1G8 Annual Report for 1889 of the Consulting Botanist. 
entirely Aira Jlexuosa, a grass no one would wish to see in a pas- 
ture. 
The low germinating power of certain samples appears to me to 
show that some merchants cany over their surplus stock from year 
to year ; under these circumstances the poas and some other small 
and delicate seeds get completely desiccated, and are unable to grow. 
The two large fescues were quite free from rye-grass — a single 
sample of meadow fescue with 1 per cent, being scarcely an excep- 
tion, for so small a quantity obviously got in without intention. The 
germination has also been satisfactory ; the average of the meadow 
fescue was 96 per cent., in some cases reaching 100 per cent. ; 
while in tall fescue the average germination was 87 per cent., and 
in hard fescue 84 per cent. A quarter of the samples of cocksfoot 
contained seeds of Yorkshire fog, and though the quantity was small 
— from 1 per cent, to 3 per cent.— it seems to me that the smallest 
quantity of this grass is undesirable in a pasture, and its presence 
is the more objectionable because it can easily be cleaned out. The 
germination of the cocksfoot averaged 93 per cent. 
The samples of timothy were very clean, and the germination 
averaged 97 per cent. 
The poas examined were free from foreign seed, and true to 
their kinds. The germination of the more valuable rough-stalked 
meadow grass averaged 77 per cent., while the wood meadow grass 
fell to 61 per cent. ; and the smooth-stalked meadow grass reached 
an average of only 42 per cent. ; and this figure was reached only 
because some good samples raised the average of the poorer qualities. 
As I have suggested, this is probably due to stocks of this seed 
being carried over from season to season. 
The attention that has been year after year drawn to meadow 
foxtail has led to a great improvement in the quality of its seed. 
Some samples reached a germination of 90 per cent. ; the average 
was, however, brought down to 62 per cent, by some very poor 
samples. 
Crested dogstail was pure and clean, and had an average ger- 
mination of 90 per cent. ; tall oat-grass germinated 92 per cent. ; 
golden oat-grass, 73 per cent. ; and sweet-scented vernal grass, 72 
per cent. 
The rye-grasses are more impure than any other seeds that I have 
examined. Forty per cent, of the samples of both perennial and 
Italian rye-grass had the seeds of weeds or other injurious impurities, 
sometimes amounting to as much as 10 per cent. The objectionable 
grasses that in this way got into fields were Yorkshire fog and soft 
brome grass. 
The leguminous seeds were all of a superior quality, with the 
exception of the presence of dodder seeds in the red clovers to the 
extent of 14 per cent, of the samples, and in alsike, to the extent of 
4 per cent, of the samples. This is so destructive a weed to the 
crop that no seed which contains any of it should be used. White 
clover is the most impure of all the clovers ; a sample is very seldom 
met with that does not contain some seeds of sorrel. The average 
