144 '^^'^ Irish Nahiralisl. August, 



maritima, Statice rariflora, and Spergiilaria marina were seen in quantity. 

 From this point the turnpike road to Drogheda was taken and Geranium 

 molle, Chelidonium majus, Lamium album, Festuca rotbocllio'des, and (near 

 Drogheda) Matricaria discoidea were the more noteworthy plants en- 

 countered. At Stagrennan a short halt was made, and the fine exposure 

 of evenly bedded Carboniferous limestone was examined, and its features 

 explained by Mr. Hinch. As no zoologists were with the party, few 

 notes of animals were made, but large numbers of the local snail Helix 

 pisana. and the pupa-cases of the Six-spotted Burnct-moth Zys,aena filipen- 

 dul<s were seen on the sanilhills. After a well-earned tea at the Central 

 Hotel, and a short ramble through the town and up the river, the members 

 returned to the City by the 8.14 train. 



BELFAST NATURALISTS' FIELD CLUB. 



March 18.— Botanical Section.— A paper entitle 1 "Mosses and 

 Liverworts " was read by Rev. Canon Lett. M.A., M.R.LA. 



March 21.— The President (Robert J. Welch, M.R.I. A.), in the 

 chair. Joseph Wright, F.G.S.. read two short papers, one on 

 " Boulder Clay from the North of Ireland, with Lists of Foraminifera," 

 and the other " Foraminifera from the Estuariue Clays of Magheramorne, 

 Ccunty Antrim, and Limavady Station, County Derry." Some years ago 

 he received from friends a number of packets of Boulder Clay from the 

 North of Ireland, all of which were found to contain Foraminifera. Three 

 were of more than ordinary interest, being from high altitudes in the 

 vicinity of Belfast. One, given by Mr. W. H. Milligan, was from the 

 back of Black Mountain, at 900 feet O.D. ; the other two were from their 

 late fellow-member, Mr. S. A. Stewart, A.L.S., taken near the summit of 

 Divis Mountain, at 1,000 and 1,300 feet O.D. He then referred to the 

 estuarine clays at Magheramorne and Limavady, Avhich, he said, were the 

 most interesting deposits of the kinl in Ireland owing to the quantity 

 of specimens and number of rare forms found in them. The microzoa 

 as well as the clays themselves were very dissimilar at these two places. 

 At Magheramorne the foraminifera were large in size, the clay also con- 

 taining numbers of moUuscan shells, Ostrea edulis and Pecten maximus 

 being exceptionally large. This clay resembled recent deposits at moderate 

 depths under favourable marine conditions. At Limavady the fora- 

 minifera were smaller and in much greater jn'ofusion. while the clay itself 

 was soft and fine, with few, if any, molluscan shells, and resembled the 

 mud now deposited in the estuaries of some of our rivers and bays. These 

 Post -tertiary clays yielded many rare and interesting forms, four of the 

 species and varieties being new to science. The paper will be published as 

 an appendix to the Club's proceedings. 



Dr. W. J. Dakin, of Liverpool University, read a paper on "Plankton 

 Studies." The term plankton was first used by the German physiologist 

 Hensen in 1887. It includes all those small animals and plants which 

 are to be found floating in the waters of lakes or oceans. These organisms 

 can be easily captured by tow-nets of extremely fine silk. The study of 



i 



