344 Annual Tteport for 1888 of the ConsuUing Botanist. 
XV^II. — Annual Report for 1888 of the Consulting Botanist. By 
W. Carruthers, F.R.S., P.L.S., 44 CentrarHill, Norwood, 
S.E. 
During the past year I have attended to 347 applications from 
members of the Society, referring mainly to seeds for per- 
manent pasture. 
The great reduction and simplification of the fees adopted by 
the Council in the course of the year has not yet affected my work. 
Preparations have, however, been made for undertaking the 
increased investigations which are expected to flow from this 
change. 
The continued maintenance of the improved quality of the 
seeds is evidenced by the results of the year's work. Perhaps 
this will be most obvious by a tabular statement of these 
results : — 
Average 
Percentage 
Average 
Percentage 
germina- 
containing 
germina- 
containing 
tion 
impurities 
tion 
impurities 
Meadow fescue 
. 94 . 
. . O 
Smooth -stalked 
} 33 . 
Tall fescue 
. 85 . 
. . 8 
meadow-grass 
Wood meadow 
. . o 
Hard fescue . 
. 71 . 
. . o 
} 56 . 
. . 25 
Sheep's fescue 
. 70 . 
• • 33 
grass . . . 
Foxtail . . . 
. 62 . 
. . 20 
Sweet vernal . 
. 57 . 
. . 20 
Cocksfoot . . 
. 89 . 
. . I I 
Fioriii . . . 
. 9G . 
. . lOO 
Timothy . . 
. 94 . 
. . O 
Golden oatgrass 
. 31 . 
. . IOC 
Dogstail . . 
. 86 . 
. . o 
Tall oatsrass . 
. 72 . 
. . o 
liough-stalked 
} 82 . 
Perennial ryegrass 90 . 
• . 55 
meadow-grass 
. . o 
Italian ryegrass 
. 97 . 
. . o 
The only very low germinations that came under my obser- 
vation were samples of smooth-stalked meadow-grass and golden 
oatgrass. The latter grass is most rarely found pure ; it gener- 
ally contains a considerable quantity of fragments of plants and 
small and light seeds of other grasses, such as cocksfoot and 
agrostis. Of the samples of florin I examined, not one was free 
from ergot. The sheep's fescue was to a considerable extent 
adulterated with small seeds of hard fescue — indeed, some samples 
consisted altogether of such small seeds. Yorkshire fog occurred 
in several samples of cocksfoot, in one instance amounting to 12 
per cent, of the bulk — that is to say, every eighth seed was this 
worthless weed. The tussoc grass (^Aira cccspetosa^ Linn.) is 
a too frequent impurity in foxtail. Perennial ryegrass is a 
common medium for introducing Yorkshire fog into pastures. 
The quality of the clovers was also satisfactory, with the ex- 
ception of the considerable number of samples of red clover and 
alsike, which contained dodder. This destructive parasite can 
easily be separated from the clover seed, so that there is no ex- 
