90 The Irish Naturalist. 



I\Ir. G. H. Carpenter showed a male specimen of the strepsipterous 

 insect Elenchus Unuicomis, Kirb., which had been taken many years ago 

 near Belfast b)' the late A. H. Haliday. This very rare species, which 

 has only occurred elsewhere in Britain at a few localities in the south of 

 England, was long believed to be parasitic on bees, like Sty lops, but Mr. 

 E. Saunders recently {Ent. Mo. Mag., 1892) obtained in Surrey a male in 

 the act of emerging from a larval homopteron of the genus Libumia. 

 The female of Elenchus is still unknown. The Stylopidce are considered by 

 some authorities to form a special order of insects (Strepsiptera), but they 

 are now generally believed to be abnormal coleoptera, related to the 

 Meloia\c and Rhipiphoridae, which they resemble in their transformations 

 — the larva being at first active and campodiform, afterwards legless and 

 parasitic. 



Mr. H. H. Dixon showed a transverse section of a leaf of Dendobrium 

 terelifolium showing a peculiar passage, which runs down the axis of the 

 cylindrical leaf. This passage when traced upwards is in communication 

 with the exterior by a very minute opening placed laterally to, but very 

 close to, the apex of the leaf. At the base the passage opens out into 

 a funnel-shaped chamber which encloses the apex of the stem which 

 bears the leaf, but which does not usually develop. The passage 

 probably represents the upper surface which has become enclosed ; it is 

 lined by cells, closely resembling those of the outer epidermis, but con- 

 siderably smaller. These lining cells are covered by a thick cuticle ; 

 however no stomata were found opening from the passage into the tissue 

 of the leaf. 



Mr. A. F. Dixon exhibited a human embryo of about 25-27 days, ac- 

 cording to the method of dating embryos adopted by Prof. His. The 

 embryo appeared to be normally developed, showing the different organs 

 to possess relatively the proper sizes. It measured about 5 m.m. in its 

 longest diameter. 



Mr. M'ArdeE exhibited a specimen of Junger -mania cunei folia, Hook., 

 which he recently collected at O'Sullivan's Cascade, Killarney. This 

 curious liverwort appears to be confined to the Co. Kerry ; it has never 

 been found in fruit. Sir William Hooker, who figured the plant in his 

 grand work on the British Jungermania, tab. 65, writes — "The fructifica- 

 tion is not at all necessary for its identification, the leaves and stipules 

 affording abundant characters by which it may be known from every 

 other in the genus." The late Dr. Spruce in his exhaustive work on the 

 Hepaticse of the Amazon and Andes considers it belongs to his new 

 genus, Clasmatocolea ; the only known species is figured at tab. xx., and it 

 certainly resembles very much the Irish plant. At p. 440 he states — 

 " These curious little plants come very near Lophocolea, but are well dis- 

 tinguished by the peculiar habit ; the assurgent leaves, with a plane 

 antical margin — not convexo-defiexed, with the antical margin de- 

 current, and recurved at the base (as in Lophocolea) ; the biform under- 

 leaves, mostly entire, but some bifid. The perianth, turgid and 

 indistinctly carinate, is so fragile that the slightest touch breaks off the 

 short unequal lobes at the wide mouth. I cannot doubt that the Irish 

 Jung, cuneifolia, Hook., hitherto known only from sterile specimens, is a 

 true Clasmatocolea. Specimens gathered a few years ago on Mount 

 Brandon by M'Ardle are so like the arcuate barren shoots of CI. 

 fragillima that until I compared them closely I thought them the same 

 species. The Irish plant (like the Andine) has both entire and bifid 

 underleaves, and was correctly so described by Nees from original 

 specimens of Miss Hutchins." Mr. M'Ardle also exhibited drawings 

 showing the arcuate and divaricately branched stems, decurrent leaves 

 and biform stipules. 



Beefast Naturae History and Phieosophicae Society. 



March 6.— The President (Prof. FiTzgeraed) in the chair. Mr. R. 

 PATTERSON read a paper on "The Occurrence of the Marten {Maries 



