ON THE MIXED HERBAGE OF PERMANENT MEADOW. 
1363 
Leguminosse, and Miscellanea, on plot 9 and on plot 14. On each, there is considerable 
fluctuation as between the Graminese and the Miscellanese in the different separation- 
years ; and the relations are not the same in the same season under the different 
conditions of the two plots. On the average, the nitrate plot gives a higher per¬ 
centage of Graminese, and a lower percentage of Miscellanese; but, on the other hand, 
though still in insignificant proportion, it yields notably more Leguminosse, especially 
of Lathyrus pratensis. 
Bearing in mind the main features of the botany of the plots hitherto considered 
which received a mixture of mineral and nitrogenous manure, but the latter as 
ammonia-salts, it will be observed that the species predominating are very widely 
different. Here, with the nitrate, the most prominent plant, on the average, and with 
one exception in each separation-year, is Poa trivialis, which in no case hitherto recorded 
has been the first in the list. The one exception was that in 1872 Bromus mollis con¬ 
tributed more than 42 percent., whereas in some earlier years it was estimated to have 
even yielded more than this, whilst Poa trivialis gave in that year less than 25 per 
cent. In the fourth separation-year, however, whilst Poa trivialis was only reduced 
to 21-g- per cent., Bromus mollis was reduced to 8 per cent. From the first to the 
fourth separation-year the percentages of Alopecurus pratensis increased in a very 
striking degree, and those of Holcus lanatus and Dactylis glomerata also increased, 
whilst Lolium perenne markedly decreased. Looking to the results in the fourth 
separation-year, Poa trivialis is the first on the list, Alopecurus pratensis coming 
second, each contributing more than 20 per cent., whilst Holcus lanatus and Dactylis 
glomerata each contribute more than 12 per cent. Of other grasses of any prominence, 
Bromus mollis gives about 8, and Poa pratensis about 4 per cent. ; Avena flavescens, 
Lolium perenne, Agrostis vulgaris, considerably less, and Festuca ovina, Avena elatior, 
and others, quite insignificant proportions. 
As already intimated, the only leguminous plant which was found in more than a 
trace, and which increased, was Lathyrus pratensis ; the total Leguminosse, however, 
yielding on the average considerably less than 1 per cent. 
Of miscellaneous species yielding in any one year as much as 1 per cent, to the 
produce, there are with the mineral manure and nitrate four, whilst with the mineral 
and ammonia there were only three. However, the fourth on the nitrate plot is the 
Ranunculus (repens and hulbosus together), which owes its place in the average column 
to its yield in the first separation-year only, afterwards all but disappearing. Of the 
remaining three, as on plot 9, Rumex Acetosa and Conopodium denudatum have each a 
place, but on plot 9 the third was Achillea Millefolium, whilst here on plot 14 it is 
Anthriscus sylvestris, which has much increased in the later years, even more than 
Rumex Acetosa. 
The main features of the miscellaneous herbage may be said to be, that Rumex 
Acetosa has given the highest average proportion, but has fluctuated very much, 
yielding very little in the second and third, and less in the fourth, than in the first 
