318 Report of the Consulting Botanist for 1886. 
was found under the test of germination to yield only 60 per 
cent, of germinating seeds ; and from the dissection of the seeds 
which did not germinate, there can be no doubt that the failure 
was due to the seed being three or four years old. 
I have found great objection to take efficient steps to destroy 
parasites which have attacked crops. It is important when it 
is possible to prevent the spreading of the parasite further in 
the existing crop, but it is still more important to prevent its 
reappearance in subsequent years. Thus, in clover attacked by 
dodder, the ploughing up or digging over the diseased part, 
without the destruction of the seeds by fire, is only placing the 
seeds of the dodder in the best position for preservation. When 
the ground is again turned over the buried seed, it will germi- 
nate and attack any suitable, or even unsuitable, plant within 
its reach. I have recorded in the Society's ' Journal ' that a 
crop of turnips was under these circumstances attacked by 
dodder. 
For the same reasons, I have recommended that a crop of 
onions attacked by Peronospora schiedeniana, Ung, a fungus 
allied to that which causes the potato disease, should be de- 
stroyed by fire, and the cultivation of onions in the field should 
be stopped for some years. The spores in thoSe years not meet- 
ing with the proper host plant for their growth would perish. 
Another case of injury done to stock by eating saffron (Co/c/u- 
cum autumnale, Linn.) has been brought under my notice. This 
plant has its year's life separated into two distinct epochs — the 
reproductive and the vegetative. In the autumn the flower 
appears, developing at the expense of the starch food that has 
been stored up in the bulb. At the base of the long corolla 
tube, the small seed-vessel is formed, which remains buried in 
the ground through the winter. In the spring the large dark 
green leaves appear, and with them the oblong fruit borne on a 
long slender peduncle which springs from the deeply-buried 
bulb. The leaves prepare the material for their own growth, 
and store up in the bulb a supply of food, which is employed in 
producing the flowers in the autumn, and the fruit in the fol- 
lowing spring. The leaves wither and die before the flowers 
appear. The expense of digging out the deeply-buried bulbs of 
the meadow saffron is very great, and not always efficient, as 
bulbs may be overlooked. Diligent hand-pulling will in time 
eradicate the weed ; but it will do no good to pull the flowers 
in autumn. The plant should be pulled in spring. The leaves 
and the unripe fruit being then removed, the plant is left in its 
most impoverished condition, and this pulling of the leaves 
being repeated once or twice will destroy the saffron. 
