Proceedings. 17 



MICROSCOPICAL AND NATURAL HISTORY 

 SECTION. 



Ordinary Meeting, November 7th, 1887. 



Professor W. C. WILLIAMSON, LL.D., F.R.S., President 

 of the Section, in the Chair. 



Mr. R. D. Darbishire sent for exhibition some remark- 

 able seed vessels of Martynia proboscidea from La Plata, 

 which had been imported entangled in fleeces. 



Mr. H. Hyde showed a specimen of Salaginella lepido- 

 phylla^ a dried plant which has the property of opening out 

 when immersed in water, as though living. 



Mr. T. SiNGTON exhibited a fine antler of the Red deer, 

 Cervus elaphus^ and a horn of the Celtic short-horn, Bos 

 longifrons^ from the excavations for the Preston docks. 



Mr. H. C. Chadwick exhibited a number of specimens 

 oi Asterias hispida^ the Uraster hispida of Forbes, which he 

 had dredged from a depth of ten fathoms in the Menai 

 Straits, off Bangor. Having studied the characters by 

 which Forbes distinguished this species from his Uraster 

 rubens, he had come to the conclusion that they were 

 nothing more than the transient characters of the young of 

 the latter species, a conclusion supported by the fact that 

 the characters of the two species might be seen side by side 

 in the larger specimens. He also exhibited a young specimen 

 of an Ophiurid, OphiotJirix -fragilis, the Ophiocoma inimita 

 of Forbes, from the above-mentioned locality. Dr. AlcoCK 

 mentioned that he had found it buried in sand at Red 

 Wharf Bay. 



