54 7>^^ Irish Naturalist^ [Febmary, 



Mr. G. H. CarpbntKR showed Isotoma litoralis, Schott, a collembolan 

 which had been collected by Mr. Halbert for the R.I.A. Flora and Fauna 

 Committee on the shore at Leenane, Co. Galway, in April, 1897. This 

 springtail, an addition to the fauna of the British Islands, is easily 

 recognised by the short and blunt mucrones of the spring, and the 

 general resemblance of the insect to an Achomtes. The species is 

 figured and described by Schott (A^ Svensk. Vet. Akad, Handl Bd. xxv., 

 1892, No. II, pp. 75-6, pi. vl, ff. 46, 47, pi. vii., f I). It is recorded only 

 from Spitzbergen, Sweden, and Finland, so the presence of such a 

 characteristically northern animal on the western coast of Ireland is of 

 great interest. 



Mr. A. Vaughan Jennings showed a specimen of Hitmatococcus nivalis, 

 the organism which forms the " Red Snow," collected in June last, near 

 the summit of the Fluela Pass in the Eastern Alps. The plant is one of 

 the unicellular algae in which the chlorophyll is hidden by a red 

 colouring matter. Though usually associated with the Arctic regions, 

 in parts of which it occurs in great abundance, it was described from 

 the Savoy Alps by de Saussure in 1760. It has since been found in other 

 parts of Switzerland, the Pyrenees, Urals, Siberia, and California. 



For comparison, the exhibitor also showed a preparation of the same 

 organism made many years ago by the late Dr. W. B. Carpenter, from 

 material brought home by Sir Leopold M'Clintock after the Franklin 

 Search Expedition of the " Fox." It was collected near Cape York, at a 

 place which had been named by Ross in 1818, "the crimson cliffs," on 

 account of the striking effect produced by the wide extent of its growth. 



Mr. Henry J. Seymour showed a thin section of eurite from 

 Kingstown Pier. The eurite vein was originally in situ probably on 

 Dalkey Hill. The rock is fine-grained and contains numerous very 

 email crystals of black tourmaline or schorl. A section of one of these 

 perpendicular to the principal axis, showed the central portion of the 

 crystal to be composed of indigolite, the blue tourmaline ; the outer 

 portion being schorl. This structure is fairly common in large semi- 

 transparent tourmalines, where the central portion is very often rubellite, 

 the red variety of tourmaline. 



Mr. Allan Swan sent micrographs of two species of Leptolcgnia — a 

 genus of the Saprolegniacea^ — found by him near Baudon, Co. Cork, and 

 hitherto only known by a single species, which w^as obtained by De Bary 

 in 1888 from German mountain lakes. This species, Z. candaia, De Bary, 

 was shown photographed in several stages of maturity, while numerous 

 other photographs illustrated the new species, which — at the suggestion 

 of Prof. Hartog — has been called Leptolegnia bandoniensis. This new 

 species — a full description of which with figures appears in the present 

 number (pp. 29-37) differs from Z. caudata mainly in its sexual fruit, which 

 is produced in a large globular oogonium, which may contain from 

 fieven to about twenty oospores. 



