Report of the Consulting Botanist for 1885. 327 
but the dangerous impurity to be avoided in this seed is ergot. 
In more than half the samples I have examined during the year, 
ergot was present. I am thoroughly satisfied that it is much 
better to omit fiorin in laying down pastures than to use seeds 
containing ergot, which would certainly introduce this dangerous 
parasite. Abortion in stock is no doubt due to several causes, 
but it is certain that amongst them must be reckoned the 
presence of ergot in their food. The ergot is not so likely to be 
injurious in pastures, for, as a rule, stock reject the seeded heads 
of grasses ; and besides, when the meadows are fairly pastured, 
the grasses that are the favourite food of the stock are not per- 
mitted to go to flower, and the ergot does not appear, as it can 
be developed only after the flowering of the grasses. The 
ergots are of different sizes in the different grasses, but the ergot 
of any grass will produce the disease in any other grass in the 
meadow, where it grows on the ground in the following year. 
During the year I have had brought under my notice several 
instances of abortion, but the only case in which it seemed to 
me clear that the abortion was due to ergot was that of several 
cows near Kilkenny. I obtained specimens from the hay on 
which the cows were being fed, and I found that both the 
cocksfoot and tall fescue were very badly ergotted, some heads 
having eight or ten ergots. The hay had been grown on a 
damp imperfectly drained soil ; this, together with the generally 
moist atmosphere of the south-west of Ireland, would account 
for the prevalence of ergot in the pasture. If the sample sent 
in the least represents what may be found in the meadow-hay 
of that district, and from facts already in my possession I fear 
it is so, then all haying should be stopped (I am afraid it cannot 
be authoritatively forbidden) for several years, and the pasture 
closely fed off. In this way the ergot might be destroyed, for 
without the flowers of the grass the spores would not produce 
the fungus, as they can grow only on grass flowers. 
Three samples have been submitted to me, which were 
offered as " Festuca loUacea," but which entirely consisted of 
the seeds of manna or flote grass (^Glyceria fluitans, R. JBr.). 
The name Festiica loliacea appears in some trade lists. But 
the plant intended is a hybrid between meadow fescue and rye- 
grass which occasionally is met with, but nowhere has been able 
to keep its place as a permanent variety. Sinclair gives a very 
good figure of it, and apparently secured a considerable quantity 
for analysis. He observed that, like other hybrids, it does 
not perfect its seed, the flowers being generally abortive. Its 
cultivation is consequently, as he says, inconvenient and 
expensive. Its increase by dividing the roots and transplanting 
