254 ^'^^ Irish Naturalist. [Oct, 



published in the Quarterly Jouryial of Microscopical Science, 

 reprints being furnished to the members, of which a few 

 copies were bound, and are now much valued : they form three 

 goodly volumes, and in these pages will be found preserved 

 much of Mr. Archer's life-work from 1864 to 1879. When 

 following out his favourite investigations, which . related in 

 greater part to the Desmidiaceae and allied groups, he made 

 long journeys to distant parts of Ireland, wherever he con- 

 sidered there was promising ground for their discovery. 

 He also obtained exceptional acquaintance with German, as 

 well as with Danish and other Scandinavian languages, and 

 developed decided artistic talent for making accurate draw- 

 ings of these minute and interesting forms, the life-history of 

 which he devoted himself to work out and place on record. 

 The writer is aware that many sleepless nights were spent in 

 ceaseless observations of the conjugation and development 

 of these objects; he thought himself well repaid if he could 

 add something new to science, or contribute to clear up a 

 dubious point respecting their growth. 



He was an active contributor to the meetings of the Dublin 



Natural History Society, which, we regret to say, ceased 



to exist after publishing six volumes of Proceedings. On June 



5, 1859, he described a new species of Staurastrtini ; this 



was succeeded by other important papers, one of which 



established the presence of zoospores in Desmids (vol. iii., 



p. 21) ; also one relating to abnormal growth in Desmids (vol. 



iii., p. 37) ; descriptions of new species of Cosniaritim and 



Zanthidiiim (vol. iii., p. 49) ; on Micrasterias (vol. iii., p. 69) ; on 



several new species of Closterium (vol iii., p. 78) ; and on 



Ankistrodesnius (vol. iii., p. 85). In the succeeding volume 



iv. he contributed the discovery of Cystopteris fragilis near 



Dublin (p. 2), on Pahnoglcea (p. 12) ; new species of Cosmarium 



and Peni^im (p. 49) ; on the occurrence of Polypodium Phe- 



gopteris near Dublin (p. 60) ; new species of Cosmariimi and 



Arthrodesnnis (p. 66); observations on s^'^^oX^s oi Micrasterias 



and Docidhun (pp. 78-84) ; record of Stephanosphcera pluvialis, 



new to Ireland (p. 151), and on the genera of Palmoglcea 



(p. 261). In volume v. he described a new species of Bulbo- 



chct(X (p. 9) ; on the genus Zygogoniiivi of De Bary and 



Kiitzing (p. 114) ; a new species of Saprolegiiia (p. 136)!; 



Asteridia in Penium digitus (p. 144) ; on the conjugation of 



