64 The Irish Naturalist [March, 



or in contact with it ; so that the nucleus completely fills the young 

 ascospore. During the development of the wall the nucleoli divide, as 

 far as could be made out, by simple bipartition, so that there come to be 

 from six to ten in each spore ; their colour-reaction changes from being 

 erythrophil to cyanophil, and they assume the appearance of nuclei, 

 [n this manner each ascospore comes to possess a number (about eight) 

 nuclei derived from the nucleoli of its original nucleus. 



Mr. Greenwood Pim showed Zygodestnus fuscus, a curious reddish- 

 brown mould found on decaying wood at Ovoca, Co. Wicklow. The 

 mycelium is thick and interlacing, provided with a curious form of 

 " clamp cells " at the septa. The conidia are borne singly, rather large 

 and echinulate, and orange-brown. 



Prof. G. Coi^e exhibited, on behalf of Mr. A. Vaughan Jennings, 

 F.G.S., a specimen from a vein cutting the dolerite of Portrush, collected 

 by Mr. Jennings in 1898. The microscopic section shows that the 

 pyroxene is a variety rich in soda, approaching aegirine ; the abundant 

 zeolites, already noticed in these veins by Portlock, seem to be derived 

 from the felspars. The rock, which is coarse in grain, seems as yet 

 unique in Ireland ; but it may be found to have some relationship to the 

 more highly siliceous diorite described by Prof. Judd, from Rockall. 



Mr. G. H. Carpenter showed fragments of insects from the stomach 

 of a Hairy-armed Bat {Vespertilio Leisleri), which he had received from Dr. 

 N. H. Alcock for examination. All the fragments seemed clearly refer- 

 able to Diptera, and a foot and a portion of a wing were shown by 

 comparison to belong to the well-known yellow-haired dungfly, Scato- 

 phaga stercoraria. It would appear, therefore, that the fly must rise to 

 some height in the air after dark, in order to fall a prey to the bat. The 

 specimens are mentioned by Dr. Alcock, in his recent paper on the 

 Natural History of Irish Bats (p. 35 of this volume). 



Mr. H. Hanna showed specimens of the seaweed Rivularia Biasolettiana, 

 Menegh., collected in Ireland for the first time on rocks, near high-water 

 mark, at Tor Head, Co. Antrim, where it grows exposed to the dripping 

 of fresh water. He was indebted to Mr. E. M. Holmes for kindly 

 identifying the plant. This species is figured and described by Harvey 

 in Phycologia Britannica, as Schizosiphon Warrenia, Harv., pi. 316. 



Rev. H. W. LETT exhibited a hepatic closely resembling Lophocolea 

 minor, var. atspidata, Nees. ab. E. This interesting plant was found 

 creeping amongst Frullania germana, var. flabellata, Spruce, on trunks of 

 trees, in Hickson's Wood, near Aniscaul, Co. Kerry, by the exhibitor, 

 and Mr. D. M'Ardle, in June, 1898. It has the appearance of a miniature 

 L. bidentata, Nees. ab. E., being not a third the size of that plant, the 

 stems being only 10-15 mm - long ; the leaf-cells are about half as large 

 as those of L. kidentata, while the leaves are more distantly placed on the 

 stem, and have their points wider apart and not so long. The under- 

 leaf is awl-shaped, very slender, pressed to the stem, and divided into 

 two awl-shaped segments. It is identical with specimens of L. minor, 



