T909. Irish Societies. 139 



January 19. — The President in the chair. F. Balfour Browne 

 M.A., read a paper on " The Life-History of the Water- Beetle," in which 

 he brought forward several new facts in the development of water-beetles. 

 The President and Messrs. Hamilton, Tomlinson, Gray, and Orr, spoke 

 on the paper. 



January 27.— GboIvOGicai. Section.— T. H. Dewhurst, A.R.G.Sc, 

 gave a lecture on " The Determination of Specific Gravity and the Use of 

 Heavy Liquids." 



February 3. — ARCH^oi^oGiCAr, Section.— Joseph Skii,i,en read a 

 paper on " Church Island," illustrated with lantern views. 



February 10.— Zooi<ogtcai, Section.— F. Bai^four Browne gave 

 an informal lecture on " Method in Biological Research." He described 

 his own work among water-beetles as consisting of four sections — col- 

 lecting, systematic work, life-history work, and distribution, and he 

 went into the details of the methods he employs. Messrs. Foster, 

 Welch, Stelfox, Orr, Milne, Maxwell, and Gallway took part in the dis- 

 cussion. 



February 13— Botanical vSection. — A most interesting biogra- 

 phical paper was read by W. J. C. Tomijnson on " The Charles Darwin 

 Centenary : Darwin as a Botanist.'' 



February 16. — W. J. Fennell in the chair. Miss Margaret Dobbs 

 read a paper on " The Dawn of History in Ireland," which gave rise to 

 considerable discussion at the close. 



February 24.— Geoi.ogicai, Section. — A paper which contained a 

 good deal of original research was read by James Strachan on " The 

 Opal Deposits of Sandy Braes; their Formation and Origin." The lec- 

 turer was highly complimented at the close on his work on these local 

 deposits. 



March 3. — Joint Meeting of Zoologicai, and Geological Sections. 

 R.Welch, M.R.I. A., read a paper on " Rain-wash Deposits of Land shells 

 on Sand-hills at Horn Head." At Horn Head land shells occur in the 

 dunes in mj-riads, and where the dunes have been formed along a hill- 

 side having a surface of stiff clay, sudden heavy rainfalls have undercut 

 the dunes, floating out shells of all sizes. The paper, which has been 

 published in the Irish Naturalist (^■^■. 113-115, supra), gave rise to a pro- 

 longed discussion. 



March 10. - Arch^ologtcal Section.— John M. Dickson read a 

 paper on " Celtic Misnomer." 



March 13.— Botanical Section.— Rev. C. H. Waddell, B.D., read a 

 paper on " The Goosefoots, Knotweeds, &c. (Inconipletse), and the new 

 classification of Engler." This was followed by a paper by W. J. C. 

 Tomlinson on ' Local Plant Gleanings, 1908," the more important 

 records having already appeared in this Journal. 



March 16. — The Vice President (W. H. Gallway) in the chair. R. 

 Lloyd Praeger, B.E-, M.R.I.A., read a paper on "Rock Gardens, 

 Natural and Artificial." There was a very large attendance. Mr. 

 Praeger described the special characters of rock plants and alpines, and 

 went onto describe the natural rock gardens of the Alps, and also the 



