[ 3i8 ] 

 PROCEEDINGS OF IRISH SOCIETIES. 



RoYAi, Z001.0GICA1, Society. 



Recent donations comprise a Red Deer (Stag) from Sir D. Brooke ; a 

 Sparrow-hawk from P. Mahony, Esq. ; a Canary Finch from T. de Sales, 

 Esq. ; two pairs of Jacobin Pigeons, and two pairs of Ring-Doves from G. 

 Patterson, Esq. ; and a pair of Guinea-Pigs from J. Fullerton, Esq. 



8j55o persons visited the Gardens in October. 



Dubinin Microscopicai, Ci^ub. 



October 19th. — The club met at Dr. ScoTT's, who showed some 

 crystals of cystin under ordinary and polarised light, which were found 

 in a sample of urine submitted to him for analysis. The crystals, which 

 are very easily recognised by their shape (hexagonal plates) and their 

 solubility in ammonia or mineral acids, are interesting from their ex- 

 treme rarity. Chemically, cystin contains a large proportion of sulphur 

 in rather loose combination, and appears to represent an abnormal 

 method by which the sulphur, set free in protoplasmic metabolism, is 

 elirninated from the body, the normal method being as sulphates of 

 sodium and potassium. The occurrence of these crystals is not un- 

 commonly hereditary, and so far as is at present known is without any 

 clinical import. 



Dr. E. Percevai, Wright exhibited a new species of Chlorocystis, 

 which had been described by Miss F. G. Whitting as C. sarcophyci. When 

 Mr. Bracebridge Wilson w^as collecting specimens of Sarcophyciis off the 

 coast near Peelong he noticed some gall-like structures on the fronds ; 

 these were found to be patches of the new endophytic alga. Dr. Wright 

 was indebted to Miss Whitting for a frond from which the section 

 exhibited had been cut. The genus was founded on a species found at 

 Howth, and exhibited to the club by Dr. Wright in 1876. 



Dr. M'Weeney showed conjugating filaments of a mucorine fungus — 

 Sporodinia aspergilhis, — which grows parasitically on dying Boleti and 

 agarics. The conidia are produced in sporangia, which are borne at the 

 end of the dichotomously branched hyphse. The plant under certain 

 circumstances ceases to produce sporangia, the hyphse become swollen 

 at the tips, and coalescence takes place iDetween the swollen ends of 

 neighbouring hyphse. A zygospore is thus produced, the outer coat of 

 which becomes warty and opaque — almost black. In this stage the 

 appearance of the whole fungus is so different that its connection with 

 Sporodinia was not demonstrated till within a few years ago ; the con- 

 jugating form was regarded as a distinct species, long known under the 

 name of Syzygites megalospoms. This conjugating form does not seem to 

 have been found before in Ireland, and Mr, G. Massee, of Kew, one of the 

 most distinguished English mycologists, informed the exhibitor that he 

 had never met with it, though he had hunted after it for years. A 

 certain amount of interest, therefore, attaches to its discovery at Mrs. 

 White's, Killakee, in September last. Curiously enough, within a few 

 weeks after it was first taken, a fresh specimen was found in a rotting 

 agaric sent by Mr. Praeger from near Gormanstown. 



Mr. Pim showed Azolla filiculoides in fruit. This occurred— so far as is 

 known— this season for the first time in Great Britain, and the first 

 fruits were found in Mr. Walpole's garden at Mount Usher, Co. Wicklow. 

 Subsequently they were met with abundantly in Trinity College Botanic 

 Garden and, doubtless, elsewhere. The species was formerly supposed 

 to be A. caroliniana or pinnata, but the massulse, beset with glochidia or 

 hooked processes which have but a single septum near the tip, show 

 clearly that it is the form described and figured in Strasburger's 

 Monograph as A. filiculoides. It would be interesting to know if others 

 have observed the fruiting of this pretty little Marsilead. 



