ABSTRACT
Introduction The ancient thinkers wondered about how plants grow. They concluded that plants obtained nourishment from the soil, calling it a “particular juyce” existent in the soil for use by plants. In the sixteenth century, van Helmont regarded water as the sole nutrient for plants. He came to this conclusion after conducting the following experiment:
Growing a willow in a large carefully weighed tub of soil, van Helmont observed at the end of the experiment that only 2 ounces of soil was lost during the period of the experiment, while the willow increased in weight from 5 to 169 pounds. Since only water was added to the soil, he concluded that plant growth was produced solely by water.
