230 PROCEEDINGS OF SOCIETIES. 



at the meetings of the Society. The first was a very remarkable form of Saxi- 

 fraga geum — fine specimens of which he submitted to the meeting. It was first 

 found by him in the Great Blasket Island, in 1842, and noticed in the Society 

 at the December meeting of that year. It was remarkable for its strong growth 

 and dark hirsute leaves, but more particularly for the glands which surround the 

 ovary, and which, in the flowering state of the plant, present a beautiful appearance, 

 the glands being of a deep rose-colour. It seemed remarkable in connecting the 

 Saxifragacese with the Parnassise and Crassulaceae ; it produces perfect seeds, and 

 the seedlings present the same characteristics as the parent plant. Dr. Harvey, 

 who took specimens to England, writes: — M Charles Darwin was very much inte- 

 rested in your Blasket Saxifrage, particularly in the fact of its producing perfect 

 seeds. He is working out some observations on the continuability of varieties by 

 seed, and wishes much to know whether the seedlings from this Saxifrage produce 

 the metamorphic glands of the parent. I told him I thought they did, but would 

 get the full particulars from you." My friend, Mr. Simon Foot, who cultivated 

 the plant, confirms the fact of the seedlings having the same formation of glands 

 as the parent, and informed me that Dr. Lindley observed to him that he consi- 

 dered it would prove to be a plant of great interest. Plants of Saxifraga Pedati- 

 fida, Arabis Crantziana, and Saxifraga leucanthemifolia were exhibited, as ori- 

 ginally noticed in the Society ; the two former discovered by the Right Hon. John 

 Wynne, of Hazlewood, the Saxifrage in Mayo, and the Arabis on Benbulben, 

 Sligo. The Saxifraga leucanthemifolia, which exhibited numerous foliaceous buds 

 on the flowering branches, and which, on falling oft", became young plants, was 

 brought by Dr. Scouler from Portugal. On flowering, the following year, this 

 peculiarity in the plant was seen and brought forward, as it had not been noticed 

 by any continental botanist. The plants do not perfect their seeds. 

 Mr. Andrews was then called upon to read his paper on 



THE SPAWNING STATES OF THE SYNGNATHID2E, OR PIPE-FISH FAMILY. 



It had been my intention this evening to have submitted to the Society some 

 peculiarities that I had observed in the spawning states of the Syngnathidse, or pipe- 

 fish family, more especially with reference to Syngnathus typhle — the deep-nosed 

 pipe-fish — and to the straight-nosed pipe-fish (S. ophidiori), and to have added a 

 review of the several British species (all of which I have obtained on the south- 

 west coast), detailing their several habits and seasons of spawning. From this, 

 however, I have been diverted by several communications that have been made 

 relative to the habits of the salmon, and as to the identity of the fish known as the 

 parr, or gravelling, with the Salmo salar. This being a subject of such importance, 

 not alone in a scientific point, but in its practical application, that I again lay aside 

 my paper upon the Syngnathidae, with the hope that this will afford full discussion 

 of interest for the evening. It may be in the recollection of the members that a paper 

 of great interest was given by Mr. Ffennell, Inspecting Commissioner of Fisheries, in 

 the month of February, 1849, " On the Habits and Spawning States of the Salmon, 

 and upon the Salmon Fisheries of this Country." In that paper Mr. Ffennell sup- 

 ported the views of Mr. Shaw, of Drumlanrig, relative to the first, and the parr 

 state of the young salmon, and its remaining two years in the river before it as- 

 sumed the smolt or migratory state ; and though he admitted that the seasons and 

 the condition of salmon were not the same in all rivers, yet he maintained that a 

 uniform system of open and close season should be adopted in order to prevent the 

 nefarious and injurious system that might probably result in salmon being exposed 

 for sale in a public market, taken from a close river while other rivers were open. 

 This paper was, in some measure, an explanation with reference to an inquiry held 

 on the fisheries of the Caragh and the Laune, in Kerry. My friend, Mr. Williams, 

 at that meeting of the Society, energetically disputed that the fish known generally 

 as the parr or gravelling was the young of the salmon. He had made examinations of 

 an extensive collection of that little fish, which he had obtained throughout the 

 seasons from the rivers of Cork and of Wicklow, and he was not disposed to 

 agree with Mr. Shaw, of Drumlanrig, that all fish termed gravellings were 

 the young of the salmon. At the meetings of April and of May last, notices 

 were again brought forward by Mr. Ffennell and by Mr. Williams, and I thought 



