1328 
MESSRS. J. B. LAWES, J. H. GILBERT, AND M. T. MASTERS, 
rather than to vegetation merely, the miscellaneous plants which most prominently 
gained ground are the thick-stocked and free-seeding Rumex , the tuberous-rooted 
Conopodium , and the fleshy-stocked, much branched, and also free-seeding Achillea. 
It may here be stated that in the years subsequent to the last complete separation, 
Centaurea nigra appears to be gaining ground, this being especially manifest in the 
second crops. 
It will be observed from the foregoing enumeration that, independently of the 
striking increase in the growth of Lathyrus, which, however, would seem to be less 
marked in recent years, the herbage grown under the influence of mixed mineral 
manure, including potass, is very complex, and the distribution is very similar in 
general character to that without manure; the difference between the two being, 
with the exception of the altered relation of the different Leguminosae, due more to a 
different condition of development, than to any marked distinction in the relative 
predominance of different orders, genera, or species. 
The general appearance of the mineral manured plot is also quite characteristic. 
Instead of the dark colour, irregularity, and prominent leafiness, exhibited by the 
plants of the ammonia and the nitrate plots, there is here a lighter, healthier hue, and 
general evenness, with a very large proportion of fine but comparatively matured 
stems, intermixed nevertheless with much leafy bottom-growth. This character of 
stemminess, and tendency to consolidation of tissue, applies not only to the grasses, 
but also to the Leguminosae and to the miscellaneous plants ; among the latter, 
especially to the Rumex and the Conopodium , whilst the Achillea , being later in 
development, is not so markedly stemmy in the first crop, its main development of 
above-ground, or at least of erect-growing, stem taking place subsequently to the first 
cutting. These remarks apply to the first crops. The second crops show, in general, 
a more grassy growth than the first, with a greater predominance of fine leaf; and 
although usually fairly mixed, still Festuca ovina and Agrostis vulgaris are, upon the 
whole, the most prominent. 
Notwithstanding that a characteristic of the herbage of this plot is to include a 
larger amount of Leguminosae, and especially of Lathyrus, than any other (unless, 
indeed, it has been overtaken in this respect in quite recent years on plot 15, where 
the same mineral manure was first applied in 1876), there is no doubt that, according 
to the figures, there has been some decline as compared with the earlier years. Unfor¬ 
tunately, however, we have much less frequent determinations in the earlier than in 
the later years, the first being in the third season (1858), when about 23 per cent, of 
the total produce consisted of Leguminosae, of which about 18 consisted of Trifolium 
pratense , and only 4J of Lathyrus pratensis. The first complete separation-year was 
the seventh of the experiments, when the Leguminosae contributed nearly 25 per cent, 
to the produce. Trifolium pratense now yielding less than 7, but Lathyrus about 13^ 
per cent. Five years later (1867) the total Leguminosae were under 13 per cent. 
Trifolium pratense yielding under 5, and Lathyrus nearly 7 of this. In 1871 the 
