24 
EOTAL nOETICTJLTUEAL SOCIETY. 
The observations may be divided into four groups : — 1. Those 
relating to germination. 2. Those made at intervals on the growth 
and development of the plants in the seventy-two boxes from 
May 1 to July 1, 1869, when the herbage was cut. 3. Those 
made on October 13, 18G9, at the close of the season, when the 
herbage was again cut. 4. The result of the examination of the 
roots when dug up, in April 1870, in order to prepare for the con- 
tinuance of the experiments in the current year. 
These observations are treated in two ways. The five manures 
are the same in both ; but in the first instance their eff'ects on 
the same species of plant are separately considered, while in the 
second case the comparative influence of each of the manures on all 
the twelve species of plants taken together is noted. In order to 
avoid too frequent repetition of names the following numerals 
and letters are employed in the subsequent remarks and Tables. 
The plants experimented on are indicated by E-oman numerals, 
i, ii, iii, iv, &c., as before mentioned. The six boxes are herein 
alluded to under ordinary Arabic numerals: 1, unmanured ; 2, ma- 
nured with mineral manures ; 3, with ammonia salts, &c. The 
letters a, b, c, d, e,/used in the Tables are intended to denote de- 
grees of vigour, a being the lowest, /the highest. These may be 
also denoted thus : — a, minimum ; h, low ; c, d, medium ; e, high ; /J 
maximum. In estimating degrees of vigour the general condition of 
the plants was considered ; thus, though actual measurements were 
made in all cases, yet the highest position was not always neces- 
sarily assigned to those boxes in which any particular leaf, stalk, 
or root measured the greatest number of inches &c., but to those 
which the observer, from an estimate of all the evidence before 
him at the time of observation considered to contain, on the whole, 
the best-developed plants. It must be remarked that the individual 
plants in each box differed materially in vigour, those in the 
centre and at the sides being usually the least vigorous. The 
plan followed was to take yAmt appeared to be a fair average 
sample of the contents of the whole box, and one representing the 
general condition of the majority of the plants, avoiding either 
extreme. As these observations were carefully checked and re- 
peated in all cases of doubt, it is hoped that they afford a tolerably 
close approximation to the truth. 
Germination. 
As before stated, the seeds were all sown on April 1 ; and seed- 
