196 The Irish Nahi7'alist. 



the species was a native of Ireland or simply a drift weed. The material 

 in the bottle now exhibited showed that the plant is not a drift weed. 

 The slide preparation showed the thickenings of the stalk by the down- 

 growth of filaments from the lower cells of the thallus, a mode of thick- 

 ening found in several sea- weeds. 



Mr. DuERDEn exhibited a new species of Bourgainvillia from Bantry 

 Bay, obtained growing on the appendages of a StenoThyjtchiis. The form 

 has not yet been fully described. It is regarded as intermediate between 

 B. miisais and B. ramosa. The gonophores, which are well developed, grow 

 in clusters. A peculiar feature is the presence of long fusiform bodies, 

 which have been regarded as nests of parasitic larvse, but are shown to 

 be actual parts of the colony itself. In the gastric cavity of some of the 

 polypites a small parasitic nematode was found. 



Mr. M'ArdIvE exhibited a specimen oi Julnila hutchinsicB (Hook), var. 

 iS. integrifolia,s howing perianths and the amentse, which bear the male 

 flowers (andrcecid). This is the form described by Dr. Gottsche in " Syn- 

 opsis Hepaticarum," p. 426, as having been found in Java by Blume. The 

 specimen was collected by Mr, M'Ardle in the Maghanabo Glen, near 

 Castlegregory, Co. Kerry, growing on the fronds of Dumortiera hirstita 

 (Swartz.), var. irjigua (Tayl. sp.), which is found in New Granada. 

 Professor Lindberg, who also collected this rare plant in Co. Kerry, 

 states in his paper on Hepaticse collected in Ireland, that the plant is 

 found in North America and in the island of Java. 



May i8th. — The Club met at Mr. Gree)nwood Pim's, who showed 

 leaves of the almond, of a brilliant crimson colour. The micro-section 

 showed that the chlorophyll had almost entirely disappeared, and was 

 replaced, especially in the vicinity of the fibro-vascular bundles, with 

 red-coloured cell-contents, but no trace of fungoid-growth of any kind 

 was discernible. Later on, however, these leaves lost somewhat of their 

 bright colour, became bullate and thin ; the characteristic asci and spores 

 oi Asco??iyces deformans were then found in abundance. 



Mr. Hedi^EY exhibited the head of Cysticercns temiicollis, which is the 

 bladder worm of Tcvnia niaj-ginata of the Dog. He remarked that although 

 there was reason to believe this form of bladder worm was plentiful, yet 

 he had failed to find any record of its occurring in Ireland. The specimen 

 showed the crown with thirty-two booklets, and four suckers, or bothria, 

 and occurred, with several others, in the omentum, or caul of a lamb. 

 The life-history of these interesting Cestoidse is pretty much like those 

 which infest the human subject. The cystic stage is found in sheep, in 

 the liver and serous membranes of the abdominal cavity. These are 

 eaten by the canine species, and after the bladder is digested, the young 

 worm attaches itself to portions of the alimentary tract until mature. 

 The eggs are voided in feculent matter, and carried into pools or other 

 moist surfaces, where they undergo change, being protected by three 

 membranes, between which an oily material exists. They eventually ar- 

 rive in the abomasum, or fourth stomach of the sheep, and the membranes 

 are digested, thus liberating the embryos, which at once penetrate the 

 walls of the stomach, or if lower, in the tract of the intestines, finding 

 their way to the liver, or serous abdominal membranes already referred to. 



Mr. G. H. Carpenter showed the leg of a female pycnogon, Phoxichilus 

 lavis, Grube. The muscles, nerves, intestinal diverticulum, and ovary, 

 were well seen in the preparation. 



Mr. H. H. Dixon showed preparations of the \Q.2ii Hakea victoria, showing 

 the peculiar structure of the stomata, and the inner tissues of the leaf. 



Mr. J. Joi,Y showed crystals of calcspar containing fluid-cavities, and 

 exhibiting remarkable polarising effects. 



BeIvFAST NATURAI.ISTS' F1EI.D C1.UB. 

 May 2oth. — First excursion of the season to Antrim and Muckamore. 

 A party of forty proceeded to Antrim by 10.15 train, where the shores of 

 Lough Neagh, at the mouth of the Six-mile-water were first inspected. 



