14-6 Th c Irish Na hi ra list. 



Mr. DuERDEN exhibited a mounted specimen oiCrisia raniosa, Harmer, 

 a polyzoon new to Ireland, from Dublin bay; the species has recently 

 been described by Mr. S. F. Harmer, who obtained it abundantly at 

 Plymouth. 



Aprii, nth. —The President (Dr. M'Weeney) in the chair. Mr. 

 H. K. G. CuTHBER'T read a paper on " Some Destructive Weevils," 

 giving an account, illustrated by lantern diagrams, of the more im- 

 portant species of Weevils which , injure garden plants, fruit and timber 

 trees, and stored grain. The President, Mr. G. H. Carpenter, and Mr. 

 J. M. Browne, took part in the discussion. 



Mr. H. Lyster JAME.SON read a paper on " vSome Coleoptera from 

 Lough gilly, Co. Armagh," and exhibited specimens in illustration thereof. 



Mr. J. N. Hai^berT exhibited Hcenwyiia appe^idicidata, a chrj^somelid 

 beetle new to Ireland (see note, p. 148) from the Royal Canal. 



Dr. M'Weeney exhibited a fungus, Cordyceps entomorrhiza, new to Ire- 

 land, from Woodenbridge, Co. Wicklow. This remarkable fungus was 

 growing on the two-winged fly Polietes lardaj-ia. 



Rev. M. H. Ceose showed a piece of coal with fracture-planes re- 

 sembling the faces of a rhomboidal crystal. 



NOTES. 



BOTANY. 



FUNGI. 



Fungi from Wood en bridge, Co. Wicl^Iow. — In company with 

 Dr. Scharff I spent several hours collecting in the above locality during 

 the Kaster vacation. The following is a list of the chief species met with. 

 They would doubtless have been much more numerous had the weather 

 not been continuously dry for nearly a month previous to our excursion, 

 dryness being, as is well known, unfavourable to the development of most 

 Fungi : — 



Three agarics, all belonging to the indistinct purple-spored groups, 

 Psilocybe and Psathyra. As there was only a single specimen of each 

 species to be found, complete identification was quite impossible; Poly- 

 porits armeniactts, Berk., or some closely-allied species, on dead fir-trunk ; 

 Dcedalia quercina, Fr. ; Stej'ciwi hirstttwji, Fr. ; Peronospora pygvicca, Ung., and 

 Urocystis anemones, Pers., both abundant on A. neinorosa, which was ver}^ 

 plentiful along the banks of the Aughrim river; the two parasites some- 

 times occurred in company, the epidermis raised up and blistered by the 

 Urocystis, being covered with a thin grey coating of /'t7w/6'j^6i;'(^; sections 

 through these places showed the oospores of the Peronospora lying in the 

 parenchyma-cells close to vvdiere the spore-groups of the Urocystis were 

 in process of differentiation; Uromyccs poce, Rabh., tecidiospores ever}^- 

 where abundant on Ranunculus ficaria; Puccinia phalaridis, Plow., aecidio- 

 spores and pycnids on Arum maculatum (scarce) ; P. gloina-ata, Grev. on 

 Senccio jacobcca ; Peziza stercorea, Vr., aii^ Ascobolus furfuraceus, Pers., on cow- 

 dung; Keticularia ztmb7-ina, Fr. ; Arcyria cineera, Schum.; Rhyisina acerinum 

 in itst3^pical ascigerous condition; Acrospermum graminum, Lib., in its only 

 recently-recognized ascigerous state (kindly identified for me by Mr. 

 Massec) ; Cordyceps entomorrhiza{}), Dicks, ^row'm^^fromSiAe^d. Polietes lardaria, 

 Fab. (a dipterous fl}', for the identification of which, I have to thank Mr. 

 G. H. Carpenter). The two last-mentioned Fungi are new to Ireland, 

 and of the highest interest. I do not know that this Cordyceps has ever 

 been observed growing from a fiy. Dr. Cooke in his recent work on these 

 entomophagous fungi, states — " The only perfect Cordyceps yet recorded 

 on Diptera in Buroj^e is one Cordyceps forquii^noni which has occurred in 



