io8 The trisii Naturalist. [April, 



PROCEEDINGS OF IRISH SOCIETIES. 



RoYAi. Zooi^oGiCAi, Society. 

 Recent donations comprise a Peregrine Falcon from J. C. Carter, Esq 

 Two Black-backed Jackal cubs have been born in the Gardens. Seven 

 Monkeys, two Turkey Vultures, twelve Pekin Nightingales, a pair of 

 Penguins, a pair of Rose Cockatoos, a pair of Brazilian Caracars, a pair 

 of Visachas, and a Coypu have been purchased. 

 6,335 persons visited the Gardens in February. 



Dubinin Microscopicai, Ci^ub. 



February 2otli. — The Club met at Mr. Arthur Andrews'. 



Mr. Greenwood Pim showed a leaf of Gladiolus tristis. The transverse 

 section is, in form, an almost perfectly symmetrical Maltese cross. The 

 tips of.the cross, which are somewhat convex, are covered with a thick 

 layer of sclerenchyma, beneath which are one large and two much 

 smaller vascular bundles ; other small bundles are found in the parenchy' 

 matous tissue of the leaf. The cuticle of the arms is covered with 

 numerous wartlike processes. Towards the base, the leaf gradually 

 expands, and becomes more flattened. This form of leaf if not unique 

 is at any rate extremely rare, although some of the Irises exhibit a distant 

 resemblance, being quadrangular with angles more or less marked. The 

 plant is figured in Bot. Mag, I., 578, under name of G. reau'vus, syn. G. 

 tristis. 



Prof. T. Johnson showed a section of the stem of Selaginella ongana^ 

 cut lengthwise. Vessels were pointed out, present in the xyleni (wood) 

 of the vascular tissue, in addition to the tracheides. S. oregana and 

 S. rtipestris are two species in which Harvey Gibson has recently, in the 

 course of an anatomical revision of the genus Selaginella^ discovered 

 vessels (cell-fusions), the characteristic elements in the w^ood of Dicoty- 

 ledons, and until his discovery not known to be represented in the wood 

 of Ferns and their allies (except in a few cases), where tracheides are the 

 normal elements. The section was made by Miss Sollas from material 

 of a specimen grown in the Royal Botanic Gardens, Glasnevin. 



Mr. McArdIvE exhibited the leaf cells oi Sphagnum papillosum^ Lindb., 

 var. confertum, from plants which he gathered on Connor-hill, near Dingle, 

 Co. Kerry, in July, 1894. It was very scarce, and grew on damp peat 

 amongst rocks in short, dense tufts. Specimens were identified by Dr. 

 Braithwaite. The inner cell-walls are furnished in a remarkable manner 

 wit)i rows of conical papillae ; in this way and by its large size it approaches 

 closely the rare S. Austini, Sullivant, leaf-cells of which were also exhibited 

 from specimens collected by Mr. McArdle on Ard bog, King's County, in 

 September, 1890, and kindly verified by Dr. Braithwaite. The papillae in 

 Aitstini are larger, extending for some distance into the cells, forming 

 pectinate rows. A drawing of the cells showing the papillae of both 

 plants highly magnified and specimens of the plants with their peculiar 

 branching were also shown. 



