1907 Proceedings of Irish Societies. 129 



DUBLIN MICROSCOPICAL CLUB. 



November 14. — The Club met at Leinster House, Dr. G. H. 

 Pethybridge (Vice-President) in the chair. Prof. H. H. Dixon showed 

 transverse sections of the stem of an unnamed Liana sent by Dr. R. 

 Kerr from Chiengmai, Siam. The sections showed several discon- 

 tinuous concentric bands of cambium. Sections of the stem of Tecoma 

 radicans were also exhibited for comparison. An accessory cambium- 

 layer on the inner side of the protoxylem was well seen in these latter. 



D. M'ArdeE exhibited male plants of Splachnum ampullaceum, L-, which 

 were collected by him last year in the Correl Glen near Church Hill, Co. 

 Fermanagh, w r here they grew in dense patches on old cow dung, male 

 plants only. The species rarely assumes this dioecious character, being 

 generally found with both sexes growing together. The male flowers 

 are terminal on the succulent transparent \ stems, numerous, fusiform, 

 mixed with sub-clavate paraphyses, and surrounded by squarrose bracts 

 delicate and loosely reticulated, ending in a tapering point irregularly 

 denticulate with a delicate nerve, which ceases near the apex. This 

 minute plant forms a beautiful microscopic object. The species of this 

 genus are remarkable for the soft, flabellate, succulent habit, and tender, 

 loosely reticulated leaves; and the substances on which they flourish, 

 which is not always the dung of animals. Dr. Taylor records (Mus- 

 cologia Britannica, p. 36) an instance of having found one of the species 

 S. angustatum growing on an old stocking in Yorkshire. The same 

 species, he writes, was seen upon the hat of an unfortunate traveller 

 who had perished on Mount St. Bernard; and Captain Parry discovered 

 during his second Arctic voyage Splachnum mnioides, L. growing in the 

 nasal cavity of the skull of a Musk Ox. This species, with S. ampullaceum 

 L. and S. spharicum, Hedwig, are found in Ireland. 



Dr. G. H. Pethybridge exhibited a leaf-rust of the Tomato caused 

 b)' Cladosporium fulvum Cke. The fungus has been known to prove 

 destructive to tomatoes (especially when cultivated under gl?ss) on the 

 Continent, in Great Britain, and in the United States. During the past 

 summer it has also appeared in Ireland — viz., in Co. Cork. The disease 

 can be checked in its earl}' stages by spraying with potassium sulphide, 

 1 oz. to i\ gallons of water. 



DECEMBER 12 . — The Club met at Leinster House. Prof. G. H. Car- 

 penter (President) showed the larva of a leaf beetle, Psylliodes chrysocephala, 

 Linn., and its dissected head under the microscope. These larvae had 

 been noticed in the spring of 1906, by Brother A. Ryan, as injurious to 

 cabbage crops near Limerick, the habit of the larva being to burrow 

 into the plant and then to mine along the centre of the root and stem- 

 base. The larva has been described and figured by exhibitor (Jounu 

 Econ. Biol, i., 1906, pp. 152-6, pi. xi.). 



F. W. Moore exhibited a flower and an inflorescence of Bulbophyllum 

 miniatum, a very rare miniature Orchid from the Congo district. This 



