DUBLIN NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY. 151 



occupations. I would, in conclusion, merely remind you that this plant, 

 or its close relative (A. glaucus), is the mould the presence of which 

 is so highly prized in cheese that it is, I believe, often inoculated with 

 it to produce an article fit for the epicure. 



A series of microscopic drawings illustrated these remarks. 



The President remarked that many other fungi, during the progress 

 of their development, take on most dissimilar forms. Old botanists, 

 hence, have often referred to distinct genera forms which have now 

 been proved to be specifically identical. One genus, for instance, Sclero- 

 tium, of which some twenty or thirty species have been described, is 

 found to be really made up of the young states of the genera Agaricus 

 and Pezziza, so that Sclerotium is now nearly blotted out from our lists. 

 Among the drawings exhibited to-night we see that a plant which we 

 would be led to call Leptomitus, when traced to its full development, 

 turns out to be Aspergillus. When in North America he was shown a 

 number of so-called species of this false genus, at that time placed 

 among the sea- weeds, which had developed themselves among the sul- 

 phate of copper solutions used in the electrotyping processes of the United 

 States Survey. The plant had caused much annoyance and damage 

 to the service, decomposing the solution, and throwing down the cop- 

 per to such an extent as to render it nearly impossible to carry on the 

 various processes required. He hoped Dr. Prazer would follow up this 

 subject; the Irish fungi were nearly unknown, and a fine field was 

 open for any one who would pursue the subject of the metamorphoses 

 of these interesting plants. 



The following communication was next read by Dr. Kinahan, Hon. 

 Secretary : — 



CARCTNOLOGICAL NOTES : BEING A LIST OF THE CRUSTACEA PODOPHTHALM1A 

 OF GALWAY MARINE DISTRICTS, CHIEFLY MADE DURING THE SUMMER OF 

 1850. BY A. G. MELVILLE, M.D., M.R.I. A., PROFESSOR OF NATURAL HISTORY, 

 QUEEN'S COLLEGE, GALWAY, ETC. 



The district in which the subjoined species were captured extends 

 from Loop Head to Slyne Head; including the bays of Gal way, Bound - 

 stone, and Birterbie, and the channels and seas adjacent to the isles of 

 Arran ; many of the species from this latter locality were dredged from 

 a depth of sixty fathoms. To the species of but local occurrence the name 

 of the precise locality is appended ; with but very few exceptions, the 

 specimens were obtained in 1850, and specimens of most of the species 

 are to be seen in the Museum of the Queen's College, Galway. 



LIST OF SPECIES. 



Stenorrhynchus phalangium. — Very common. 



Achceus Cranchii. — A single specimen was obtained at Antrim, 

 1850; the only previous record of it as Irish was a specimen formerly 

 in the collection of J. V. Thompson, but for some years past lost. 



