ON THE MIXED HERBAGE OF PERMANENT MEADOW. 
1397 
nitrate, or whether it is merely a temporary effect of seasons more favourable to their 
competitors, remains to he proved. 
As the table shows, there are seven Miscellanese which have yielded 1 per cent, or 
more to the total produce in one or other of the separation-years on one or other of 
the three plots 16, 19, 20. But the species reaching this degree of prominence are 
not the same on the three plots. There were, in fact, in the two years in question, 
only five which did so on plot 16, and only four which did so on either 19 or 20. 
These were on the respective plots as shown below; and as the results of a single 
season might be misleading, they are in each case given in the order, not as in the 
latest separation-year, but of their average prominence over the two years :— 
Plot 16. 
Achillea Millefolium. 
Conopodium denudatum. 
Bumex Acetosa. 
Banunculus acris. 
Centaurea nigra. 
Plot 19. 
Conopodium denudatum. 
Bumex Acetosa. 
Banunculus repens and 
bulbosus. 
Luzula campestris. 
Plot 20. 
Banunculus repens and 
bulbosus. 
Conopodium denudatum. 
Bumex Acetosa. 
Luzula campestris. 
It will be observed that, on the older and somewhat more fully mineral-manured 
plot 16, Achillea Millefolium is the first, and Centaurea nigra the last on the above 
list; whilst neither of them comes into the category on either 19 or 20. On the other 
hand, Luzula campestris is the fourth in average prominence (but much declining) on 
both 19 and 20, but does not come into the list of 16. Of the remaining plants 
enumerated, two are the same on the three plots, and the others belong to the same 
genus, though not to the same species. Among these, Conopodium is first on the nitrate 
of soda plots 16 and 19, and second on the nitrate of potass plot 20; Rumex Acetosa is 
second on 16 and 19, but third on 20 ; Ranunculus acris is third on 16 ; R. repens and 
R. bulbosus third on 19, and first on 20. Too much stress should not, however, be 
laid on the exact degree of prominence indicated by the figures, as these clearly show 
that there is great fluctuation according to season as well as according to manure. 
As between plot 19, with the nitrate of soda and sulphate of potass, and plot 20 
with the nitrate of potass, it is worthy of remark that, on the former, on which it is to 
be presumed the nitrate would distribute the more rapidly and the more deeply, the 
deeper-rooting Ranunculus acris maintains (at the second separation) a greater pro¬ 
minence than R. repens and R. bulbosus ; whilst with the nitrate of potass, which 
would be less diffusible, the more superficially-rooting R. repens and R. bulbosus 
maintain much the higher degree of prominence. Consistently also, the deep-rooting 
Conopodium denudatum and Rumex Acetosa attain a greater prominence on the nitrate 
of soda plot. On neither of the newer plots is Achillea Millefolium so prominent as on 
the older one (16); whilst Luzula, as already referred to, has, so far, greatly declined 
on both. 
8 Q 
MDCCCLXXXII. 
