308 . 
ANNUAL REPORT FOR 1908 OF THE 
CONSULTING BOTANIST. 
The number of inquiries from members of the Society during 
the past twelve months amounts to 267. Autumn and early 
spring brought farm seeds requiring information as to their 
quality ; later on the inquiries related to weeds of the farm, 
garden, and orchard, their injurious properties, and the best 
method of getting rid of them. 
Seeds. 
It was indicated in the report for last year that the previous 
year’s bad harvest of clover seeds would lead to the placing on the 
market of seeds of very unsatisfactory quality. This was realised 
to a marked extent. The prices at the beginning of the season 
were high, and at its height extravagant prices were asked for 
seeds not of extra quality. For example, a quantity of English- 
grown red clover bought for 56s. per cwt., was found to 
contain only 91 per cent, of pure seed, and to germinate only 
25 per cent. This was worse than useless to the farmer. 
Better samples cost 140s. or more per cwt. Fifty-two per cent, 
of all the red clovers examined were condemned on account of 
the presence of dodder seeds. Of these, the sample that 
contained the smallest number of dodder seeds, had yet 
thirty in a lb., while the worst sample contained two thousand 
four hundred and sixty-one in a lb. Countries that are 
attempting to prevent the importation of dodder seeds with 
clover condemn samples that contain more than eight such 
seeds in the pound. The French Journal Officiel for April, 
1908, publishes a Presidential order prohibiting the importation 
into France of agricultural seed containing any seeds of 
dodder, and establishing centres for the examination of every 
imported sample as to its freedom from these seeds. In 
the absence of such action there is no means in England of 
protecting the farmer from being offered impure seed, and 
it is probable that a good deal of such seed rejected by France 
and other countries may find its way from the Continent into 
our market. The quantity of dodder sown with seed this past 
season will necessarily supply quantities of dodder seed in the 
English-grown seeds offered for next year’s sowing. It is very 
important that a guarantee of purity be secured from the mer- 
chant, in accordance with the form recommended by the Society. 
Modern seed-cleaning machines have been greatly improved, 
and are capable of eliminating almost every impurity. At the 
