454 PROF. W. FREAM ON THE 
On the Flora of Waler-Mendows, with Notes on the Species. 
By W. Freda, B.Sc., LL.D., F.L.S., F.G.S., Professor of 
Natural History, College of Agriculture, Downton, Salis- 
bury. 
[Read 19th April, 1888.] 
WATER-MEADOWS are a conspicuous feature in the rural economy 
of the West of England. They are usually adjacent to the banks 
of rivers, and they are irrigated with river-water periodically. 
But though they are frequently submerged, the water in contact 
with them is running-water and well aerated, so that the her- 
bage is in many respects different from that associated with 
stagnant water. The regular “ flooding " or “ drowning " of the 
meadows renders them, to a great extent, independent of tbe 
season, so far as rainfall is concerned ; and when all the circum- 
stances connected with water-meadows are taken into account, it 
is seen that the herbage they carry grows under conditions which, 
for uniformity, are seldom equalled. They therefore offer a 
favourable means for the study of meadow-herbage grown under 
long-continued uniformity of conditions, and it was this circum- 
stance that, in the first place, led me to take up the subject. The 
particular water-meadows I have had under observation for some 
years are on the western bank of the Hampshire Avon, at North 
Charford, in South Hants, but close to the border of South 
Wilts, about eight miles due south of Salisbury, about four miles 
from the Dorset border, and on the north-western confines of 
the New Forest. The soil is a clayey loam (alluvium), with 
flints, resting on the Upper Chalk. 
Following the method adopted by Lawes, Gilbert, and 
Masters *, it will be convenient to arrange the flowering plants 
under the three heads of Graminem, Leguminose, and Miscel- 
laneous Species or weeds. The following are the species of 
flowering-plants, 85 in number, which I have found upon these 
water-meadows. 
* “ Agricultural, Botanical, and Chemical Results of Experiments on the 
Mixed Herbage of Permanent Meadow, conducted for more than twenty years 
in succession on the same Land.—Part II. The Botanical Results.” By Sir J- 
B. Lawes, Bart., LL.D., F.R.S., F.0.8., J. H. Gilbert, Ph.D., F.R.S., F.C.S. 
i aA and M. T. Masters, M.D., F.R.S., F.L.S. Phil. Trans. Part IV. 
