1 897-] Proceedings of Irish Societies. 137 



the card every time the projecting-lens is focussed — thus robbiiig the 

 apparatus of its utility as a substitute for the camera lucida The 

 focussing pinion, moreover, moves the lens instead of the object, and 

 every movement of it thus alters the magnification. No provision is 

 made for holding an ordinary microscopical objective, and the lenses 

 supplied, however good they may be for other purposes, are not pro- 

 jection-lenses and will only produce a sharp image of a small part of a 

 flat object at a time — the result being that one hand has to be kept on 

 the focussing-head during the whole time of demonstration unless the 

 object be a very small one. 



All these defects could easily be remedied without any great increase 

 of the remarkably low price of the apparatus. The needs are: — Heavier 

 and more rigid supports for stage and substage ; rack and pinion adjust- 

 ment to the stage instead of to the substage; an "adapter" to hold 

 ordinary objectives ; a better device for focussing the second condenser; 

 a "tent" of black velvet or other opaque material to make the apparatus 

 available in daylight. 



Professor T. Johnson exhibited a preparation of Ectocarpus pxisillus. 

 Griff., a brown alga from Helvick Point (Dungarvan Bay) collected last 

 October. The preparation showed plurilocular sporangia containing 

 large non-motile spores, as discovered by Dr. Bornet whose illustrations 

 were shown. The species is an addition to the Irish marine flora, made 

 by Miss Knowles and the exhibitor. 



Mr. W. N. Ai,i,EN showed micrographs of several corallinaces. 



Mr. G. H. Carpenter showed Aepophilus Bonnairei, vSign., an interest- 

 ing little marine wingless bug found beneath a stone between tide marks 

 by Mr. A. R. Nichols, when collecting mollusca on the shore at Dungar- 

 van, Co. Waterford, in September last. Recorded from the coast of 

 Devon, Cornwall, the Channel Islands, and north-western France, its 

 occurrence on the southern Irish shore might have been expected. 



Mr. H. H. Dixon showed sections illustrating the second mitosis in 

 the embryo-sac of Lilium longiflorutii. The nuclear plate of the lower 

 nucleus is formed of short straight chromosernes and in this respect 

 resembles a heterotype division. The longitudinal fission of the chromo- 

 somes, however, conforms to the normal type and is simple. The V- 

 shaped daughter chromosomes are not formed. 



Mr. Dixon also exhibited sections of Codium tomentosum showing the 

 numerous small nuclei of the coenocyte and a peculiar central column of 

 some cellulose-like substance lying in the axes of the branches of the 

 ccenocyte. 



Mr. J. N. Hai^bert exhibited the female of a minute Hemipteron 

 Microphysa elegantula, Baer., taken on old lichen-covered Blackthorns 

 [Prunus covwiuftis) at Clonbrock, Co. Galway. The genus is remarkable 

 for the striking dissimilarity of the sexes. AI. elegantula being chiefly 

 characterised by the extreme rudimentary condition of the eljlra, which 

 in the female, do not project bej-ond the base of the abdomen. The 

 species seems to be very local this being the second record of its occur- 

 rence in Ireland. 



