Proceedings of Irish Societies. 21 



arranged with their long axes vertical to the surface of the spherule. 

 Beneath this is a very deep granular so-called nervous layer which is 

 separated from the endoderm by a very thin layer of mesogloea. The 

 endoderm is devoid of pigment granules, the blue pigment which, during 

 life, makes the spherule so conspicuous, being entirley external to the 

 layer of nematocysts. This superficial position of blue pigment explains 

 a fact sometimes observed during life — viz., the complete separation of a 

 blue layer leaving behind a colourless but apparently otherwise intact 

 spherule. 



Mr. F. W. Moore showed the pseudo-bulb of an orchid, Oncidium 

 ceballete, attacked by a fungus. The orchid from which the pseudo- 

 bulb was taken was imported from Carthagena in 1886, but no sign 

 of the fungus appeared until 1891. The fungus proves to be a new 

 species — Myrotheciu7n cinereum, Cooke. 



b:ei.fast naturai, history and phii^osophicai, society. 



January 5th.— The President, Professor M. F. Fitzgerai^d, B.A., 

 in the Chair. Mr. John Lanyon, C.E)., read a paper on "The Belfast City 

 Central Station and Railways." 



January 27th.— The President in the Chair. Mr. L. L. Macassey, B.L., 

 C.B., read a paper on "The Filtration Works for the Improvement of the 

 Water-supply of Belfast." 



February 2nd. — The President in the Chair. Mr. Seaton F. Milligan, 

 M.R.I.A., read a paper on "The Early Christian Architecture of Ireland." 



February 24th. — The President in the Chair. Dr. John McCormac 

 read a paper on " The Influence of Language and Environment upon the 

 Individual through the Nervous System." 



March ist— The President in the Chair. Mr. William Gray, CE. 

 M.R.I. A., read a paper on "The Essentials of House Sanitation and How 

 to Secure Them." 



BEI<FAST NATURAI.ISTS' FIEI.D CI.UB. 



January 19th.— The President, Mr. John Vinycomb, F.R.S.A.I., in 

 the Chair. Rev. W. F. Johnson, M.A. F.E.S., read a paper on "The 

 Beetles of the Belfast District." The reader said that his chief sources 

 of information regarding the Coleoptera found in the vicinity of Belfast, 

 were the lists of the collections of the late A. H. Haliday, F.L.S., and 

 Robert Patterson, F.R.S., published by the Naturalists' Field Club, and 

 the collection of local beetles in the museum of the Belfast Natural 

 History and Philosophical Society. Mr. Johnson then described the 

 various genera and species which have been taken in the district, men- 

 tioning their characteristics, habitats, and the records of their occur- 

 rences, and concluded by strongly urging members to pay some attention 

 to this interesting order, which were well worthy of close observation. 

 A discussion followed, in which Messrs. John Hamilton, William Gray, 

 R. Lloyd Praeger, and Rev. C. H. Waddell, M.A., took part. 



Feruary i6th.— The President in the Chair. Rev. C. H. Waddell, 

 M.A., read a paper on "The late Mr. John Templeton's Work among the 

 Birds of the District, and some MS. Notes of his, recentl}' discovered." 

 The reader stated that a copy of Montagu's Ornithological Dictionary had 

 lately come into his possession, which had formerly belonged to Mr. 

 Templeton, and contained a number of manuscript notes by that eminent 

 local naturalist, a selection from which Mr. Waddell read. Most of these 

 notes have been published by Thompson and others. 



Mr. W. J. Knowles, M.R.I.A., read a paper on "The Occurrence of 

 Flint Flakes in the Glacial Gravels of Ballyrudder." He exhibited a 

 number of flints obtained by him in these gravels, which he considered 

 showed undoubted evidence of human workmanship. He thought that 

 sufficient attention had not been given to the rude forms of implements 



