1896.] Proceedings of Irish Societies. 137 



Killarney, by Professor Lindberg. In England it is known to grow in 

 one station in Sussex, rare and local in France, found also in the Canary 

 Islands (Webb) near Tangier, Africa (Salzman.) This curious and pretty 

 plant is remarkable in having pectinato-dentate leaves, and in its close 

 affinity to several genera, especiall}^ Anthelia 



March 16th. — The Club met at the house of Prof. Grenvii,i:.E Coi,K, 



who exhibited a large section, prepared for the Royal College of Science, 



from an opal-bearing rhyolite occurring on Sandy Braes, Co. Antrim. 



Radial chalcedonic groupings occur in clear amorphous opal, the structure 



being, as usual, well brought out by crossed nicols. 



Mr. PiM showed, on behalf of Canon RussEI^L of Geashill, a minute 

 Nedria, probably N. sangtiinea. The perithecia are scattered, somewhat 

 pyriform, papillate, and of a deep red colour ; thesporidia are uniseptate 

 and uno-bi-seriate. 



Mr. M'Ardi^K exhibited a fertile specimen of the rare liverwort 

 Scapania compacta^ Duniort., which he found last year amongst rocks on 

 the bank of the River Barrow near Borris, Co. Carlow, when collecting 

 for the Flora and Fauna Committee of the Royal Irish Academy. Dr. D. 

 Moore, in his work on the Irish Hepaticse, states that the only specimens 

 he collected of the true plant are from the neighbourhood of Brandon, 

 Co. Kerry, which were sterile in both places where it was observed 

 growing. 



Mr. A. Vaughan Jennings exhibited a leaf of Arharum vulgate from 

 Bordighera,North Italy, containing the endophytic algdiPhyllosiphon arisari, 

 Kiihn, which is only known on that plant, and only from the Riviera 

 and West Italian coast. A preparation under a low power showed the 

 unicellular (ccenocytic) branching filament spreading through the leaf- 

 tissues, and its contents breaking up in parts into very minute spores. 

 Another slide showed these spores under a high power, when they were 

 seen to be oval bodies with a central nucleus and a bright spot toward 

 each pole. The plant resembles closely a green siphonaceous alga such 

 as Vatuheria, but it seems to live to a great extent parasitically on the 

 leaf-tissues, which it destroys. No sexual organs are known ; and the 

 method of asexual reproduction differs entirely from that of Vaucheria, 

 the immense number of minute spores having almost a fungoid aspect. 



Mr. G. H. Carpenter showed specimens of the minute crane-fly 

 Molophilus ater, Mg., recently collected by Mr. J. N. Halbert, near 

 Roundstone. This species, probably common in hilly and northern 

 districts, is of interest on account of the great reduction of the wings in 

 both sexes. 



Mr. Henry J. Seymour showed sections of a hornblende schist from 

 Killiney. The rock occurs just north of the garden wall of Killiney 

 Park, near the junction of the granite and slate. In the slides a 

 schistose structure is clearly seen, and hornblende, a pyroxene, some 

 quartz and numerous plagioclase crystals can be identified. The 

 rock may have been originally a diorite or a pyroxene aphanite. A 

 photo-micrograph of the section taken by Mr. Mitchell was also shown, 



