T9o8. Proceedings of Irish Societies. 125 



apertures which they make in the epidermis of the root facilitate the 

 entrance of injurious bacteria. This species has only hitherto been 

 recorded from Holland, and, as in the present instance, only females 

 were found. It is figured and described by De Man in his monograph 

 on "Die freilebendeu Nematodeu der Nied. Fauna," 1884, p. 134. 



BELFAST NATURAL HISTORY AND PHILOSOPHICAL 



SOCIETY. 



March 18. — Joseph Wright, F.G.S , read a paper on *' Foraminifera 

 from the Gravel Pit, I^onghurst, Duumurry, and other localities in the 

 vicinity of Belfast, with a reference to Malone Sands." He said, in April, 

 1906, he received from Mr. John Brown, F.R.S., a ball of rolled clay from 

 lyonghurst. The ball weighed seven and a half pounds, and yielded a 

 large quantity of foraminifera — about 1,500 specimens. Three other balls 

 were examined later, and they also contained specimens in abundance. 

 They were also found in situ but in lesser numbers in the finer sands, and 

 in a bed of clay at the bottom of the pit they occurred in great profu- 

 sion. Subsequently he visited the gravel pits at Armagh, Lisburn, and 

 Dundonald, and the fine sands at all those places yielded foraminifera. 

 At the last locality they were very abundant in a bed of clay, 1,000 speci- 

 mens being obtained from a sample of one and a half pounds weight. In 

 the Malone sands also specimens were found. As some of the fine sands 

 in the other pits closely resembled Malone sands, and as they all con- 

 tained foraminifera, INIr. Wright thought it probable that these, as well 

 as the eskers, represented a great series of gravels, sands, and clays 

 deposited off the coast when the land was at a lower level, the eskers 

 being tilted up by currents running in opposite directions ; and to the 

 same cause, he said, they might attribute the formation of sandbanks 

 now lying off the coast, such as the Nymph Bank off Dublin, the Bray 

 Bank, the Arklow Bank, and others. 



BELFAST NATURALISTS' FIELD CLUB. 



March 17. — The President (Robert Patterson, F.L.vS.) in the chair. 

 Mrs. HOBSON submitted her report as delegate to the Corresponding 

 Societies of the British Association, I^eicester jNIeeting, 1907. She 

 described in detail the various meetings and arrangements made, in a 

 racy and interesting manner, and by means of lantern slides the scenery 

 and antiquities of Leicester were brought vividly before the meeting 

 The President, R. Welch, William Gray, and C. M. Cunningham, spoke 

 favourably of the report at the close. At the Science Gossip half-hour 

 which preceded the paper, R, Welch exhibited a new Irish land shell. 

 Vertigo vioulinsiana, discovered in Co. Carlow by Mr» R. A, Phillips. 



