74 The Irish Naturalist. April, 



The Council have considered plans for rebuilding the old Lion House. 

 The proposed new structure, in conjunction with the " Roberts" house, 

 -will make a magnificent lodging for the Society's famous collection of 

 large Carnivora. 



DUBLIN MICROSCOPICAL CLUB. 



February 12.— The Club met at Leinster House, Dr. G. H, Pethy- 

 BRiDGE (Vice-President) in the chair. He exhibited the parasitic 

 fungus Tillctia striiformis attacking the grass Holais mollis. The fungus 

 is one of the "smuts" or "bunts," and causes the appearance of longi- 

 tudinal black lines in the grass leaves, parallel to their edges, easily 

 seen by the naked eye. Microscopic examination shows that the vas- 

 cular bundles of the leaves have become replaced b}- masses of the dark- 

 brown chlamydospores of the fungus. The specimen was gathered near 

 Brittas in co. Wicklow, and is new for the district and for Ireland. 



W. F. GUNN exhibited an alga, Chroolepus aureus. It is a common and 

 widelj'-distributed species, of a deep 3'ellow or orange colour. The 

 specimen shown was found growing in profusion on the inside walls of 

 a greenhouse in Co. Cork. 



Dr. R. F. SCHARFF exhibited a minute Woodlouse (^Trichoniscus 

 pygnueus, Sars.) whicli had been forwarded to him by Mr. N. H. Foster 

 from Co. Down. Mr. Foster intends to publish a full account of the 

 distinguishing features of this species, which is new to the Irish fauna, 



D. M'Ardle showed plants of the F^xtinguisher Moss, Encalypta 

 sireplocarM, Hedw. (=Leersia contorta, Lindb.) which he collected on 

 Heron Island, Ivough Krne, last year. He also showed microscopical 

 preparations of the leaves, their strong red nerve and the basal areolation, 

 whicli is very hyaline and streaked with bright purple, but the most 

 striking characters in the leaves are the projecting marginal papillae. 

 He also exhibited a preparation of the remarkable tomeutum, which 

 more resembles persistent protouema, and lies among the young leaves 

 in neat strata of a brilliant red colour with dark septa, and bearing club- 

 shaped and spherical heads, which are very fugaceous and may be 

 vegetative. The plant has not been found in fruit in this country, 

 though evenly distributed in limestone districts. A drawing of a fruiting 

 specimen and of the leaves showing the projecting papillae and the curious 

 protonemoid tomentum enlarged 400 times demonstrated the exhibit. 



J. N. Hunter of Park Road, Trinity, Edinburgh, sent for exhibition 

 Dkramnn stricitiin (Schleich) and a drawing of the leaves and areolation, 

 together with some notes on this rare moss, which had been collected in 

 Roslin Wood, Midlothian, last January. 



In Dr. Braithwaite's " British Moss Flora," volume i., the species is 

 recorded as Dkramtin viridc (Lindb.), but H. N. Dixon in his " Handbook 

 of British Mosses " has shown conclusively that the plant is reallj' 

 Diiianiini sli iciii/ii (.Schleich), and that all the British specimens he has 

 examined belong to the latter species. It belongs to the section Aporo- 

 dictyoii of the genus Diciaiium — this section being characterised by the 



