4 ANmVERSARY ADDRESS 



are some plants that the rabbit does not care to touch. 

 To the Ranunculus, Geranium, Forget-me-not, Speedwell, 

 as well as Thistles, Nettles, and many of the order of 

 Gompositoe, they seem to have a special aversion, while 

 they are proportionately partial to most of tlie Cruciferce, 

 Leguminosce, and Graminece. But there are other herb- 

 ivorous members of the animal kingdom that likewise 

 have their favourite plants, and the comparative excess 

 of any class of animal in any district has a very material 

 effect on the distribution of its flora. That is a wide 

 subject and somewhat outside the purport of this Address; 

 but I was led to investigate it a little as the result 

 of an enquiry as to whether according to common opinion 

 rabbits on hill pasture-land poisoned the herbage ; and 

 I may here say that except in so far as excess of 

 stocking by any animal tends to render land what is 

 called "foul," I was unable to lay any special blame on 

 the rabbit, and that, from the fact that the rabbit is 

 ver}'' fastidious as to its food and has the first bite of 

 the tender succulent herbage, the harm proceeded from 

 no special cause to which the term " poisoning " could 

 be given. Meanwhile I can conceive that it has a very 

 great deal to do with regulating the flora of any district 

 or area. 



Over the many plants for the most part called natural, 

 which go to effect changes in hill pastures, the farmer 

 has little or no direct control beyond the first few years 

 after seeding. The wind, birds, and other agencies, carry 

 seeds from all sources, and a process of natural selection 

 follows ; hence in a few years the plants which occur 

 correspond no longer to the mixture of seeds that were 

 sown. The species which grow and thrive, though the 

 fittest to survive in the particular environment, are not 

 necessarily the most desirable. It is presumed this change 

 takes place on all classes of soil, and experts are of 

 opinion that on many the beneficial effects agriculturally 

 of laying land down to permanent jf)asture cease to be 



