374 Hilda Kivaiid : 



lanutus and Agropyrum repens, to have a much higher percent- 

 age. Of the two exceptions in the list of introduced grasses, it 

 may be said that they can hardly be regarded as fodders at all. 

 They are exceedingly poor grasses whether grown in their 

 native honxe or in this country, and are frequently regarded 

 as weeds, and weeded out us such. Of the native grass Arundo 

 phraginites it may be noted that it always grows in very wet 

 ground, on the edges of rivers, pools or marshes, which fact may 

 possibly account for its greater percentage of phosphoru.s, since 

 the tendency of the water, especially if impregnated with COrt, 

 would be to dissolve phosphate from a considerable depth of 

 soil, and bring it by diffusion into the neighbourhood of the 

 roots, i.e., the water would probably tend to give a larger 

 available supply of P.iO-, than could be obtained by the dry 

 medium plants. 



No record of English or Continental analyses of the parti- 

 cular grasses occurring in the above table could be found ; but 

 Balland (7) gives the maximum percentage of P.2O,- in the fresh 

 millet as .8, which percentage would of course be higher cal- 

 culated per dry substance, and Wolff (8) in dry millet gives 

 3.43 per cent, total ash, and in the ash 21.92 per cent. P.jO,. 

 This calculated to per cent, in the dry substance == about .75. 

 Jordan (9) gives percentage in Timothy Hay .8, and in dry 

 mixed grasses about .5 ; whilst the highest figure obtained 

 for the grasses analysed in this laboratory = .41, so tliat we 

 may take it that the introduced fodder gi-asses have adapted 

 themselves just as the cereals have donel to the low-phosphorus 

 soil in which they are placed, but that the adaptation is not 

 complete since they still have a much higher percentage of 

 PoOr, than the native grasses. 



A (2). — Analyses of the wood of 4 typical Australian trees were 

 also carried out. The trees in question were indigenous, and 

 grew at Warrandyte, Victoria. A section taken right through a 

 bough at the first bifurcation was ashed, and the P.^O-, deter- 

 mined in the ash. 



The following are the mean results of determinations for the 

 per cent. PjOj in the ash : — 



1 Vide infra. 



