26 The Irish Naturalist. March, 



which, however, is easily broken off leaving the fruit pointed 

 or " beaked." It is in this condition, i.e. without the 

 pappus and its stalk, that the fruit is found in samples of 

 agricultural seed. In colour the fruit varies from a light 

 to a dark golden brown. An illustration of this fruit will 

 be found in fig. i, Plate 3. 



The foreign seeds which occur in imported agricultural 

 seed are of much interest. Not only may they constitute 

 one of the sources of origin of our alien flora, but also not 

 infrcvquently they are of considerable service in helping to 

 ascertain the country of origin of imported seed, a matter 

 in some cases of great importance. 



Unfortunately it is not alwa^^s easy to identify such 

 seeds, because the study of seeds has received but scant 

 attention at the hands of the compilers of the various 

 Floras. vSo far as I am aware there is no standard work 

 dealing exhaustively with the seeds even of the plants 

 which constitute the Britannic phanerogamic flora. Indeed, 

 it is very doubtful whether there is any museum or other 

 institution in the British Isles which possesses a complete 

 collection of the seeds of our native flowering plants. 



Field naturalists and amateur workers at the present 

 day may sometimes imagine that in the matter of the 

 collection and sj/stematic description of plants, there is 

 little or nothing left to be done so far as our own flora is 

 concerned. But in the matter of seeds there is a distinct 

 hiatus which enthusiastic workers Height do worse than 

 attempt to fill. Here, surely, is a subject in which the 

 Irish Naturalists' Field Clubs, under the auspices of their 

 Field Club Union, could effectively co-operate ; and with 

 united forces the non-existence in our National Museum of 

 a complete collection of the seeds of our native flowering 

 plants could be rectified within a comparativel}^ short time. 

 I venture to commend this matter to the attention of those 

 who have the necessary leisure and opportunit}^ to take 

 it up, and this must be my apology for the short digression 

 from my subject. 



Failing identification of an unknc-wn seed with the help 

 of the incomplete reference collections and literature which 



