REPORT OF THE BOTANIST. 89 



are often found around the young corn in searching for cut worms and can 

 be readily told by being a sooty black and in having the small appendages 

 at the tip of the abdomen. Quite often I have found one in a hill of corn 

 in the place of a cut worm it had just eaten, but not in time to save a stalk of 

 young corn which was already wilting from the work of the cut worm. 

 One of these larvas will eat several fat cut worms, each one larger than 

 itself, until its sides are distended ready to burst, and then it will be 

 dormant for some time digesting its hearty meal. The larvse are undoubt- 

 edly a help in reducing the number of cut worms, and they should be 

 known, and considered our friends. A little later in the season when these 

 larvje have become imagos, or beetles, they still feed on cut worms and other 

 caterpillars, but are not as often seen as they are more shy and retiring. 



Respectfully submitted. 



G. C. DAVIS. 

 Agricultural College, } 

 December 30, 1893. \ 



REPORT OF CONSULTING BOTANIST. 



To the Director of the Experiment Station: 



Dear Sir — The following report of the consulting botanist of the expe- 

 riment station for 1893 is respectfully submitted. 



EXAMINATION OF SEEDS. 



During the past year an increasing number of samples of seeds of grasses, 

 clovers and other forage plants have been received and examined for 

 impurities and adulterations. 



The number of weed seeds found in many samples of commercial seeds 

 shows the urgent necessity of a careful examination in order to prevent the 

 wholesale spread of weed pests throughout the state. 



PLANTS TO BE NAMED. 



Several hundred plants have been received for names during the year, 

 many of which are weeds sent by farmers and gardeners. 



FUNGUS DISEASES OF PLANTS. 



Collection of paraisitic fungi which attack our cultivated and wild 

 plants, including smuts, rusts, mildews, etc., were made both on the college 

 grounds and in the immediate vicinity. 



Numerous questions relating to plants and plant diseases have been 

 answered involving a considerable outlay of time and research. 



12 



