CHAP. XII. 



HERBAGE OF WATER-MEADOWS. 



885 



When flooded, the meads, viewed from a distance, hardly appear to 

 be under water, but if walked upon they are found really to be more 

 than ankle-deep. It is specially to be noted, moreover, that this 

 water is running, and not stagnant. Beyond an occasional dressing of 

 chalk, no application of manure is made to the meads, though of 

 course they receive the excrements of such animals as are grazed upon 

 them in the spring and autumn. Analysis has shown, however, that 

 the water conveys to the growing herbage an appreciable amount of 

 available nitrogen. At frosty periods the water has a higher and more 

 constant temperature than the super) acent air, and since it is running 

 water it is, furthermore, well oxygenated. The physiological effect of 

 these two factors is to promote winter growth, and even perhaps to 

 permit of the persistence of some species of grasses which might other- 

 wise die out. 



The results of long-continued observation of the herbage of these 

 Hampshire water-meadows are recorded in the "Journal of the 

 Linnean Society (Botany)," vol. xxiv., 1888, and in the " Journal of the 

 Bath and West of England Society, 1890." Our botanical analyses of 

 carefully selected samples of the hay, taken in three different summers, 

 yielded the following proximate results : 



A remarkable uniformity thus appears to prevail in the proximate 

 constitution of the effective herbage of these water meadows. That 

 samples of the dried herbage of the three crops of 1885, 1886, and 

 1889 should yield proportions of gramineous or grassy herbage varying 

 less than 2 per cent, from each other, is an impressive fact. As 

 shown by the figures of the last column, and as confirmed, moreover, 

 by the figures of each year, it may reasonably be affirmed that the 

 effective herbage of these water-meadows consists, in round numbers, 

 nine-tenths of grass, and one-tenth of miscellaneous herbage, the 

 leguminous herbage occupying an insignificant position. If this result 

 is generally true and it is only by sampling and separating the 

 herbage for a number of years that it can be irrefragably established 

 the approximate uniformity of physical conditions under which the 

 meadows are maintained would seem to be reflected in a corresponding 

 uniformity in the general nature of the herbage with which they are 

 clothed. 



The next table shows not only what were the leading species of 

 grasses found in the hay, but the actual weight per cent, which each 

 contributed to the total hay : 



