Annual Report of the Consulting Botanist for 1877. 263 
to me this year in which either killed or spurious seeds have 
been foisted upon the purchaser. The samples that I have had 
to condemn have been defective either through the presence of 
worthless or injurious weeds, or through bad or careless harvest- 
ing, so that too large a proportion of unripe grains were col- 
lected, or the grains were injured in threshing or in other and 
subsequent treatment. 
It is satisfactory that, as far as my experience goes, the 
Members of the Society have not been imposed upon by the 
killed and coloured seeds which recent prosecutions have shown 
to be affain found in the market. The extent to which killed 
or dead seeds are present in any sample may easily be deter- 
mined by the purchaser, and no farmer should sow low-priced 
seed, or seed in any way suspicious, without experimenting 
himself in germinating a fair sample, or submitting it for exa- 
mination. I believe no danger is to be feared from the trade 
generally, but unprincipled dealers in large towns are now 
known to systematically increase their profits through adulte- 
ration. The worthless article is chiefly imposed on general 
dealers who supply seed but have no practical knowledge of 
this department of their business, and who retail in good faith 
what they have purchased in the lowest market as good seed. 
The reflection in the Annual Report of last year on the 
inferior character of seed supplied to a Member of the Society by 
a Farmers' Association, led to a remonstrance from a firm sup- 
plying seed to such an Association, which I placed before the 
Committee, and which, in their opinion, fully justified the con- 
demnation which was printed in the Report. 
In the course of the year the Committee resolved to make 
arrangements for supplying information as to the insect dangers 
, of the farm. This was intimated to the Members of the Society. 
The great alarm caused by the threatened appearance of the 
Colorado Beetle directed much attention to insects which ap- 
peared among the crops ; and every strange or unknown insect 
was too often supposed to be a stage of the life of the dreaded 
Beetle. The Society, by the distribution of coloured illustra- 
tions of the Beetle amongst all its Members, supplied them with 
the means of recognising it in any of its forms. But, happily, 
no authenticated case has yet been reported of its appearance in 
Britain, except as specimens supplied to naturalists for scientific 
purposes. Eight applications have been made to me in the course 
of 1877 in regard to insects, and the Members have received 
satisfactory information from the experienced entomologist who 
has undertaken to answer these incjuiries. Tlic insects sent were 
well known, and, with one exception, were innocent creatures. 
