19 ro. Irish Societies 55 



February 8. — The fourth busiuess meeting of the Club was held in 

 the Royal Irish Academy house, the Vice-President (W. F. Gunn) in the 

 chair. George Ryce, B.A., A.R.C.S., gave an interesting lecture on 

 the mining and uses of Potash Salts. In the course of his lecture he 

 exhibited man}' fine lantern slides, showirg the machinery and methods 

 of work in the potash mines of Germany, from which practically all the 

 potash salts of the world are obtained. The lecturer also dealt very 

 fully with the relation of potash salts to artificial manures, and showed 

 the results of experiments carried out m Ireland on the subject of these 

 manures. W. F. Gunn and H. W. D. Dunlop discussed the lecture with 

 SDecial reference to the value of artificial manures and the action of 

 potash salts on cereals. George Ryce, B.A., was elected a member. 



DUBLIN MICROSCOPICAL CLUB. 



January 12.— The Club met at Leinster House. Dr. G. H. Pethybridge 

 (President) exhibited the parasitic fungus Colletotriclmm Lindetnuthianum 

 Briosi et Cavara, growing on bean pods. These had been obtained in the 

 autumn of 1909, from a fruiterer's shop in Dublin, and were doubtless 

 grown in this countrj-. The fungus has not been hitherto definitely 

 recorded for Ireland though enquiry showed that it has apparenth' been 

 noticed occasionally. It is very prevalent in some parts of the United 

 States of America and to such an extent that in some cases beans cannot 

 be successfully grown. Considerable work has been done on the disease 

 produced by it especially at the Cornell University Agricultural Experi- 

 ment Station but no satisfactory method of combating it has yet been 

 discovered. It is interesting as being one of the few cases in which a 

 fungoid disease is transmitted from one season to the next by means of 

 the seed, and when once a crop is infected with the disease it is prac- 

 tically impossible to secure healthy seed from it. 



J. N. HaIvBERT exhibited a new British beetle Ciyptophagtis biviaculatiis^ 

 Pauz. It occurs, not uncommonly, amongst the large reed beds on the 

 shores of Ivough Neagh at Shane's Castle. The species may be easily 

 separated from the known British Cryptophagi by the black marking on 

 the wing cases, and the structure of the side margins of the thorax. It 

 inhabits northern and central Europe and Siberia. (See Irish Naturalist, 

 1910, pp. 30-1). 



D. M'Ardi^e showed adventitious budding in recently collected speci- 

 mens oi Lejeunea flava, Luz., one of the rare foliaceous liverworts. The 

 process was shown in various stages of development, from the early buds 

 with simple cells, to others with the cells divided, further changes show- 

 ing traces of leaves, and lastly a shoot with perfect leaves and stipules 

 or under-leaves formed on the stem. The next stage would be the forma- 

 tion of root-hairs, and the young plant under favourable circumstances, 

 when separated from the parent would develope and bear fertile anthe- 

 ridia and archegonia and also repeat the life history through what is 

 known as the asexual mode. A diagram of the plant highly magnified 

 accompanied the exhibit. Lejeunea flava is also interesting as being a 

 native of the Amazon valley. 



