160 Proceedings. 



The English grasses which Mr. Swainson considers best adapted for cultivation in 

 the climate and soil of Tasmania are : — 



1. Thlextm pratense — Timothy grass, or cat's taU. 



2. Alopecurus pratensis — Fox-tail. 



3. Festuca elatior — Tall meadow grass. 



4. Festuca arundinacea — Reed ditto. 



5. Dacth/lis glomerata — Cock's-foot grass. 



6. Holcus mollis — Woolly soft grass. 



7. Anfhoxantliwtn vermim — Sweet vernal grass. 



8. Foa pratensis — Smooth meadow grass. 



9. Agrostis stolonifera — Fiorin grass. 



10. Avena flavescens — Yellow oat-grass. 



11. Holcus amenaceous — Tall oat-grass. 



Mr. Swainson mentions that white clover grows so luxuriantly, and the risk of 

 loss from ha-^Tng cattle " blown" by it in moist weather in New Zealand is so great, 

 that he carefully avoids its introduction (!) upon his estates there. Rib grass 

 (Flantago lanceolata) he considers also so inferior in point of value for cattle food 

 as not to be worthy of introduction amongst good grasses. 



His Excellency the President laid before the meeting an elaborate and'^arefully 

 constructed table of meteorological observations taken during the month of January 

 last at Government House by Messrs. H. Hull and F. Stanley Dobson, with the 

 aneroid and syphon barometers, the sympiesometer, wet and dry thermometers, 

 &c. &c. &c. 



Sir William Denison then read a veiy lucid and exceedingly valuable paper en 

 the principle, practical working, and economical application of that most useful 

 hydraulic machine, the Water Ram ; which, of all engiaes, is said to transmit the 

 largest amount of the power applied to it, which is of aU others the most easily 

 managed and most economically kept in operation, and is equally applicable to the 

 raisiug of large bodies of water to small heights, or of a small proportion of the water 

 employed to considerable elevations ; the i^roportion being nearly 65 to 100, as has 

 been ascertained by repeated experiments, conducted with every possible care. In 

 a dry coimtry, therefore, where irrigation may be made to add so materially to the 

 fertility of the soil, and where it is quite practicable to collect upon most farms at 

 the cost of a small embankment or excavation a sufficiency of water to afford a 

 head of a few feet or yards, this machine, from its simphcity and its perfectly inde- 

 pendent and inexpensive action when once set agoing, requires but to be familiarly 

 known to be generally employed wherever streams or riUs, or even where consider- 

 able springs, exist on a surface more or less inclined. 



Sir William, who had sent to the meeting for examination a model Ram, having 

 a brass body and reservoir of glass, with glass ascension tube, &c., so as to permit 

 of its action being distinctly observed throughout, was obliging enough to fit 

 together its different parts, and exhibit it in full and continuous operation. 



