DUBLIN KATUBAL HI8T0BY 80CIETT. 183 



which a very little research would soon prove to be fallaciotw. Dr. 

 Kinahan must, therefore, still hold to the distinctness of these species, 

 believing that by species is meant a being possessed of a certain definite 

 arrangement of organs, — this characteristic arrangement not being pos- 

 sessed by any other form as an entirety, though some of the characters 

 may be possessed by other species. 



The further discussion was by special resolution postponed till the 

 next meeting. 



FRIDAY EVENING, MAY 6, 1869. 



William Aisdeewb, M. R. I. A., President, in the Chair. 



The previous Minutes having been read, were signed. 



The PfiEsiDENT rose and said, that before the papers announced in the 

 summonses for the evening were read, a most imusual course of proceed- 

 ing in the Society was to take place — an adjournment from the previous 

 meeting, to discuss the subject of a paper given at that meeting. This 

 was in accordance with a special resolution passed at that meeting, 

 " That the discussion on Mr. Andrews's paper on Hymenophyllutn Tun- 

 hridgense be postponed until the next meeting." He would be glad, 

 therefore, to hear any remarks that were to be made, on the subject of 

 the resolution. 



EEMAEK8 ON THE BRITISH HYMENOPHTLLUM. BY E. PEECEVAL WRIGHT, A.M., 

 MB., P.L.8., LECTX7RER ON ZOOLOGY, UNIVERSITY OP DUBLIN. 



De. E. Perceval "Weight, F. L. S., read the following : — 



It will be in the recollection of the Members that at the meeting of this 

 Society in March last we were favoured by the President with a paper on 

 the British species of Hymenophyllum, the chief aim of which was to prove 

 the distinctness of the two species, respectively designated S. Wilsoni 

 axidS, Tunhridgense, in opposition to the dictum of Mr. Bentham, who, 

 in his " Handbook of the British Flora," places the former as a variety 

 of the latter. The chief reasons urged for their distinctness were the 

 difference in the involucres and their varied habit of growth — reasons 

 supported admirably by the specimens exhibited, as well as by the ex- 

 perience of their author. 



At the conclusion of the paper an interesting discussion ensued, in 

 the course of which remarks more or less important were made by Pro- 

 fessor Harvey, Dr. Kinahan, the President, and myself. It would ap- 

 pear that, without the authorization of either President or Secretaries, 

 a somewhat garbled outline of this conversation appeared in a Dublin 

 daily paper a few days after the authorized report of Mr. Andrews's 

 paper, which led to the discussion, was published. This unauthorized 

 report, in a most unaccountable manner, not only, it would seem, misap- 

 plied, but misquoted, the real remarks that had been made; and so, on the 

 veiynext night of meeting the President and our senior Secretary read, 

 each of them, full details of what they had said — these details being also 



