A lecture on the geography of plants / By John Barton.

  • John Barton
Date:
1827
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A lecture on the geography of plants / By John Barton. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    52/120 page 44
    & been assigned*; but the observation can by no means be extended to the salt deserts in the north of Persia and in Independent Tartary. The presence of salt, in any considerable quantity, is fatal to corn and most other vege- tables: there are, however, certain plants to which it appears indispensable, and which have been, for that reason, called saline plants. The Sugar-cane and the Cocoa-nut-tree are almost the only plants which flourish equally well when wetted with fresh water or with brine. From the ashes of these saline plants soda is obtain- ed, a substance largely consumed in the manu- facture of glass and of soap. It only, however, bears the name of soda when in a pure state, as prepared for medicinal purposes: the coarse salt procured by burning sea-weed, (which is practised to a great extent in the western islands of Scotland,) is called kelp. Another kind, prepared from a little plant called Salsola Kali, which grows on the sea-shore in most parts of Europe, but is chiefly cultivated for this pur- pose at Alicant, on the coast of Spain, is called barilla. The only difference between these two substances consists in the greater or less O admixture of foreign ingredients. Immediately south of that salt plain which I * See the map of Europe.
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