icpi. Proceedings of Irish Societies. 77 



DUBLIN MICROSCOPICAL CLUB. 



December 6. — The Club met at Leinster House. 



Mr. Greenwood Pim showed Beech leaves from Straffan, thickly 

 covered with Phylloctinia guttata (Wallroth) { = P. suffulta of Tubeuf). 

 It forms white patches on which are dotted the conceptacles which 

 contain the asci and spores. As in all the other Erysiphece the con- 

 ceptacles are furnished with appendages in this genus ; these form long 

 and sharp needles with swollen bases. It is common on Hornbeam, 

 Hazel, Ash, &c. 



Mr. A, J. BECKETT exhibited, under a magnification of 275 diameters, 

 a specimen of muscle from a case of "equine hemoglobinuria" — 

 showing the peculiar waxy degeneration of the muscle fibre. Individual 

 fibres were to be observed in which the normal striation was altogether 

 lost and the sarcous substance was split up into homogenous masses or 

 clumps. Other fibres showed plainly an intermediate stage. 



Dr. PeThybridge exhibited pure cultures* of a pink yeast (Toruld) on 

 sterilised potato and on nutrient gelatine. These yeasts, of which 

 several species are known, are strictly aerobic and do not produce 

 spores. The colour of the colonies varies slightly according to age and 

 according to the substratum on which they grow. The colouring 

 matter is soluble in water and is probably extracellular, no trace of a 

 pink colour being visible in the cells themselves, when observed in a 

 hanging drop at a magnification of 1,000 diameters. 



Mr. G. H. Carpenter showed the paired structures attached to the 

 base of the tongue in Machilis maritima. These organs, present in most 

 of the Thysanura and Collembola, are believed by Hansen to be a pair of 

 jaws homologous with the first maxillae of Crustacea. If this view, 

 which has much evidence in its favour, be accepted, four pairs of jaws in 

 the primitive insect head must be recognised. 



Mr. M'ArdeE exhibited Mastigophora Woodsii, Hook., which he collected 

 last June on Mount Brandon, Co. Kerry. It is a rare hepatic not found 

 in any other county in Ireland, and there very local ; difficult to detect 

 on account of its moss-like appearance, as it grows fiat on the ground 

 or on the shelving rocks. Dr. D. Moore, in his work on Irish Hepaticce, 

 p. 635, writes concerning it : — " This fine species grows in large patches 

 lying flat on the ground and appears at first sight to resemble patches 

 of Thuidium tamariscinam." Mr. M'Ardie showed a dried specimen 

 mounted on card-board, and a microscopic slide showing portion of the 

 stem with the curious unequally two-lobed leaves, the segments of 

 which are ciliato-dentate, the large stipules cleft into two, which are 

 spinosely dentate, the round cells, distantly placed in the leaves, which 

 are of a dull purplish brown colour, and becoming duller near the base 

 of the stem. The fructification is unknown. The plant was first found 

 on Mangerton mountain by Mr. Joseph Woods in 1809, and he sent 

 specimens of it to Hooker who figured it in British Hepaticce (p. 66). 



Mr. F. M. SEVENS exhibited portion of a frond of Athyrium F.-f. unco- 

 glomeratum mounted in a preparation of glycerine. 



