Annual Report of the Consulting Botanist Jar 1880. 289 
percentage — sometimes only one or two — of tho soods arc able to 
germinate. The great bulk ol" the samples consist of only the 
empty glumes. 
I have supplied several members with notes on the nature 
of difl'erent weeds, and recommendations of how to deal with 
them. In several localities the common spurry (^Spergula 
arvensis^ has been exceptionally troublesome — a weed which is 
extremely difficult to extirpate, on account of the number and 
vitality of the seeds, which are so readily and abundantly 
produced. 
I have informed members of the Society of the nature of the 
moulds and other parasitic fungi which attack wheat and other 
crops, and of the methods for treating them, with the view of 
destroying them or arresting their progress. 
Several cases of the stoppage of drains and pipes, through 
the entrance of roots in search of water, have been dealt with. 
I made an investigation of the weeds growing in the Costa, in 
Yorkshire, and reported on their nature, and suggested methods 
for their extirpation. 
During the past year few insect plagues have been brought 
under my notice. In some districts the Tipula grub was again 
abundant. I had sent to me specimens of purple ears, which 
were exceptionally abundant in the wheat crop of one locality. 
This condition of the ear is produced by a minute worm, 
generally known as vibrio. I strongly urged the destruction by 
fire of the diseased grains, as the vibrios have a remarkable 
tenacity of life. If they were introduced into a field with the 
seed-corn they would certainly cause injury to the succeeding 
crops. 
The action of the various steeps employed to clean seed-corn 
from the spores of smut and other fungi has engaged my atten- 
tion. Some of the earlier steeps were efficacious merely because 
they floated the light spores, which could then easily be skimmed 
from the surface of the fluid. The use of a solution of sulphate 
of copper, which has become so common, was efficacious, because 
it destroyed the spores. Some caution is required in its appli- 
cation, so as to prevent the seed being itself destroyed, either 
through too long exposure to the action of a weak solution, or to 
the shorter but more violent action of a stronger solution. In- 
deed, from a series of experiments instituted by Prof. Buckman, 
he came to the conclusion that the beneficial action of steeps 
was not due to their destroying the spores of the fungi, but to 
their destroying the germinating power of ill-formed and 
diseased seeds. And he recommended that perfect seed should 
always be used, and then pickling would be unnecessary (' Journal 
of the Royal Agricultural Society,' Vol. XVII., p. 175). If 
VOL. XVII. — S. S. U 
