THE PINK, AND ITS PROGRESS. 
373 
this moss by this novel system of husbandry, 
and which I collected when visiting the place 
during the summer of 1843. 1. The meadow 
soft grass {Holcus lanatus). 2. The smooth- 
stalked meadow-grass {Poa pratensis). 3. 
The sweet-scented vernal grass {Anthoxan- 
thum odoratum). 4. The broad smooth-leaved 
willow-herb (Epilobiummontanum). 5. The 
buttercup {Ranunculus — ?). 6. The sorrel 
dock {Rumex Acetosa). 7. The ragged Robin 
{Lychnis Flos-cuculi). Besides these I may 
also particularize the common rush, which 
now prevails so extensively on the breeding- 
ground, as to assume the appearance of a 
young plantation ; and having got its strong 
roots deeply and thickly interwoven in the 
spongy surface of the moss, has thereby ren- 
dered travelling much more secure. The 
rushes which have here, within a few years, 
sprung up so thickly, were last year sold, by 
the owner of the moss, for Jive pounds; and 
had not the difficulty, and consequent ex- 
pense, of getting them from the moss been 
very considerable (the whole of them, when 
cut, having to be carried, in small bundles, 
such as a man could bear, on an average for 
half a mile), they would probably have been 
sold for four times the sum. To these I may 
add that nettles extensively abound, and also 
that the common fern is to be met with here, 
which latter plant is almost peculiar to a dry 
soil. 
" No one, who formerly knew this moss, 
and has witnessed the recent remarkable 
change, doubts for a moment that it has all been 
entirely effected by the dung of these birds, 
deposited on the moss during the breeding 
season. For as far as the nests of these birds 
have extended, and even somewhat farther, 
the change in the herbage may be distinctly 
traced; and as the gulls are yearly increasing, 
their breeding dominions must proportionably 
extend, until the cultivation of the moss 
abridges their territories, and eventually drives 
them to seek some other retreat. In the latter 
part of the month of May, or in the early part 
of the month of June, dependent in some 
degree on the season, this breeding colony of 
black-headed gulls is deserving of a visit, 
botli from the ornithologist and agriculturist. 
The former will occupy a few hours agree- 
ably in collecting eggs, materially differing in 
colour, although the produce of the same birds; 
at the same time he will have ocular proof of 
the varying plumage of the young birds, 
during their immature state. The latter may 
derive a salutary lesson, as he witnesses the 
wonderful change which the application of a 
suitable manure will produce on a soil even 
unprepared by any cultivation. If such an 
important alteration in the herbage can be 
effected by the excrement of this bird in an 
undrained morass, one-third, if not one- half of 
which, to the depth of eight or ten feet, if 
compressed by a machine of any considerable 
power, would be found to consist of water ; 
surely he would be constrained at once to 
come to this conclusion, that the application 
of this valuable manure, in proper quantities, 
to a soil prepared by a judicious system of 
drainage and cultivation, would force the 
most luxuriant crops of every species of agri- 
cultural produce which the English farmer 
ever wishes to raise." — Pp. 881 — 883. 
THE PINK, AND ITS PROGRESS. 
We hardly remember a season in which we 
had more to gratify the lovers of this beautiful 
and, till recently, much-neglected flower than 
the present. The flowers which are produced 
from seed are very justly appreciated even by 
the raisers, before they are brought to the test, 
and we have a number to come out which are 
really and truly acquisitions, nor would it be 
safe to pronounce which would be the best of 
the few we are about to name. Looking 
around us at the shows, there will be found at 
least six that must be bought, because they 
are acquisitions of some consequence. The 
great evil that the Pink raiser has to contend 
with, is the rough or serrated edges, which 
seem to defy him; and patience and persever- 
ance can alone get him through his difficulty. 
There have been rose-leaved Pinks, as they 
are called, but they only mean Pinks whose 
edges are not so deeply serrated as the gene- 
rality have been, for the best we ever saw were 
not without the fault in a greater or lesser 
degree. All we can hope for at the present, 
is to get them less notched than we have been 
accustomed to. The Pinks which a grower 
must obtain new this year, are — 
Hall's Queen of England, 
Ward's Great Britain. 
Bragg's George Glenny, 
Turner's Masterpiece. 
Those which he may obtain if he likes, and 
may find useful, are — 
Neville's Thomas Lutman, 
Mead's Susannah, 
Henbury's Rubens, 
Neville's Enchantress, 
When there were four leading flowers to 
come out, each of which would be a star in a 
stand of twelve, and four others that would 
beat three-fourths of our present varieties, we 
do not know, but we doubt very much, if such 
a thing ever occurred before. There never 
was, in our recollection, any thing like it, and 
indeed there have been scores exhibited from 
which we might, in the absence of better, have 
selected several others to add to the list which 
people might buy with quite as much chance 
