1410 
MESSRS. J. B. LAWES, J, H. GILBERT, ARD M. T. MASTERS, 
the same conditions, the also surface-rooting Trifolium repens fluctuated little. It 
was under the same conditions that the deeper-rooting Trifolium pratense continued, 
though decreasingly, in relative defect; whilst the also deep-rooting Lotus corniculatus 
showed somewhat greater relative deficiency under the influence of the residue than 
in the years of the application of the dung. 
Comparing the produce of miscellaneous species with the manure with that without 
it, there was in the first separation-year, as already indicated, a very great excess of 
Rumex Acetosa on the manured plot, and some excess of Conopodium denudatum and 
Achillea Millefolium also. The species most markedly in defect under the influence of 
the manure was Plantago lanceolata. The difference in the amounts yielded on 
the two plots of Cerastium tnviale , Centaurea nigra, Veronica Chamcedrys, and the 
several species of Ranunculus , was too small to be of any significance. The plants, 
which remained, or became, in excess over the unmanured yield of them, after the 
application of the manure was discontinued, were Rumex Acetosa , Achillea Millefolium, 
the various species of Ranunculus , Plantago lanceolata , and Veronica Chamcedrys , and 
in an insignificant degree Centaurea nigra ; whilst Conopodium denudatum went down 
considerably, and Cerastium triviale fluctuated above and below the continuously 
unmanured produce of it. The general result was then, that a larger number maintained 
a moderate position, and none were so specially prominent, after the discontinuance of 
the manure—that is, as the activity of the struggle became less and less. 
The point last referred to—that is, the decrease in the predominance of a few indi¬ 
vidual species, and the increase in the number showing moderate prominence, as the 
unmanured condition was approached—was equally observable in the case of the 
Graminese as in that of the Miscellanese. In the case of the Leguminosae, the stoppage 
of the manure most prominently favoured the increased growth of the surface-rooting 
Lathyrus, but otherwise only slightly affected the growth of the leguminous plants, 
both Trifolium pratense and Lotus corniculatus remaining in obvious deficiency as 
compared with their produce without manure continuously. 
Upon the whole, whether we look to the number of species which came to maintain 
a moderate position, or to the character of the species which did so, it is obvious that 
the general result was that of diminishing intensity of competition, and of gradual 
approach to the conditions on the continuously unmanured plot. 
Thus, the tendencies of botanical change, as well as the particulars of produce which 
have been briefly referred to, concur in showing that, notwithstanding the enormous 
unrecovered amount of some of the most important constituents supplied in the dung 
during the first eight years of the experiments, the residue remaining in the soil was, 
after a few years, in a very slowly available condition, and, so far as it was available, chiefly 
so to the more superficially-rooting species. Of the nitrogen of the dung estimated to 
be unrecovered, part, at any rate, would probably remain in a condition very slowly 
liberated from its existing state of combination, whilst a portion would be subject to 
loss by drainage. On the other hand, the more important mineral constituents, though 
