Annual Report of the Consulting Botanist for 1881. 
365 
would effect a great improvement if cultivators were to dis- 
continue using prepared mixtures, and purchase the grasses they 
propose to sow in the proper proportions, and mix them them- 
selves. It is very easy to test their germinating power. This 
would, as far as it goes, supply data for determining the value 
of the seed purchased. 
Clover seeds have been very satisfactory. This seed is, as 
far as my experience goes, entirely free from the adulterations 
which were once so common. A sample of white clover 
(Trifolium repens) was sent to me which contained so large 
a proportion of immature seeds that scarcely half of the sample 
germinated. 
The samples of seed grain have been generally good. The 
previous season did not favour the production of a superior 
quality, but the seeds were healthy and the germinating power 
high. I met with one striking exception in a small sample of 
" naked oats." The sample consisted of two-thirds of a white 
oat and one-third black oats, and there was a considerable 
quantity of the following weeds : — cleavers, mustard, pepper- 
wort, corncockle, and climbing buckwheat. The grains of oats 
were imperfectly filled, and the germinating power was only 
40 per cent. A second sample of the same oats, sent to me by 
the owner, though more true to the variety, and almost free 
from weeds, was yet very defective in its germinating power. 
The increasing demand for determining the germinating 
value of the various seeds has led me to introduce a large and 
improved apparatus into my Laboratory', with the view of more 
efficiently carrying on this work. 
I prepared a report on the results of the competition for prizes 
offered by the Society for improved wheats, which was published 
in the last volume of the ' Journal.' 
The prevalence of parasitic fungi on the cereal crops has 
engaged my attention. I have examined and reported on 
several specimens forwarded to me. In the end of August, I 
visited a district in the north of Cambridgeshire, where mildew 
had suddenly appeared, and done great injury to the crops. 
By the kind assistance of Mr. Little, March, I was able to 
examine a considerable extent of crop. The results of this 
investigation, together with an account of the fungus which 
produces the blight, will form the subject of an article for an 
early number of the ' Journal.' 
Samples of ear-cockle or pepperbrand have been forwarded to 
me. This disease has, in some localities, been severe. It is 
caused by the attack of a very minute thread-worm on the 
growing point of a young flower in the earliest stage of its 
existence. The flower is converted into a gall, filled with a 
V 
