_a._ Grasses more or less nutritious—sweet. _b._ Grasses more or less innutritious—sour. [Illustration: _Fig. 29._ The Hair Tussac Grass.] In a good meadow, the section _a_ maintain the ascendancy, and so keep under those of _b_. In a bad meadow, the section _b_ will be master, and so tyrannize over what would be better. Perfect cultivation, then, of a meadow—for meadows should be cultivated—whilst it encourages the growth of _good_ herbage, equally discourages the progress of the _bad_. CHAPTER XI. ON MEADOW PLANTS OTHER THAN GRASSES. With the grass of the field will usually be found a large proportion of plants of a very varied, variable, and different kind. Of these, many are useful as augmenting the mass, and even improving the quality of a pasture; whilst, as others are altogether objectionable, we shall presently notice them under the head of “Meadow Weeds.” Of the more useful adjuncts of the meadow we may tabulate the following:— +----+------------------------+--------------------------+ |No. | Trivial Names. | Botanical Names. | +----+------------------------+--------------------------+ | 1 | Red clover | Trifolium pratense. | | 2 | Zigzag clover | „ medium. | | 3 | White or Dutch clover | „ repens. | | 4 | Birdsfoot | Lotus corniculatus. | | 5 | Yellow vetchling | Lathyrus pratensis. | | 6 | Purple vetchling | „ palustris. | | 7 | Saintfoin | Onobrychis sativa. | | 8 | Burnet | Sanguisorba officinalis. | | 9 | False burnet | Poterium Sanguisorba. | |10 | Tormentil | Tormentilla officinalis. | |11 | Yarrow | Achillæa millefolia. | |12 | Agrimony | Agrimonia Eupatoria. | |13 | Plantain | Plantago lanceolata. | | | Some of the smaller Compositæ. | | | Ditto Umbelliferæ. | +----+---------------------------------------------------+ Of these, which are arranged pretty nearly in their order of merit, the clovers are by far the most important. These, as meadow plants, will usually be found under the following circumstances:— No. 1. Plentiful in good, rich, sound meadows. „ 2. Frequent in meadows on light sandy soils. „ 3. On thin but good soil, upland meadows. The clovers, and indeed the clover allies, _Papilionaceæ_, as a whole, are partial to lime,—so much so, that a dressing of this mineral to some fields in which clovers are scarcely represented will very quickly cause an accelerated growth of them; hence road dirt, when made from calcareous stones, as are the _oolitic_ and mountain limestones, affords a good vehicle for the admixture of manures or ameliorators, such as guano, burnt ashes, soot, nitrate of soda, &c.