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Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER XXIII. Vegetation ? Nourishment and Growth of Plants ? Effects of the different Rays of the Solar Spectrum ? Classes ? Botanical Districts. In the present state of the globe a third part only of its surface is occupied by land, and probably not more than a fourth part of that is inhabited by man, but animals and vegetables have a wider range. The greater part of the land is clothed with vegetation and inhabited by quadrupeds, the air is peopled with birds and insects, and the sea teems with living creatures and plants. These organised beings are not scattered promiscuously, but all classes of them have been originally placed in regions suited to their respective wants. Many animals and plants are indigenous only in determinate spots, while a thousand others might have supported them as well, and to many of which they have been transported by man. Plants extract inorganic substances from the ground which are indispensable to bring them to maturity, but the atmosphere supplies the vegetable creation with the principal part of its food. The black or brown mould which is so abundant is the produce of decayed vegetables. When the autumnal leaves, the spoil of the summer, fall to the ground, and their vitality is gone, they enterinto decomposition, and combining with the oxygen of the atmosphere convert it into an equal volume of carbonic acid gas, which consequently exists abundantly in every good soil, and is the most important part of the nourishment of vegetables. This process is slow, and stops as soon as the air in the soil is exhausted; but the plough, by loosening the earth, and permitting the atmosphere to enter more freely and penetrate deeper into the ground, accelerates the decomposition of the vegetable matter, and consequently the formation of carbonic...
| ISBN-13 | 9780217247481 |
|---|---|
| ISBN-10 | 0217247482 |
| Weight | 0.97 Pounds |
| Dimensions | 9.00 x 6.00 x 0.67 In |
| List Price | $21.51 |
| Format | Paperback |
|---|---|
| Pages | 296 pages |
| Publisher | |
| Published On | 2009-08-01 |
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