[ 133 ] "" 

 PROCEEDINGS OF IRISH SOCIETIES. 



RoYAi, ZooLOGiCAi, Society. 



Recent donations comprise a Hawk from Rev. E. Denny, and a number 

 of fish from F. Godden, Esq. Twelve Monkeys have been acquired by 

 purchase, and a Pigmy Calf has been born in the Gardens. 



7,660 persons visited the Gardens in March. 



Dubinin Microscopicai, Ci^ub. 



March, 28th.- -The Club met at Prof. G. Coi^E'S, who exhibited a 

 section of the basalt of Carnmoney, near Belfast, containing the translu- 

 cent yellow-brown substance that has been called " huUite." He urged 

 that this substance was really the altered basic glass between the crystals 

 of the basalt, and exhibited sections from Eskdale in Dumfries and from 

 Forfarshire in support of this contention, the former containing unaltered 

 and the latter palagonitic glass. 



Mr. F. W. Moore showed Nectria sinopica, Fries, growing on a decaying 

 orchid pseudo-bulb, part of a plant which had been imported from South 

 America. This Nectria is rare in Britain, and is reported as only growing 

 on the Ivy, both in Britain and on the Continent. It is, therefore, 

 interesting to find it now growing on an Orchid. 



Mr. McArdi^E exhibited Lejeunea patens var. cochleata in fruiting condi- 

 tion, which he collected last year at Anniscaul, Co. Kerry. This form is 

 remarkable amongst liverworts in having the margin and apex of the 

 leaves recurved over the lobule, not unlike the orifice of a broad-lipped 

 shell of a Helix. The plant was first collected at Killarney by 

 the late Dr. D. Moore, who identified it with specimens gathered by Dr. 

 Spruce on Mount Tunguragua in Ecuador, and named by him Z, cochleata, 

 but now Dr. Spruce writes that having compared it rigorously with 

 L. patens, he thinks it must stand as a variety. It is an additional link 

 between Tunguragua and Killarney. 



Dr. McWeeney showed a specimen of Eiirotium repens with the two 

 forms of fructification, the imperfect or conidial, and the perfect or 

 ascigerous, growing from the same mycelium. This common mould of 

 which the conidial form under the generic name Aspergillus is so familiar, 

 produces its small yellow peritheria comparatively seldom, and only 

 under circumstances which are for the most part imperfectly known, 

 but of which imperfect air-supply is one of the most important. In this 

 instance however the peritheria were abundantly produced on a surface 

 of nutrient gelatine, freely exposed to the air. The most mature con- 

 ceptacles were in the centre of the patch which was an accidental 

 contamination of a gelatine plate -culture made for another purpose. 

 Every stage of their development from the corkscrew-shaped mycelia 

 branch with its enveloping hyphse could be distinctly traced. The 

 peculiar shape of the ascopores (biconvex with a depressed margin) was 

 then demonstrated. 



Mr. G. H. Carpenter showed a chernetid or " flilse scorpion '' Chthonius 

 Rayi, from Howth, and remarked that only four of the twenty British 

 species of this interesting order of arachnids had yet been found in 

 Ireland. 



Mr. J. N. HaIvBERT exhibited Microvelia pygnioea, Duf, a minute 

 hemipteron of aquatic habit, which he had taken in a marsh near 

 Ventry, Co. Kerry. The specimen shown was immature, and the 

 consequent non-development of the elytrae allowed the upper side to be 

 seen ; the silvery patches of pulusana with which it was covered, gave the 

 insect a very brilliant appearance. The developed form is very rare. 

 Haliday was the first to record this insect as British, from specimens 

 taken near Belfast, but it has since been found in many widely distributed 

 localities throughout Britain. 



