120 The Irish Naturalist. [May, 



Mr. H. J. Seymour exhibited specimens of mica from the Godfjeld 

 mica mine, near Krageroe, Norway. They contain numerous very 

 beautiful dendritic inclusions of iron oxide in various stages of hydration, 

 and also many minute rutile cr}'stals. 



Rev. H. W. LETT sent for exhibition specimens of Hypopterygium 

 flavcscens. This moss was first noticed by exhibitor in January, J887, on a 

 pot in Mr. G. Pirn's cold fernhouse, at Monkstown, Co. Dublin. It 

 attracted attention in January, 1899, being observed growing in 

 abundance over the walls and stones in the same place. And since that 

 date Mr. Pirn has found a stalk with a mature capsule, 



Mr. Wm, Mitten, of Hurstpierpoint, to whom specimens were sent, 

 writes: — 



" I have compared it with what I have, and think it most nearly agrees 

 with Hypopterygium faicscdis from Brazil: it does not come near to 

 H. tamariscium, the oldest known South American (Jamaica) species 

 which, perhaps, might be expected to occur in Ireland. The genus is 

 richest, so far as I know, in species in the southern hemisphere, but one 

 is found in Thibet, and one in Japan. I have a specimen of H. viridulum 

 which fruited in the Cambridge Botanical Gardens, and there can be no 

 doubt some plants are brought over with tree ferns which when dead 

 are draped with mosses in greenhouses. I had myself for some years 

 Kacopilum tonientosum, so common in tropical America, as a weed on the 

 earth in pot plants which were not disturbed." 



It is curious to find this tropical moss making its home in a house 

 which is never heated. But apart from this, the moss has points worth 

 noticing. The leaves of Hypopterygiitvi are arranged in three rows, closely 

 resembling the arrangement of the leaves in many hepatics. Two of 

 these rows are, as in many European mosses, disposed in a pinnate 

 manner, one along each side of the stem, while the third row is at the 

 back of the stem, and the leaves of this third row are much smaller and 

 different in shape, and are pressed close to the stem. They occupy the 

 exact position that the underleaves do in Ly'eunea, Frtillania, and many 

 other hepatics. 



The leaves of the two pinnately disposed rows remind us of the leaves 

 of a Milium, with their oval pointed outline and finely-toothed margin 

 of longitudinal cells. The cells of the leaves are small, and may be 

 described as " hexagonal-diamond shape." The nerve is nearer the 

 upper margin of the leaf, and hence the lower half of each leaf is the 

 larger. 



Belfast Naturae History and Philosophical Society. 



April II. — A meeting was held in the Museum, when a lecture was 

 delivered by John N. Pinnegan, B.A., B.Sc, on the subject, "Luminous 

 Discharges in Rarefied Gases." The lecture was illustrated by experi- 

 ments and photo slides. 



