846 Annual Report for 1891 of (lie Coimdting Botanist. 
Tall oat grass is being more used. The seeds are pure, but the 
germination has not risen above 62 per cent. 
A considerable proportion of the rye grasses contained weeds, 
chiefly ox-eye daisy, buttercup, and sorrel. Tlie average germina- 
tion of perennial rye grass amounted to 87^ per cent., and of the 
Italian to 90^ per cent. 
Some more decided effort should be made by the trade to supply 
clovers more free from weeds than the samples one generally meets 
with. The great change that has been effected in the cleaning of 
grass seeds might with advantage be extended to those of clovers. 
They are at present the principal vehicles for introducmg weeds into 
our fields. In the white clover, 73 per cent, of the samples exam- 
ined contained the seeds of weeds : in one case amounting to no less 
than 1.3 per cent, of the clover seeds. In red clover (including the 
cow-grass of commerce) and alsike, 68 per cent, contained weeds. 
In the alsike several samples had 10 per cent, or more of weeds. 
The worst weed in clover is, of course, the dodder. Ten per cent, 
of the samples of red clover contained dodder, while in alsike no 
less than 32 per cent, had dodder seeds, and in one sample there was 
as much as 4^ per cent, of them. That clovers can be .supplied 
clear and free from dodder is evident fi-om the fact that 32 per cent, 
of red clover and alsike and 27 per cent, of white clover were quite 
free from weeds. The average germinations were fairly good : the 
white clover gave 88^ per cent., red clover 92 per cent., and alsike 
90^ per cent. The samples of trefoil were more free from weeds. 
The average germination of this seed was 90| per cent., while 
lucerne was somewhat lower, being 8-5 per cent. 
The samples of yarrow continue satisfactory, both in purity and 
germination. There have been no weeds in the samples examined, 
and the seeds have grown nearly SO per cent. 
It should be remembered that some seeds soon lose their power of 
germination, and it is consequently very undesirable to keep seeds. 
In one parcel examined, which had been kept for two years, scarcely 
a single seed of meadow foxtail in the mixture germinated. 
TcRNip Seed. 
Cases of mixed crops produced from seeds purchased as pure 
turnip seed have been brought under my notice. The seeds of 
turnip so closely resemble those of cabbage and some allied crucife- 
rous plants that it is most diflBcult for the purchaser to distinguish 
such impurities. But the appearance of a large proportion of kale 
or cabbage in a crop of turnips can be due only to the use of mixed 
seeds. It is necessary that the purchaser should be precise in 
designating the seeds that he orders, otherwise he may not be 
able, when the impurities appear in his crop, to recover the loss he. 
has sustained from the merchant who did not supply what was 
ordered. 
