ON THE MIXED HERBAGE OE PERMANENT MEADOW. 
1369 
increase ; the last two of these, it will he remembered, also asserted considerable 
prominence in the later years on plot 14 ; whilst Avena flavescens was found in 
comparatively small and diminishing percentage on that plot. Of other grasses that 
were fairly prominent on plot 14, Dactylis glomerata is in very much less amount, 
though somewhat increasing, on plot 16. Lolium perenne declined on both plots, but 
gave the highest average amount on plot 14. Anthoxanthum odoratum and Avena 
_'pubescens , neither of which reached 1 per cent, in either separation-year on plot 14, 
each increased and averaged about 2 per cent, on plot 16. 
The difference in the prevalence of Leguminosse on the two plots is most striking. 
With the forced luxuriant growth of individual grasses with the larger amount of 
nitrate, there was not, on the average, 1 per cent, of leguminous herbage ; but, with 
the smaller amount of nitrate there was, on the average, more than 5 per cent., rising 
from little over 2 in the first, to nearly 9^ in the fourth separation-year. The table 
will show that practically the whole of the increase was due to enhanced development 
of Latliyrus pralensis. 
Whilst on plot 14, with the larger amount of nitrate, there were only four species 
of the miscellaneous group yielding in any one of the four separation-years 1 per cent, 
to the herbage, there were, on plot 16, with the smaller amount of nitrate, seven 
species which attained this degree of prominence. Rumex Aeetosa was, on the whole, 
the most prominent on both plots; Conopodium denudatum was decidedly the more 
generally prominent with the smaller amount of nitrate, as also was Achillea Mille¬ 
folium, which was not in the list of the first four on plot 14, The several species of 
Ranunculus were, again, more prominent on plot 16 ; and Plantago lanceolata and 
Centaurea nigra each came into the foremost list on that plot, but not on plot 14. 
On the other hand, Anthriscus sylvestris, which became so prominent in the later years 
on plot 14, in neither year reached anything like 1 per cent, on plot 16. 
Upon the whole, the Miscellanese, like the Leguminosse, yielded a higher average 
proportion to the mixed herbage on plot 16 ; but, unlike the Leguminosse, the quantity 
of the Miscellanese diminished from one separation-year to another. This result was 
chiefly due to the diminishing proportions of Rumex Aeetosa, Conopodium denudatum, 
and Ranunculus repens and R. bulbosus. Lastly, on this point, it is evident that, 
among the Miscellanese, as among the grasses, the herbage was considerably the more 
mixed with the smaller amount of nitrate, and the coincident less forced luxuriance, 
and less active struggle. 
Looking to the columns of actual yield per acre of each species, and of the increase 
or decrease of each, compared with plot 3 without manure, and with plot 14 with the 
double quantity of nitrate, the more evenly mixed character of the herbage is again 
clearly brought to view. Compared with the produce without manure, it is seen that 
there is, on the average of the four separation-years, a more or less consider¬ 
able increase nf nine out of the eleven specially enumerated grasses ; and there was a 
diminution, but in only a small degree, of the remaining two, namely, Anthoxanthum 
