Annual Report of the Consulting Botanist for 1883. 335 
one considers the low germination, and the large amount of 
rye-grass present in so many of the samples, it is manifest 
that the plants of meadow fescue that actually grow in many 
pastures must cost a very considerable sum of money. 
The smaller fescues, sold under various names, are to a very 
large extent the seeds of a single species — Festuca rubra. Linn. 
The smaller seeds are generally sold as sheep's fescue, and the 
larger as hard or red fescue. These seeds are usually pure from 
adulteration, but the germination is often very low. Thirty per 
cent, reached the Council's standard, thirty-eight per cent, grew 
more than a half, though less than the standard, and thirty-two 
per cent, still lower, one yielding only eight per cent, of ger- 
minating seeds. 
The samples of cocksfoot {Dactylis glomcrata, Linn.) were 
generally pure. Seventy-one per cent, were free from all im- 
purities. Small seeds of rye-grass are the most frequent foreign 
seeds found in cocksfoot. Eleven per cent, had nearly a third of 
their bulk composed of small rye-grass seed. Seventy per cent, 
gerniinated up to or beyond the Council's standard, in thirteen 
per cent, more than half the seeds grew, and in seventeen per 
cent, less than half. 
The meadow foxtail {^Alopecurus pratensis, Linn.), is usually 
sold pure, though I have met with samples consisting largely of 
the worthless species, Alupecurus agrestis, Linn., which is only a 
troublesome weed. The samples have often a small proportion 
of the seeds of Aira caspitosa. Linn., but this is so immature 
that it is incapable of germination, and, being a very small seed, 
it need not be taken into account in estimating the impurities 
in foxtail. The great defect in this seed arises from so large a 
proportion of it being incapable of germination, because the 
seed is collected long before it is ripe. This apparently arises 
from the fact that the flowers of foxtail easily fall off, so that a 
larger crop can be obtained when it is collected at an early 
stage, and in this state it also possesses the bright silvery 
appearance that is sought for by the purchaser. The result is 
that the germination of this grass is very low. Forty per cent, 
failed to reach in germination the low standard adopted by the 
Council, and in only twenty-five per cent, the half of the seeds 
germinated. This grass is very much infested by a small insect, a 
species of thrips, which often destroys a large proportion of 
the seeds. In one case half of the sample was thus destroyed, 
and only two or three out of fifty-one samples were free from 
injury by this insect. 
The use of fiorin [Agi'ostis alba, var. stolonifera) in new pastures 
is, in my judgment, very doubtful policy, from the danger of intro- 
ducing ergot with the seed. No less than sixty-five per cent, of 
