Vlll PREFACE. 



well as of Van Tieghem's " Traite de Botanique," the 

 French translation of Sachs' " Physiologic Vdgetale " 

 by Micheli, and Deherain's " Cours de Chimie Agri- 

 cole." The works and memoirs of Darwin have, 

 of course, been laid under contribution, as well as 

 numerous scattered papers by various authors. 

 More especially the writer has to acknowledge his 

 obligations to the voluminous records of the noble 

 series of cultural experiments carried out at 

 Eothamsted for so many years by Sir John Lawes and 

 Dr. Gilbert. So far as at present published, these 

 records and reports are chiefly to be found in suc- 

 cessive volumes of the Eoyal Agricultural Society's 

 Journal. The very elaborate papers on the mixed 

 herbage of Permanent Meadow from which most 

 of the facts alluded to in the chapter headed "The 

 Battle of Life" have been taken, are published in 

 the " Philosophical Transactions " of the Eoyal So- 

 ciety. The "Memorandum Sheet" published by 

 these experimenters supplies annually a condensed 

 summary of the results of their experiments, and is a 

 document that should be carefully studied with due 

 reference to its professed object, by all who have the 

 advancement of agricultural knowledge at heart. 



M. T. M. 



April, 1883. 



