculiar Matter, proper to each Plant, did pass up into it: And after he has shewed how apt the vegetable Matter is to attend Water in all its Motions, and to follow it into each of its Recesses; being by no Filtrations or Percolations wholly separable from it; ’tis strange he should think that each Plant leaves the greatest Part of it behind, separated from the Water which the Plant imbibes.

There are, doubtless, more than a Million of Sorts of Plants, all of which would have taken up the Water, and had each as much Right to its Share, or proper Matter in it, as the Doctor’s Plants had; and then there would be but a very small (or a Millionth) Part of it proper to each of his Plants: And these leaving all the rest behind, both of the Water wherewith the Glasses at first were filled, when the Plants were put into them; and also of all the additional Water daily supply’d into them afterwards; I say, so much more terrestrial Matter brought into these Glasses, in Proportion to the added Water, and so very small a Part as could be proper to each of his plants being carried off; there must have remain’d in these Glasses a much greater Quantity of terrestrial Matter at the End of the Experiment, than remained in the Glasses F or G, which had no Plants in them, nor any Water added to, or diminished from them; but the quite contrary appear’d. ‘And the Water in the Glasses F and G, at the End of the Experiment, exhibited a larger Quantity of terrestrial Matter, than any of those that had Plants in them did. The Sediment at the Bottom of the Glasses was greater, and the Nubeculæ diffused thro’ the Body of the Water thicker.’ Had the Cataputia insum’d, with the Two thousand Five hundred and One Grains of Water, no more than its proper Share of the vegetable Matter, it could not have attained thence an Increase of Three Grains and a Quarter, nor even the Thousandth Part of One Grain. But he found ‘this terrestrial Matter, contained in all Water, to be of Two Kinds: The one properly, a vegetable Matter, but consisting of very different Particles; some of which are proper for the Nourishment of some kind of Plants, others for different Sorts,’ &c.

This, indeed, would have been a most wonderful Discovery, and might have given us a great Light, if he had told us in what Language and Character these proper Differences were stamp’d or written upon the vegetable Particles; which Particles themselves, he says, were scarce visible. Certainly it must be a great Art (much beyond that of Dr. Wallis) to decypher the Language of Plants, from invisible Characters.

But that this Dream may deceive none, except such who are very fond of old Errors, there is an Experimentum Crucis which may convince them; viz. At the proper Season, tap a Birch-tree in the Body or Boughs, and you may have thence a large Quantity of clear Liquor, very little altered from Water; and you may see, that every other Species of Plants, that will grow in Water, will receive this; live and grow in it, as well as in common Water. You may make a like Experiment by tapping other Trees, or by Water distilled from Vegetables; and you will find no Species of Plants, into which this Water will not enter, and pass through it, and nourish it too; unless it be such a Species as requires more Heat than Water admits; or unless the peculiar Vessels of that it has first passed through, have so altered the vegetable Particles contained in that Water, as that it acts as Poison upon some other particular Species.

The Doctor concludes, ‘That Water is only the Agent that conveys the Vegetable Matter to the Bodies of Plants, that introduces and distributes it to their several Parts for their Nourishment: That Matter is sluggish and inactive, and would lie eternally confin’d to its Beds of Earth, without ever advancing up into Plants, did not Water, or some like Instrument, fetch it forth, and carry it unto them.’

That Water is very capable of the Office of a Carrier to Plants, I think the Doctor has made most evident; but as to the Office of such an Agent as his Hypothesis bestows upon it, it seems impossible to be executed by Water. For it cannot be imagined, that Water, being itself but mere homogenial Matter, void of all Degrees of Life, should distinguish each Particle of vegetable Matter, proper and peculiar to every different Species of Plants, which are innumerable; and when ’tis to act for the Wheat, to find out all the Particles proper to that sort of Grain, to rouse only those particular Sluggards from their Beds of Earth, letting all the rest lie quiet and undisturbed the while. This Agent frees the Wheat-Particles from their Confinement, and conveys, introduces, and distributes them, and only them, into the several Parts of the Wheat.

