252 PROCEEDINGS OF THE 



Mr. P. Cameron delivered an address on " Microscopic manipula- 

 tion and mounting," in which he gave full instructions as to the 

 instruments required, and the best mode of procedure, with many 

 useful and practical hints as to the preparation, at a small cost, of 

 implements which would serve all ordinary purposes in microscopic 

 dissection and examination. He exhibited a handy form of dissect- 

 ing microscope which he had constructed at a trifling expense, and 

 which he had found of great service in making preparations of 

 insects. 



15th August, 1882. 



Mr. P. Cameron in the Chair. 



Mr. J. Steel reported that the members had made the fifth 

 excursion of the season on the 12th instant, to Bute. Proceeding 

 in a steam-launch from Craigmore, they dredged along the coast 

 for four hours. The day was fair, the weather favourable, and the 

 trip a most enjoyable one ; but from a scientific point of view the 

 results were not very satisfactory. Few living molluscs were 

 brought up; but ordinary and brittle starfishes, and sea-urchins 

 were got in considerable abundance. Diatoms were not awanting 

 in the mud, but foraminifera were almost entirely absent. Among 

 the molluscs found were Scrobicularia prismatim and Twritella 

 terebra. 



Mr. D. A Boyd exhibited a few rare plants collected on the 

 West Kilbride shore of the Firth, below the farm of Chapelton. 

 One of these, Lepturus filiformis, was not known to occur in the 

 Clyde district till a few years ago, when it was discovered by one 

 of the members, Mr. Thomas Scott, of Greenock, growing in 

 abundance in salt marshes on the shore above Gourock ; another, 

 Scirpw< Savii, though distinctly a West Coast plant, is only very 

 local in its occurrence. 



Dr. James Stirton, F.L.S., exhibited a species of lichen, 

 Stereocaulm/, from the Tararua Mountains in New Zealand. The 

 pale-bluish bodies known as cephalodia, which are seated on its 

 main stem, have so far been a puzzle to scientific men, their exact 

 function in the economy of the plant being unknown, and some 

 even holding the opinion that they are distinct parasitic organisms. 

 He then exhibited a lichen usually classed with the genus 





