1917- Irish Societies. ' 85 



DUBLIN MICROSCOPICAL CLUB. 



March 14. — The Club met at Leinster House, N. Colgan (President) 

 in the chair. 



Sir F. W. Moore exhibited a leaf of Crassula namaquensis, to show 

 the peculiar hairs which are thickly distributed over the surface of the 

 thick fleshy leaf. The hairs are unicellular, stout, cylindrical, and 

 devoid of contents ; they are all inclined at a sharp angle towards the 

 apex of the leaf. 



Dr. G. H. Pethybridge exhibited germinating Flax seeds {Linum 

 usitatissimum) having two embryos in each seed. Polyembryony is of 

 course a well-known phenomenon and is a normal state of affairs in 

 Cycads and Conifers. Maxwell Masters in his ■' Vegetable Teratology " 

 (1869) gives a list of plants other than cycads and conifers in which 

 plurality of embryos has been recorded, but the genus Linum does not 

 occur in it. It is thought probable, therefore, that polyembryony has 

 not previously been recorded as occurring in Flax. In Worsdell's 

 " Principles of Plant-Teratology," published last year, the subject of 

 polyembryony is not dealt with. 



J. N. Halbert showed a specimen of the plant-bug Calocoris striaius, 

 a handsomely coloured insect, found last June on hawthorn in a wood 

 at Ardfry Point in County Galway. It is apparently an extremely local 

 species in Ireland. A second specimen is preserved in Haliday's 

 collection, but the locality in which it was found has not been recorded. 

 The species is rather local in Great Britain, occurring in open places in 

 woods as far north as the shores of the Moray Firth. 



BELFAST NATURALISTS' FIELD CLUB. 



February 20. — Robert May presiding. At the opening of the meeting 

 a sympathetic resolution was passed in silence to the relatives of four 

 deceased long-standing members — William Gray, M.R.I. A., the Right 

 Hon. Robert Young, John Frame, and George H. Elliott. F. J. Bigger, 

 M.R.I. A., then gave a lecture on two old churches in Lecale, Raholp 

 and St. Nicholas of Ardtole. 



DUBLIN NATURALISTS' FIELD CLUB. 



January 18. — The President (Prof. Carpenter) in the chair. Prof. 

 A. Henry lectured on the Growth of Forest Trees in Ireland, pointing 

 out the dependence of tree growth on climate both with regard to 

 temperature and wind force. The lecture, illustrated by numerous 

 lantern pictures, was discussed by the President, X. Colgan and R. LI. 

 Praeger. The officers serving during 1916 were re-elected for 191 7. 



February 15. — The President in the chair. A number of exhibits 

 were shown, among which Prof. Cole's demonstration of the granite 

 from ]Mullaghderg, Co. Donegal, enclosing sph.erulite was especially 

 noteworthy. {Set. Proc. R.D.S., xv., 1916, No. 15.) 



