Nutritive flatter of Grasses. 



183 



view which gives a prominent value, for feeding purposes, to 

 albuminous matters in large proportion over the non-nitrogenous 

 portions of plants be correct, the "artificial" are far more nutri- 

 tive that the natural grasses. But, as I before said, these results 

 were not intended as a peg to hang an argument upon, either on 

 one side or the other, and for the present I am content to offer 

 them as a contribution to the chemistry of vegetation, without 

 further argument or deduction. The following are analyses of 

 a few weeds : — 



Table VII. — On the Specimen as Collected. 



Name of Plant. 



Date of 

 Collection. 



Water. 



Albu- 

 minous 

 Matter. 



Fatty 

 Matter. 



Heat 

 Producing 

 Principles. 



Woody 

 Fibre. 



Ash. 



Centaurea nigra . 

 Crysanthemum leucanthe-1 

 mum. j 

 Juncus glaucus 

 Papaver rhoeas 

 Kanunculus acris . 

 Eumex acetosa 

 Sinapis arvensis . . 



July 24 



June 23 



July 1 1 

 2 



June 13 

 July 4 

 June 29 



69-05 

 71-85 



64-05 



81-00 

 88-15 

 75-37 



85-31 



3-03 



2-12 



2-38 

 1-71 

 1-18 

 1'90 

 1-93 



•641 



•999 



1-121 

 •883 

 •507 

 •545 

 •393 



14-28 



12-64 



16-48 

 7-20 



6- 26 



7- 62 

 6-95 



10-84 



10-51 



13-82 

 6-08 



3- 00 

 13-04 



4- 40 



2-16 



1- 8G 



2- 15 



3- 13 

 -91 



1-51 

 1-02 



Table VIII. — On the Dry Specimen. 



Name of Plant. 



Albu- 

 minous 

 Matter. 



Fatty 

 Matter, 



Heat 

 Producing 

 Principles. 



Woody 

 Fibre. 



Ash. 





9-79 



2-07 



46-09 



35-04 



7-01 



Crysanthemum leucanthemum . 



7-53 



3-49 



45-02 



37^33 



6-63 





6-61 



3-12 



45-81 



38^46 



6-00 



Papaver rhoeas . . . . : 



9-02 



4-65 



41-43 



28-71 



16-49 





9-98 



4-28 



52-69 



25-34 



7-71 





7-71 



2-19 



46-82 



37-16 



6-12 





13-03 



2*67 



47-30 



30-00 



7-00 



On the whole these weeds contain less nitrogen than the use- 

 ful grasses — a circumstance which may in part account for the 

 rapidity with which they spring up even in poor soils, and the 

 difficulty of eradicating them. 



Appendix. 



The methods of analj^sis adopted in this investigation were 

 as follows : — 



1. For the determination of water, the plants when removed 

 from the field were carefully weighed ; they were then inclosed 

 in tin cases, and forwarded immediately by railway to London. 

 The entire samples (of several pounds in most cases) were then 



