Report of the Consulting Botanist for 1886. 
315 
bounty of so much per score or hundred for maggots extracted, 
so as to insure co-operation over a fairly large area of country. 
Warble in horses has proved to be much more widely spread 
than was supposed. The fly has been reared from the warble 
maggot, and reported to me as being very like that of the ox- 
warble maggot — the Hypoclerma hovis. I hope to report on this 
more fully on receipt of the specimens. 
I wish to add one more observation, as, although not precisely 
agricultural, the losses involved have been very severe. I have 
been desired both by English exporters and South African 
importers to inquire into the cause of insect injuries to leather 
boots, whereby a large amount of these goods were seriously 
damaged or totally ruined. I found the boots tunnelled between 
the leather and lining, or pasted parts generally, by the maggots 
of a small beetle, which after much consultation as to it 
being certainly English, proved to be the common Anobium 
paniceum, a beetle which is especially attracted by pasted 
leather. I therefore suggested that the subject of the paste 
used should be considered, and I am now informed that where 
a preparation of dextrine (which does not contain anything 
suitable for maggot-food), together with some flour paste con- 
taining an admixture of chloride of zinc, has been substituted 
for common paste, no further complaints have been received 
regarding insect damage. 
XIII. — Report of the Consulting Botanist for 1886. 
By W. Cakeuthers, F.R.S. 
During the past year I have dealt with 344 applications from 
members of the Society, the great majority having reference to 
grass seeds for laying down permanent pasture. I have to 
report, as the general result of these investigations, that the 
quality of the seeds has been maintained. 
The samples of meadow fescue (Festuca pratensis, Huds.) 
were remarkably free from rye-grass, though 8 per cent, con- 
tained from a quarter to nearly a half of this much cheaper and 
less valuable grass. Such quantities are due to deliberate adul- 
teration. The germination of the seeds of this grass was high — 
88 per cent, being the average of the whole, and, but for two 
samples that had a low germination, the average would have 
risen to 95 per cent. 
The samples of tall fescue (Festuca elatior, Linn.) were on the 
whole of superior quality. They were generally true, though 
one sample contained 50 per cent, of rye-grass, and some others 
