138 The Irish Naturalist, [May, 



BEl.FAS'r NATURAI.ISTS' FlEIvD CI.UB. 



March 17th.— The President in the chair. Prof. C01.E, F.G.S., 

 read a short paper on the Rhyulites of Co. Antrim. Subsequently the 

 Fifth Annual Meeting of the Microscopical Section was held, the even- 

 ing being devoted to a display of microscopical objects, and to demon- 

 strations of mounting, &c. The following exhibited — Rev. John Andrew 

 (Chairman of the Section) ; J. J. Andrew, Miss M. K. Andrews, Miss S. M. 

 Thompson, Mrs. Blair, J. O. Campbell, W. B. Drummond, P. F. 

 Gulbrausen, W. A. Firth, Iv. Roscorla, James Murdoch, William Gray, 

 A. M'J. Cleland, James Stelfox, W. S. M'Kee, J. Lorrain Smith, Cecil 

 Shaw, H. M'Cleery, Joseph Wright, W. F. de V. Kane, and W. D. 

 Donnan (Sec. of the Section). 



BoTANiCAi, Section. — March 28th.— Mr. J. H. Davies read an in- 

 teresting paper on Casuals. It was illustrated by a fine set of mounted 

 plants, kindly lent for the occasion by an old friend of the writer, a 

 Yorkshire botanist, Mr. William Foggitt, who has given considerable 

 attention to this class of plants. Mention was made of the spread within 

 recent years of Veronica Buxbaujnii, Silene noctijlora and Trifoliujn agrarium. 

 Silene dichotoma, first noticed in our district two years ago by Mr. David 

 Redmond, has been known to produce 330 capsules on one plant. Many 

 of these plants are brought in with foreign seed, and one cannot but 

 speculate as to the future possibilities of their spreading. Mr. Richard 

 Hanna, who contributed a remarkable list of these alien plants to the 

 recent " Supplement to the Flora of N.E. Ireland," exhibited some which 

 he had collected in the neighbourhood of Belfast distilleries and flour 

 mills. 



Geoi^oGICAI. Section. — A week of geological studies, conducted by 

 Professor G. A. J. Cole, terminated on Tuesday, March 24. A paper on 

 the structural details of the Antrim rhyolites, read at the Club's 

 microscopical meeting, fitly commenced the course, lantern slides 

 showing the microscopic characters of these lavas, varied by others 

 of rhyolitic areas in other parts of Great Britain. The first 

 field excursion was to Squire's Hill, where the series of Cretaceous 

 quarries were visited, Professor Cole pointing out and explaining 

 the methods in which the many dykes had intruded through the sedi- 

 mentary rocks, also drawing the attention of his students to the differ- 

 ence between our Cretaceous series and that of England. A visit to the 

 basaltic quarry led the party across Carr's Glen to the Cavehill quarry, 

 with its great dyke, showing horizontal columns, which traverses the 

 Chalk and the overlying basalt. The second excursion made an early 

 start for Stewartstown, involving a walk often miles through fine, rolling 

 country, to Tullyconnell for the Permian strata that are so rare 

 in Ireland, a block in situ, nine or ten feet long, with stray fragments in 

 an adjacent cottage garden, being all that here remains. The Castle 

 Farm quarries at Stewartstown furnished fossils from the Carboniferous 

 Jinjestone, some pits in the lower Cpal-measures being passed on the 



