FOLKESTONE 
NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY. 
PROCEEDINGS. 
TWENTIETH SESSION, 1887—1888. 
NovemBer 15ru, 1887. 
- the first meeting of the Session was held in the Council 
Chamber at the Town Hall, the gas not being yet laid on in the 
new building. There was a good attendance, and in the absence 
of the President through illness, the chairs was taken by Dr. T. 
Eastes, one of the Vice Presidents of the Society. A lecture was 
given ‘‘ On Grasses and Sedges’”’ by Mr. G. C. Walton, F.L.S. 
ch interest was taken by the audience in the large collection of 
sh and dried specimens, by means of which, together with diagrams, 
ecture was illustrated. Attention was drawn to the great 
riance of Grasses (using the term in its widest sense) as, over 
areas of the civilized world, they furnish food for man and 
Among the many that might be named, prominence was 
ven to millet, rye, barley, oats, rice, wheat, and sugar. Rice, it 
pears contains very much less nutritious matter than wheat, 
lich is by far the most valuable of our cereals. Sugar, though 
tained chiefly from the sugar cane, exists in some quantities in 
many grasses. After speaking of the Marram Grass, which is so 
much planted on sandy shores, where by means of its tough under- 
ound stems, it prevents thminroads of the sea, the lecturer went 
the second part ofHis subject, and dwelt on the main points 
e structure of Grasses and Sedges. The stems, leaves, joints, 
