ON THE MIXED HERBAGE OE PERMANENT MEADOW. 
1273 
Thus this plant was first in quantity among the miscellaneous flora on one plot in 
1862, but was not second or third in that year at all. It was third three times in 
1867, but not once first or second. It was once first and five times third in 1872 ; 
and it was once second and three times third in 1877. It was, therefore, seldom first 
or second among miscellaneous plants; but was more frequently third. Yet it only 
once contributed more than 5 per cent, to the total herbage, namely, in 1872, on plot 
17 (with the smaller quantity of nitrate of soda alone), and it was on this plot that 
the plant came first in 1862 and in 1872, and here also it was third in 1867 and in 
1877. The actual percentages which it yielded to the total herbage on the plot were 
4-41 in 1862, 4*10 in 1867, 10*28 in 1872, but only 2*82 in 1877. It also yielded as 
much as 2*58 per cent, to the produce on plot 1 5, with the larger amount of nitrate of 
soda alone, in the third separation-year. The only other plots on which it came second 
or third were those to which ammonia-salts were applied, but without any, or with 
deficient mineral manuring. With ammonia-salts and full mineral manuring it was 
almost completely banished. Next to the plots with nitrate of soda alone, it gave the 
highest percentage on the unmanured ones, w r here it increased up to the third separa¬ 
tion-year, but afterwards declined. 
Achillea Millefolium. 
This perennial herb is specially well endowed, having a woody, more or less branching 
stock, which emits slender, creeping offshoots or runners, and rather thick vertical roots 
giving off more or less horizontal branches destitute of root-hairs. The flowering stems 
are erect, terminal, dying down after flowering, thus necessitating the formation of 
lateral shoots (see Jour. Hoy. Hort. Soc., vol. iii., 1870, p. 53). Each “runner ” or stolon 
forms a tuft of leaves at the extremity, which ultimately becomes an independent 
plant by the decay of the runner which connects it to the parent stock. The leaves 
are crowded, spreading horizontally, and are very finely cut, whence the specific name. 
It does not, as a rule, flower before the first mowing, but does so before the second 
cutting, the flowers being probably fertilized by insects. As a rule, in this country 
it frequents dry pastures and banks, and bears drought well. Cattle and sheep eat it 
readily, and few plants sprout more freely after the browsing than this does, by reason 
of its mode of growth. 
The characters favourable to the milfoil are its hardy constitution, and ability 
to withstand drought, its powerful under-ground growth, its divided stock, its habit 
of propagating itself by runners, and its free seeding character. These are all endow¬ 
ments likely to favour it in competition. 
The following table shows the relative degree of prominence of this plant. 
