of Central Somerset. 13 



positive cause which produces scouring in cattle is the abundance 

 of mineral and saline matters in certain springs of the lias-forma- 

 tion. A still more complete insight into the nature of the mys- 

 terious complaint is gained by my investigations on the character 

 of the herbage of scouring pastures. 



Examination of the Herbage Theories. 



According to the botanical theory the " tartness " of land is 

 caused by one or more particular species of medicinal plants, 

 which are supposed to grow in abundance on scouring pastures, 

 and are not found in sweet and sound meadows. 



The purging flax (Linum catharticum) has been specially 

 named as the cause oithe complaint, but there is no evidence 

 whatever to prove that this plant really abounds in scouring 

 pastures. On the occasion of my visit I carefully looked out for 

 the Linum catharticum, but could not find a single specimen in 

 one of the worst scouring pastures the parish of Cossington. 

 Singularly enough, on my return home, I found the purging-flax 

 near Tetbury-road Station, on a poor piece of pasture, resting 

 on a Bradford-clay subsoil, but I never heard that this land scours 

 cattle. 



Carnation-grass is another plant to which the evil is attributed, 

 but as this grass grows quite as abundantly in sound pastures as 

 in scouring meadows, in which latter sometimes hardly a spe- 

 cimen can be found, the origin of the disease cannot be traced 

 to carnation-grass. 



Nor can it be referred to the common sorrel (Rumex acetosa), 

 the dandelion *(Leontodon taraxacum), or to meadow-saffron 

 ( Colchicum autumnale} ; for the first-named plants are often found 

 in abundance in meadows that do not scour, and on the other 

 hand there are many scouring pastures in which not a single 

 specimen of meadow-saffron occurs. 



The botanical theory, in short, is unsupported by any reliable 

 evidence, and even should it be found that in a particular locality 

 the disorder can be traced distinctly to the prevalence of purging- 

 flax or colchicum in the pasture, there is abundant practical 

 evidence to prove that this w T ould be quite an exceptional case, 

 and that in the great majority of scouring pastures the origin of 

 the evil must be sought elsewhere. 



According to others, the poor character of the herbage of 

 scouring pastures is the real cause of the mischief. Those 

 who describe the character of the herbage as poor, I imagine, 

 use this adjective as descriptive of a thin, wiry, stunted growth, 

 such as may be observed on thin and infertile soils. They cannot 

 mean " poor " to signify the same as innutritions, for, on the 



