364 Annual Report of the Consulting Botanist for 1881. 
Want of space deters me from giving any of our yachting 
experiences, but even yachting with him was not an idle 
amusement. There was always something to be done ; fishing 
or racing, or trying to win shilling bets by all sorts of recondite 
means, wild-fowl shooting at different haunts, chess, draughts, 
cards, and an infinity of other devices always made life on board 
the ' Sally ' — a new yacht of 28 tons, — anything but monotonous. 
It was on board this yacht that he caught the chill which pro- 
duced his fatal illness. He was not seriously indisposed until 
Monday, February 27th, and to the great grief of all who knew 
him, he died of pneumonia quite peacefully on Tuesday, March 
7th, in his fifty-eighth year — a man " sans peur et sans reproche." 
XVIII. — Annual Report of the Consulting Botanist for 1881. By 
W. Cakeutheks, F.R.S. 
Applications for advice as to pastures were more numerous 
during the past year. I have advised members as to the best 
kinds of grasses to be employed for reclaimed lands, and for 
cultivated lands proposed to be laid down in pasture. The 
careful observations ' of one of the members, Mr. Faunce-De 
Laune, of Sharsted Court, with whom I have been in frequent 
communication, and his practical success in selecting suitable 
grasses, and laying down perennial pastures which supply a con- 
tinuous and nutritious food for stock, are of great importance.* 
Nearly eighty samples of grass seeds have been examined by 
me for their purity, and tested for their germinating power. 
The results of these investigations have been, on the whole, 
satisfactory, except in some cases of mixtures in which I have 
found a great preponderance of vigorous annual grasses of little 
value for permanent pasture. Better samples of meadow fox- 
tail (Alopecurus pratensis) have passed through my hands, 
though the proportion of good seeds is still very small in this 
grass. Some of the smaller grass-seeds that I have examined 
have been exceptionally bad. A parcel, for instance, of fiorin 
(^Agrostis stolonifera) consisted entirely of empty chaff or of 
unripe seeds incapable of germination. I have also had sub- 
mitted to me almost worthless samples of rough-stalked 
meadow-grass {Pva trivialis) and crested dog's-tail (^Cynosurus 
cristatus). I am satisfied that the annual loss to the country 
(necessarily implying a loss to the farmer) is very great from 
sowing bad grasses and worthless seed of good grasses. It 
Vide pp. 229 ct eeq^. 
