258 Annual Report for 1906 of the Consulting Botanist. 
graphically shows the progress of the experiments up to 
this year. This diagram was displayed in the Agricultural 
Education Exhibition at the Society’s Derby Show. 
The diagram shows that for the first five years all the kinds 
of seeds produced more or fewer plants. The highest percentage 
of germination in the fifth year (1900) was made by oats and 
swedes which gave 98 per cent., and the lowest was met with 
in hard fescue which was no higher than 5 per cent. During 
the first and second years this grass germinated 74 per cent, and 
71 per cent. In the tenth year thirteen out of the thirty- five 
samples were dead, and this, the eleventh year, ten more had 
lost their vitality, making twenty-three in all dead. Of those 
that survived, black oats germinated 76 per cent, and white 
oats 57 per cent. Five other samples germinated over 10 per 
cent., and the remaining five kinds were less than 10 per cent. 
It will be instructive to publish the results in full when the 
experiments are completed by the death of all the seeds. 
Buttercups in Pastures. 
Inquiry was made as to the properties of a plant which was 
believed to be the cause of scour in calves, giving great trouble 
in rearing them. The meadow, in which the plant grew in 
considerable abundance, was marshy. The butter made from 
the milk of cows which fed in it had a decidedly bitter taste. 
The plant sent was spearwort ( Ranunculus Flammula Linn.), 
and the injuries specified are those which would follow from 
the eating of this plant. All the species of Ranunculus , called 
buttercups or spearworts, possess acrid properties, and have not 
the slightest feeding value. They are usually rejected by 
animals, but young stock not infrequently eat them to their 
injury. Some farmers like to see buttercups in a field. They 
consider them to be the sign of a good pasture. They no doubt 
show that the soil is fitted to grow plants, but every buttercup 
is a distinct injury to the pasture. Being rejected by the stock 
they flower and seed in abundance. Their numerous seeds are 
well protected and remain ready to germinate under favourable 
conditions. Some of the most acrid increase by creeping stems 
that run above ground or in the soil. The pasture becomes 
more and more filled Avith yellow buttercup, and it loses half 
its value by the presence of acrid plants which causes every 
year injury to, if not the death of, some animals. It would 
be better and more profitable where land is burdened with 
buttercups to plough it, carefully clean it, take at least one 
root crop off it, and then sow it with grasses and clover, pure 
in quality and of good germination. Properly sown down and 
generously treated, a good feeding pasture has thus been 
secured within a year of the sowing. 
