NEW PUBLICATIONS. 155 



exercised a generally favourable iiiHuence upon the Grasses up to the 

 time of cutting, but the plants declined in vigour afterwards. In the 

 White Clover and Lotus the development was uniformly high, b it in the 

 T. praiense there was a decline in October. 



6. When mineral manures and nitrate of soda were employed together, the 

 effects were generally similar to those in the preceding series (5). This 

 mixture did little to stimulate the growth of one of the plants experi- 

 mented upon, the Plautctf/o lanceolatn, which did not attain muc'i luxuri- 

 ance when dressed with nitrogenous manures. 



The above resvdts constitute but a small part of one set of obs nwations 

 in the Report of Drs. Masters and Gilbert. Another set relates to the 

 condition of the plants in the middle of October ; another to the state of 

 the roots of the various plants in the following April (1870) ; while 

 another set gives the contrasts observable between the growth of the root 

 and herbage in the seventy-two experiments. Two admirable features of 

 the Report cannot, however, be left unnoticed, even in the meagr; outline 

 which we have attempted to draw. We refer to the analytical tibles on 

 pp. 6i to 67, and to the diagrammatic i-epresentations of the fluctuations 

 in the growth, etc. of the various plants. These conclude the Report. 

 The analytical work was performed in the Rothamsted Laborat^-y with 

 appliances and with a care which scarcely anywhere else in Englan I could 

 have been obtained. It includes the total weights of dry vegeta')le sub- 

 stance produced in each box, the total weights of the plant as'ies from 

 each experiment, and the percentage proportions of ash to dry v^-getable 

 substance. 



AVe quote, as indicating some of the valuable bearings of such inquiries 

 as the present, the concluding paragraph of Dr. Gilbert's remarks : — 



" If the results of the first season's experiments do not, as hardly could 

 be expected that they would, afford very satisfactory evidence in regard 

 to the many points of interest which experiments of the kind ar>; calcu- 

 lated to elucidate, at any rate much experience has been gained as to the 

 conduct of future trials; and the discussion of the results themselves can- 

 not fail to indicate how much we may hope to learn when the unfavour- 

 able conditions have been avoided, fiwourable ones carefully secun-d, and 

 the results attentively studied. The relatively varying dependence of 

 different plants on soil and atmospheric conditions respectively, the effects 

 of varying conditions as to soil-supply, the tendency to luxuriance on the 

 one hand or to maturation on the other, or the widely varying special 

 characters of development, according to the external conditions provi(h'd, 

 are points Avhich, when thoroughly investigated and generally understood, 

 must serve to place the cultivation of plants for various purposes — 

 whether for the supply of wood, of fibre, of food, of drug or colour in 

 some special organ, of fruits or of flowers — on the sin-e basis of scientific 

 principle, rather than leave it dependent on the still uncertain, tliouiih 

 often wonderfully successful, guidance of empiricism. May not such 

 knowledge, too, give much insight into the varying functions of plants 

 which have been held to be allied to, or separated from, each other, as- the 

 case may be, for reasons (piite indepeuflent of the sources of their accu- 

 mulation, or the special tendency of their assimilative actions?" 



A. II. C. 



