EXPERIMENTS ON THE MIXED HERBAGE OF PERMANENT MEADOW. 341 
On both plots, 14 and 16, Alopecurus pratensis is plentiful and increasing. With 
the mineral manure and the smaller quantity of nitrate (plot 16) there was a larger 
proportion of Holc-us lanatus, and much more of Avenci jlavescens, Agrostis vulgaris, 
and Festuca ovina, especially of the two latter; but there was a smaller proportion of 
Lolium perenne, considerably less Dactylis glome,rata, and very much less of both Poa 
trivialis and Bromus mollis; in all, a less proportion of total Grain inete than with the 
double amount of nitrate. There was, however, much more leguminous herbage, 
especially in the later years, and chiefly Lathyrus pratensis. There was also a larger, 
but a decreasing, proportion belonging to other orders ; more Ranunculus, both acris 
and bulbosus, more Conopodium denudatum, more Achillea millefolium, and more 
Rumex acetosa, but much less Anthriscus than on 14. 
In fact, on plot 16, with the smaller amount of nitrate, a greater variety of grasses 
contributed the bulk of the produce, but there was a less proportion of the more freely- 
growing species. The herbage was made up in considerably less proportion of 
Graminese, and it contained both a greater number of species, and a considerably 
greater percentage by weight, of those belonging to the leguminous and other orders. 
As already mentioned, the average percentage of mineral matter in the dry sub¬ 
stance is highest in the miscellaneous, lower in the leguminous, and lowest in the 
gramineous herbage. The dry matter of the gramineous herbage, again, contains the 
lowest average percentage of nitrogen, that of the miscellaneous a higher, and that of 
the leguminous much the highest. Hence, we should expect a higher percentage of 
both mineral matter and nitrogen in the dry substance of the less gramineous mixed 
herbage grown by the smaller amount of nitrate, and this is actually found. And, as 
the leguminous, and to some extent the miscellaneous herbage also, seems less in¬ 
fluenced by, and less dependent on, artificial supply of nitrogen, the greater yield of 
nitrogen in proportion to that applied in manure may not indicate the utilisation of a 
correspondingly larger proportion of that supplied, but only that more has been 
gathered from natural sources. 
It is obvious that, with a greater number of species, comprising those belonging to 
very characteristically different orders, the representatives of which have widely dif¬ 
ferent habits of growth, not only above but underground, there will be a greater 
variety of root-distribution, a greater variety in food-collecting capacity, and probably, 
with these, a greater total capability of such collection. There is, accordingly, a higher 
percentage of lime, an equal percentage of magnesia, a considerably higher percentage 
of potass and phosphoric acid, a higher percentage of sulphuric acid, about an equal 
percentage of chlorine and of silica, but considerably less of soda, in the dry substance 
of the produce grown by the smaller amount of nitrate of soda. And, reckoned per acre, 
there is very nearly as much lime, potass, and phosphoric acid, and not much less mag¬ 
nesia, though considerably less sulphuric acid and chlorine, and very much less soda, 
and at the same time considerably less silica, gathered up under the influence of the 
smaller amount of nitrate. 