Since ’tis unreasonable to believe, that Water can have such extraordinary Skill in Botany, or in Micrography, as to be qualified for a sufficient Agent in such an abstruse Matter, I conceive Water to be only an Instrument or Vehicle, which takes up indifferently any Particles it meets with (and is able to carry), and advances them (or the Pabulum they yield) up into the First Plant, whose Root it comes in Contact with; and that every Plant it meets with does accept thereof, without distinguishing any different Sorts or Properties in them, until they be so far introduc’d and advanc’d up into the vegetable Vessels, that it would be in vain to distinguish them; for whether the terrestrial Matter, Plants imbibe with the Water, will kill or nourish them, appears by its Effects; but which cannot be foreknown or prevented without the Help of Faculties, which Plants are not endow’d with.

Mr. Bradley seems to have carried this Error farther than any Author ever did before; but he supports it by Affirmations only, or by such Arguments (I cannot say Reasons; for no Reason can be against any Truth) as go near to confute the very Opinion he pretends to advance by them.

He ascribes to Vegetables the Sense of Taste, by which he thinks they take such Nourishment as is most agreeable to their respective Natures, refuting the rest; and will rather starve, than eat what is disagreeable to their Palate.

In the Preface to his Vol. I. Page 10. of his Husbandry and Gardening, he says, ‘They feed as differently as Horses do from Dogs, or Dogs from Fish.’

But what does he mean by this Instance, Vol. I. p. 39. viz. ‘That Thyme, and other Aromatics, being planted near an Apricot-tree, would destroy that Tree?’ Does it not help to confirm, that every Plant does not draw exactly the same Share of Nourishment?

I believe there is no need for him to give more Instances to disprove his Assertion than this one. His Conclusion, taken by itself, is so far right; viz. ‘That if the Nourishment the Earth afforded to the Thyme and Apricot-tree, had been divided into Two Shares, both could not have had them.’

But this his Instance proves, That those Aromatics robb’d the Apricot-tree of so much of its Share as to starve it; and that they, tho’ of so very different a Nature, did draw from the Earth the same Nourishment which the Apricot-tree should have taken for its Support, had not the Aromatics been too hard for it, in drawing it off for their own Maintenance:

Unless he believes, that all the Juices of the Aromatics were as Poison to the Apricot; and that, according to my Experiment of the Mint, some of their Roots might discharge some kind of Moisture in dry Weather, given them by others, that had it for their Use; and that the Apricot-roots, mingling with them, might imbibe enough of that Liquor, altered sufficiently by their Vessels, to poison and kill the Tree.

But then, where was the Tree’s distinguishing Palate? Why did it not refuse this Juice, which was so disagreeable as to kill it? And as to his Notion of Vegetables having Palates, let us see how it agrees with what he affirms.

‘That ’tis the Vessels of Plants that make, by their Filtrations, Percolations, &c. all the different Tastes and Flavours of the Matter, which is the Aliment of Plants; and that, before it be by them so filtred, &c. it is only a Fund of insipid Substance, capable of being altered by such Vessels, into any Form, Colour, or Flavour.’

And Vol. I. p. 38. ‘The different Strainers, or Vessels of the several Plants, growing upon that Spot of Earth, thus impregnated with Salts, alter those Salts or Juices, according to the several Figures or Dimensions of their Strainers; so that one Plant varies, in Taste and Smell, from others, tho’ all draw their Nourishment from the same Stock lodged in the Earth.’ See Mr. Bradley’s Palates of Plants, and the insipid Substance he allots them to distinguish the Taste of, how they agree.

They must, it seems, within their own Bodies, give the Flavour to this insipid Substance, before their Palates can be of any Use; and, even then, ’tis impossible to be of any Use, but in the manner of the Dog returning to his Vomit.

They would have as much Occasion for the Sense of Smelling, as of Taste; but, after all, of what Use could either of the Two be to Plants, without local Motion of their Roots? which they are so destitute of, that no Mouth of a Root can ever remove itself from the very Point where it was first formed, because a Root has all its longitudinal Increase at the very End; for, should the Spaces betwixt the Branchings increase in Length, those Branches would be broken off, and left behind, or else drawn out of their Cavities; which must destroy the Plant. All the Branches, except the foremost, would be found with their Extremities pointing towards the Stem; the contrary of which Posture they are seen to have: And if they moved backwards, that would have much the same Effect on all the collateral Branchings to destroy them. Smell and Taste then could be of no manner of Use to Vegetables, if they had them; they would have no Remedy or Possibility to mend themselves from the same Mouths, removing to search out other Food, in case they had Power to dislike or refuse what was offered them.