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FOLKESTONE 



NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY. 



PROCEEDINGS. 

 TWENTIETH SESSION, 1887—1888. 



November 15th, 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 chair 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. 

 Much interest was taken by the audience in the large collection of 

 jEresh and dried specimens, by means of which, together with diagrams, 

 the lecture was illustrated. Attention was drawn to the great 

 importance of Grasses (using the term in its widest sense) as, over 

 vast areas of the civilized world, they furnish food for man and 

 beast. Among the many that might be named, prominence was 

 given to millet, rye, barley, oats, rice, wheat, and sugar. Eice, it 

 appears contains very much less nutritious matter than wheat, 

 which is by far the most valuable of our cereals. Sugar, though 

 obtained 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- 

 ground stems, it prevents ths»'inroads of the sea, the lecturer went 

 on to the second part of^bis subject, and dwelt on the main points 

 in the structure of Grasses and Sedges. The stems, leaves, joints, 



