DUBLIN NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY. 227 



wettest localities ; for, since my attention was called to the form, I found, 

 on examining a case of ferns, put up four years ago, that plants from 

 a station of this kind, which I had then laid aside as young plants, have 

 preserved their characters unchanged up to the present, nor do they 

 show any appearance of fructification, though plants in the same case 

 and from the same localities are loaded with fruit. These characters 

 are permanent. 



The plants exhibited were obtained by Professor Harvey some years 

 back at Killarney, and have preserved their characters unchanged ever 

 since. I may add, before concluding, that a careful examination of this 

 fern, in its Killarney stations, has led me to conclude that the plants 

 there are, so to speak, drawn up, and that the fact of the difference be- 

 tween them and those from Waterford and Glouin Caragh, as regards 

 fructification and form of frond, are altogether dependent on a law which 

 prevails among the ferns, that when the membranous portion of a frond 

 is developed more than normally, it is so at the expense of the fructifi- 

 cation. I may also add, that an examination of the Valentia Island 

 station of this fern has convinced me that the plant has been introduced 

 there. 



The Chairman read a communication — 



ON LONICERA XYLOSTETJM, AN ADDITION TO THE IRISH FLORA. 



That well-known garden plant, which has been recorded as yet in 

 only a few stations in England, Lonicera xylosteum, was found in 1852, 

 in an undoubtedly wild state, at a great distance from cultivation, on the 

 Kippard Mountain, in a copse near the Cabhole, about six miles from 

 Mountmellick, by Mr. John Jessop, who forwarded this notice of its 

 discovery. 



Professor Kinahan read the following letter from Mr. G. V. 

 Du Noyer, M. E. I. A., Associate Member : — 



ON A REMARKABLE FORM OF ECHINUS LIVIDUS. 



"Dingle, Trdlee, May 21, 1857. 

 " My dear Kinahan, — The rough outline on the opposite page may 

 give you some idea of an Echinus I found the other day on the rocks 

 among seaweed, at the Coastguard station, Minard. I have taken pos- 

 session of it, and intend giving it to the Natural History Society. As 

 well as my memory serves me, I have not before remarked an Echinus 

 of this particular shape ; many of the creatures are four or five inches 

 across, and proportionally high. 



" Yours sincerely, 



" George V. Du Noyer." 



The specimen referred to was exhibited ; its most remarkable cha- 

 racters were : the base, pentangular in outline ; the summit, instead of 

 being flattened, as in all the typical forms of Echinus lividus, is produced 



