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Plant matter: where does it come from

Early Greek ideas. Plant matter comes from soil:Aristotle (384-322 B.C.) and his student Theophrastus (371-285 B.C.):

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Plant matter: where does it come from

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    1. Plant matter: where does it come from? History of photosynthesis research http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5xQnFhIRR88

    2. Early Greek ideas Plant matter comes from soil: Aristotle (384-322 B.C.) and his student Theophrastus (371-285 B.C.): ‘Since plants grow from the soil, it seemed evident to Aristotle that their substance must come from the soil. He wrote, "As many flavors as there are in the flesh of different fruits, so many, it is plain, prevail also in the earth". Aristotle regarded the soil as equivalent to a vast stomach that prepares and supplies the food of plants. This view later became known as the humus theory of plant nutrition. Humus refers to the organic matter in the soil.’ http://www.texaseducator.com/family/jbouyer/lessons/Science/askew/mycourses/botphoto.htm Plant matter comes from water: Thales of Miletos (c. 460–c. 547 BC) “If water can change into both ice and air (pneuma), then perhaps under some circumstances it changes into a tree (apply water to a planted seed) or a rock.” (Egerton: A History of the Ecological Sciences. Early Greek Origins. Volume 82(1): 93–97. January 2001)

    3. Renaissance and Scientific Revolution Hypothesis: Plant matter comes mainly from water Nicolaus of Cusa's 1450 book De Staticus Experimentis "If a man should put an hundred weight of earth into a great earthen pot, and then should take some Herbs, and Seeds, and weigh them, and then plant or sow them in that pot, and then should let them grow there so long, untill hee had successively by little and little, gotten an hundred weight of them, hee would finde the earth but very little diminished, when he came to weigh it againe: by which he might gather, that all the aforesaid herbs, had their weight from the water.“ Did not actually carry out experiment (as far as we know)

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