Base botania protects the Terrestrial Agglomeration Plate from the Magnet Ring (like the solegnolia) so that people can't accidentally walk by it and waste 1/2 a mana pool, but the Mana Infuser doesn't, and this is not documented in the game. This can be especially frustrating considering the cost of Alfsteel, and that you can easily discover this the hard way, wasting 2 full mana pools.