CHAP. 59.—WHAT PLANTS ARE BENEFITTED BY SALT WATER.
A peculiar remedy for the maladies to which radishes, beet,
rue, and cunila are subject, is salt water, which has also the
additional merit of conducing very materially to their sweetness and fertility. Other plants, again, are equally benefitted
by being watered with fresh water, the most desirable for the
purpose being that which is the coldest and the sweetest to
drink: pond and drain-water, on the other hand, are not so
good, as they are apt to carry the seeds of weeds along with
them. It is rain, [Note] however, that forms the principal aliment
of plants; in addition to which, it kills the insects as they
develope themselves upon them.