PROCEEDINGS OF SOCIETIES. 253 



Antarctica,' ii. 458) that, in the Falkland Isles, the trunks washed up on 

 the shore are often taken for jjieces of drift- wood, and that, ou one occa- 

 sion, no persuasion could prevent the captain of a brig from employing 

 his boat and boat's crew, during two biting cold days, in collecting this 

 incombustible weed for fuel. 



Royal Irish Academy.— J/r/y 22nd.— The Rev. J. Jellett, F.T.C.D., 

 President, in the chair. The President communicated a paper on Sac- 

 charometry, giving the results of the determination of sugar in various 

 specimens of Irish-grown sugar-beet by optical mctiiods : — 



No. 



No. 2 was not, it is believed, properly earthed ; hence, probably the lower 

 amount of sugar. 



J/me 12^/^.— The Rev. J. .lellett, P.T.C.D., in the chair. G. Sigerson, 

 M.D., Professor of Botany in the Catliolic University, read a paper on 

 "Additions to the Flora of Botanical District No. 10 (Ireland)." This 

 division having been imperfectly examined, Dr. Sigerson vvas able to 

 ascertain the presence of 24 species additional to those given for it in the 

 ' Cybele Hibernica.' The most interesting were CocJdearia cuujlica (de- 

 termined, however, from the leaves only) and Mecouopsis caiubrica. Dr. 

 Sigerson also read a " Note on an Anomalous Form of Corolla of Erica." 

 This was a state of Erica TatraUx, in which the corolla was partly split 

 into segments. Dr. Sigerson stated that there was the further peculiarity 

 that the stamens were partially adherent to the corolla, becoming free at 

 the fissures. Mr. A. G. More mentioned having seen polypetalous states 

 of Cainpaiinla rotundifolia and Bigilalis purpurea. 



Royal Dublin Society, May 22nd. — Professor Ball, A.M., in the 

 chair. Professor Thiselton Dyer commnuicated a note on Bud-scales. 

 He pointed out that in such widely distinct plants as the Lime, Elm, and 

 Beech these were formed by the stipules, which were developed far in ad- 

 vance of the rest of the leaf, and fell off when it was fully expanded. 

 This seemed an illustration of the theory that similar structural modifica- 

 tions in plants were really only the (effect of similar external conditions. 

 In more striking instances this would amount to so-called mimicry, which 

 was really a totally different phenomenon from what was met with amongst 

 animals. The term " Pseudomorphism " was suggested as a convenient 

 substitute for those cases where a plant abandoned the fades of the 

 Natural family to which it belonged, and assumed that of another. 



Natural History Society of Dublin. — Jane 1th. — Professor E. 

 Perceval Wright, M.D.. V.P., M.R.I. A., in the chair. Mr. William An- 

 drevvs exhibited some specimens of vSaxifrages, chielly of the umhrom and 

 Genm species. Of the Robertsonian saxifrages, which constitute the 

 Geum and umbrosa forms, the most remarkable varieties occur, which have 



