A VISIT TO KOTIIAMSTED. 247 



Tlu' unniaiuned ]tlot No. 3 was a gay pasture, rich in colour and 

 variety of growth. There was no rankuess or coarseness to be 

 seen on it. Many grasses were blended together and seeding 

 freely. The most abundant of these were the fescues, after 

 tliem the oat grasses, rye grass and l)ent grass, and next the 

 Yorkshire fog and the two meadow grasses, lied chjver was 

 plentiful, and in patches here and there were seen the white; 

 clover and the yellow blooms of the bird's foot trefoil. The 

 little black heads of the plantain were thickly strewn over the 

 grass, and yellow buttercups shone out in abundance ; daisies 

 and dandelions also contributed their white and gold, and above 

 all floated like a thin lace the small white umljellate blocyiis 

 of the carawa}'. 



AVlien to this natural meadow a dressing of ammonia salts 

 was applied, the gay colours disappeared. A strong green grassy 

 herbiXge prevailed, interspersed with only a very few flowers. 

 Even the grasses themselves flowered little, but seemed to spend 

 their strength in the production of an al)undant growth of leaf. 

 IMoreover, the leafier grasses predominated, such as the hard 

 fescue, the downy oat gi-ass, and especially the bent grass and 

 Yorkshire fog. Clover and everything leguminous had dis- 

 apjteared, but in their place came up in abundance the rank leaf 

 and tall shaggy flowering spike of the sorrel dock, the soft leaves 

 and white flowers of the milfoil, and a slight sprhdvling of cara- 

 way, woodrush, and other miscellaneous herbage. 



Very different was the appearance of plot 7, which had received 

 mineral manures alone. It was of a light green colour, and con- 

 sisted of a great variety of grasses, many of which were in flower, 

 as hi the mimanured plot, and prominent among them was the 

 rough meadow grass {Foa trivialis). But the great distinguisli- 

 ing characteristic of this plot was the very luxuriant under- 

 growth of clovers, vetchings, trefoils, and other leguminous 

 plants, whose abundance rendered the grass an object of secondary 

 importance. 



A striking contrast to all these was exhibited by plots 9 and 

 11, which had received a liberal dressing of both ammoniacal and 

 ndneral manures. There the crop was enormous, rank and coarse 

 in its growth, and of a dark green colour. Nothing but grasses 

 were to be seen, and prominent above all was the tall rough 

 cock's foot grass, whose hoary rugged panicles crowned all the 

 other herbage, and contrasted strangely with the gi'een lush 

 leaves below. Other oood grasses were also there in consider- 

 able quantity, notably the oat grass, the soft meadow grass, and 

 the perennial rye grass. Of clover or other leguminous plant 

 not a trace could l)e seen, and of miscellaneous herbage, although 

 here and there a dock flower or umbelliferous plant was noticed, 



