i8 9 9-J 105 



PROCEEDINGS OF IRISH SOCIETIES. 



Royal Zoological Society. 



Recent gifts include a Gazelle from Miss E. MacManus, an Angora 

 Rabbit from Mr. J. H. Greene, Ducks from Mr. A. R. French and Capt. 

 H. Despard, and a Badger from Mr. T. Monson. A male Lion (from 

 Nubia), a Great Kangaroo, and a Great Wallaroo, have been bought. A 

 young Camel was born in the Gardens on the 6th March, but unfor- 

 tunately it died when little more than a week old. 



7,500 persons visited the Gardens in February. 



Dubinin Microscopical Club. 



February 16.— The Club met at Leinster House. Mr. W. N. Allen 

 in the chair. 



Mr, J. N. HalbERT exhibited a group of about thirty eggs of a local 

 plant-bug Eurygaster maura, L., showing freshly emerged nymphs, from 

 Kenmare, Co. Kerry. The eggs which were firmly attached in regular 

 rows to the under side of an oak-leaf, are white, oblong in shape, with 

 well-defined net-like markings over the surface. In ever}' case the 

 young nymph had made its escape by forcing off a perfectly symmetrical 

 piece from the free end of the egg. 



Dr. H. H. Dixon exhibited a section through the cecidia of Puccinia 

 poarum, showing nuclear fusion taking place in the secidiospores. When 

 the spores are being detached from the spore-producing filament two 

 nuclei are present in each. A minute nucleolus is present in each 

 nucleus, very little chromatin can be made out. As the spores are set 

 free, the chromatin increases in bulk and the nucleolus disappears. 

 One nucleus usually becomes crescent-shaped and partially encloses the 

 other and then completely fuses with it. 



Mr. H. HANNA showed Elachistea Areschougii, Crouan. This rare and 

 interesting alga was found growing on the receptacles of Himanthalia 

 lorea, the common Sea Thongs, at Murlough Bay, Co. Antrim, at very 

 low water, July, 1898. It is a true parasite as shown by M. C. Sauvagean 

 in the Journal de Botanique for 1892. The previous records for this alga 

 are those of the brothers Crouan who discovered the plant at Brest, but 

 in the figure published by them in their " Florule du Finistere," 1867, 

 pi. 24, gen. 187, they fail to indicate the lower portion of the thallus 

 immersed in the tissues of the host plant, in reality usually filling up 

 one or more of the conceptacles of the host. Dr. Bornet subsequently 

 found it in 1877 at Croisic, and more recently Mr. E. A. L. Batters 

 gathered it at Berwick (18S4), and at Cumbrae, on the Clyde (1891). 

 Through the kindness of Mr. E- M. Holmes who identified the 

 Murlough specimens as identical with Crouan's plant, another locality 

 for the species is established. It was found while collecting for the Flora 

 and Fauna Committee of the Royal Irish Academy. The material 

 collected was preserved in 3 per cent, formol, and is in such good 

 preservation that the exhibitior hopes to be able to trace the course of 



