191 1- The Clare Island Survey I13 



been written on this matter has its scientific vahie sadly 

 diminished by the fact that the writers were not natnrahsts, 

 and their determinations of the plants and animals to 

 which the names which they record are applied, are 

 consequently not reliable. Mr. Colgan's reputation as a 

 naturalist is a welcome guarantee of accuracy of identification. 

 In his paper on agriculture, Professor Wilson leads us far 

 afield, tracing up the history of Irish agriculture from its 

 Roman and Germanic sources, and ending with an account 

 of the present agricultural conditions of Clare Island. The 

 reports are handsomely printed and are sold at a rate 

 which makes them accessible to every one, and the Royal 

 Irish Academy is to be congratulated on its successful 

 fathering of a scheme which will give us the most complete 

 organized scientific survey of a definite area which has, so 

 far as we are aware, ever been attempted. 



IRISH SOCIETIES. 



DUBLIN MICROSCOPICAL CLUB. 



April 12. — The Club met at Leinster House, A. R. Nichois, M.A. 

 (President), in the Chair. 



R. Southern exhibited a free-hving marine Nematode belonging to 

 the genus Sphaerolaimus. The complicated structure of the buccal 

 cavity was shown, and compared with the simpler structure in other 

 forms. 



Dr. G. H. Pethybridge exhibited young foliage of a pear-tree 

 attacked by the Pear-leaf blister-mite {Eriophyes pyri) which had been 

 obtained from Greystcnes, Co. Wicklow. The leaves were very stronglv 

 rolled inward along their midribs, and were covered with small blisters 

 which, where they were exposed to light, were strongly tinged with a 

 red colour (anthocyanin) but where shaded owing to in-rolling, were green. 

 In but few cases was it possible to find a perforation or hole in these 

 blisters, and it was found impossible, at this stage, to discover any mite 

 in the blisters by means of preparation needles and the dissecting 

 microscope alone, although prolonged attempts were made to do so. 

 In serial sections made through a single blister, however, it was found 

 possible to discover the mite and a section showing the tail end of the 

 mite in the cavity of the blister was exhibited. It is clear therefore 

 that at this early stage of the attack the number of mites in each blister 

 must be very small and possibly may not be more than one. 



F. W. Moore showed leaves of a camellia plant attacked by the 



