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SOME OBSERVATIONS UPON THE PLANTS WHICH 

 ARE CHARACTERISTIC OF AGRICULTURAL, 

 PASTURABLE, AND BAD LANDS, RESPEC- 

 TIVELY, IN TASMANIA. By W. Archer, E.L.S. 



It is well known by gardeners tliafc different kinds of plants 

 must have different kinds of soil provided for them, in order 

 that they may grov/ to the best advantage. It onght to be 

 well known to agriculturists too, but they generally seem to 

 pursue their operations without reflecting upon the matter, — 

 as though they regarded, for the most part, all kinds of soil 

 as being capable of nourishing whatever sorts of plants are 

 inserted in them. Thus, potatoes, for example, will be found 

 planted in soil deficient of lime, which they require in 

 abundance, and abounding in silica, of which they need 

 comparatively little ; and wheat may be seen growing with 

 difficulty on soil unnecessarily calcareous, and greatly wanting 

 in the requisite quantity of silica. Barley is sown in the 

 kind of soil that wheat is expected to flourish in ; and yet it 

 requires one-third more silica, more than twice as much lime, 

 nine times as much potash, and three times as much sulj)huric 

 acid. And flax would certainly be expected, by most agricul- 

 turists, to grow luxuriantly in good wheat land ; whereas it 

 needs twenty-five times as much soda and potash, fifteen times 

 as much magnesia, and only the one-hundred-and-fortieth 

 part of as much silica as wheat does. 



Seeing, therefore, that cultivated plants grow best in soils 

 which contain the largest proportion of the food which they 

 require, it may be inferred, as a matter of course, that 

 different soils will produce naturally, in greatest abundance, 

 those wild plants for which they furnish the largest proportion 

 of their peculiar food. 



Some kinds of soil yield abundantly certai*i kinds of wild 

 plants, and yet are found by experience to be quite unsuited 

 to the growth of agricultural produce ; and we may infer that 

 the soil upon which such wild plants thrive is always more or 

 less of a similar character. The same may be said of the 

 richest agricultural lands, and of land which is adapted 

 for the growth of grasses fit for pasture ; for upon each kind 

 of land, wherever it occurs in an island like Tasmania, will be 

 found growing naturally wild plants of the same or a similar 

 description, — which wild plants may be regarded as charac- 

 teristic of such soils. 



Therefore, we may be able to tell, by inspection merely of 

 the plants — or of specimens of the plants — growing upon any 

 particular land, whether such land is fit for pasture or agri- 

 culture. 



Now, it is this conclusion that I wish to turn to a profitable 

 use as regards the exploration of new localities, with the view 

 of preventing the great disappointment and loss which some- 

 times follow private, as well as public, expenditure, in connec- 

 tion with them. 



Of course; it may be said that examination of the actual soil 



