An introduction to physiological and systematical botany / by James Edward Smith.
- James Edward Smith
- Date:
- 1814
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: An introduction to physiological and systematical botany / by James Edward Smith. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)
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![ject in the Phil. Trans, for 1790 and 1791. It is even found occasionally in the Bamboo cultivated in our hot- houses. Bat we need not search exotic plants for flinty- earth. I hive already, in speaking of the Cuticle, chap- ter 3d, alluded to the discoveries of Mr. Davy, Professor of Chemistry at the Royal Institution, on this subject. That able chemist has detected pure flint in the cuticle of various plants of the family of Grasses, in the Cane (a kind of Palm) and in the Rough Horsetail, Equisetum hyemale, Engl. Bot. t. 915. (10) In the latter it is very copious, and so disposed as to make a natural file, which renders this plant useful in various manufactures, for even brass cannot resist its action. Common Wheat straw, when burnt, is found to contain a portion of flinty earth in the form of a most exquisite powder, and this accounts for the utility of burnt straw in giving the last polish to marble. How great is the contrast between this production, if it be a secretion, of the tender vege- table frame, and those exhalations which constitute the perfume of flowers ! O ae is among the most permanent substances in N iture, an ingredient in the primeval mountains of the globe ; the other the invisible untan- gible breath of a moment ! The odour of plants is unquestionably of a resinous nature, a volatile essential oil and several phenomena attending it well deserve our attentive consideration. Its general nature is evinced by its ready union with spirits or oil, not with water ; yet the moisture of the atmosphere seems, in many instances, powerfully to fa- (10) fJUsed in this country under the name of Scouring Rush.]](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21155082_0080.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
