Preface to the First Edition. 



own experience, I am sorry to say, was the same 

 as that of Mr. De Laune's, and in some cases a 

 botanist I employed could not discover a single 

 plant of some of the more valuable grasses the 

 seeds of which I supposed I had put down, and 

 which, of course, I had paid for. But my friend's 

 article at once aroused the trade and the public, 

 and led to that system of guaranteeing seed which 

 was initiated by Mr. James Hunter, the well- 

 known seed merchant of Chester, whose treatise 

 on permanent pasture has, I may mention in 

 passing, been highly and justly commended by 

 Mr. De Laune. My friend had often been urged 

 by me to bring out a book on the subject of 

 laying down land to grass, and I am given to 

 understand that he had made preparations for 

 the work; but after his death all that could be 

 discovered amongst his papers were some proofs, 

 which were evidently those of his articles in the 

 Journal of the Royal Agricultural Society, though 

 a good many passages, one of which I have quoted 

 (vide page 23), must have be^n deleted. The 

 following brief notice of Mr. De Laune will be 

 interesting to his friends, and also, I hope, to 

 many of those who, like myself, have benefited 

 by his work: — 



Mr. Faunce De Laune came of an old Kentish 

 family, and one of his ancestors — a naval officer — 



