DUBLIN MICROSCOPICAL CLUB. 191 



Pigment- cells of dark brown tint were very general in all the 

 sections. 



Spliceridia of Stomopneustes variolaris and of Laganum de- 

 pressiim, exhibited. — Mr. Mackintosh exhibited the detached 

 sphseridia of Stomopneustes variolaris, Lamk., and also a section 

 of the corona of Laqaoium depressum, Lesson, showing one of these 

 organs in situ. They were first described in 1871 by Prof. 

 Loven, in the Ofversigt af Kongl. Vetenskabs Akad. Forhand- 

 lingar,' No. 7 (translated in the ' Annals and Mag. Nat, Hist.,' 

 Oct., 1872). 



Ghlamydospores of Nyctalis parasitica, exTiibited. — Mr. Pim 

 exhibited a transverse section of the gill of Nyctalis parasitica, 

 which grew abundantly on decaying agarics (chiefly Eussulas) ia 

 the vale of Avoca. The section showed the remarkable Ghlamy- 

 dospores described by de Bary (in 'Botanische Zeitung,' 1851), 

 which appeared to originate by free cell-formation from the 

 hypha9, and to consist of a short piece of hypha enclosing an oval 

 cell with a distinct nucleus. The ordinary agaric-form of fruit, 

 according to de Bary, has not been found in N. parasitica. 



Botrytis dichotoma, new to Ireland^ exhibited. — Mr. Pim likewise 

 showed the mould Botrytis dichotoma, Corda, found by Corda 

 near Prague, but which does not appear to have been previously 

 recorded as British. It consists of thick threads, pure white, 

 once or twice dichotomously forked. The spores occur all over 

 the hyphae, are spherical and each on a distinct though very short 

 pedicle, somewhat like those of Acremonium. It was found on 

 decaying tulip-stems at Monkstown, Co. Dublin. 



Dactylium macrosporum, exhibited. — Dr. W. M. A. Wright 

 showed examples of Bactylium macrosporum from vale of Avoca, 

 where it grew in one spot abundantly on Bolytrichv/m commune, 

 forming a patch like a heap of light snow. 



Occurrence of Spondylosium pulchellum in a stipitate and at- 

 tached condition, for the first time so observed. — Mr. Archer exhi- 

 bited examples of the rather rare desmid Spondylosium pulchel- 

 lum, ejus, which presented the unexpected fact that this form 

 occurs stipitate, although this was the first occasion he had ever 

 noticed this condition. Probably this stipitate condition is really 

 the normal one, and the form as usually found, consisting, it may 

 be, of a concatenation of a considerable number of cells down to 

 a very few, three, two, or even solitary joints, merely represents 

 so much of a filament dissociated from its original stipes — as 

 occurs, indeed, with so many other similar algas. Thus the mode 

 of occurrence of this species is comparable to that of certain 

 diatoms. Here, indeed, the stipes connecting the filament (of 

 greater or less length, 2-3 joints, to 30-40) with the supporting 

 plant (in this instance a small-sized barren QEdogonium) is re- 

 duced to a very short cylindrical cushion, of about one half the 

 length of a joint or cell of the Spondylosium. As is to be ex- 

 pected, there is no diff"erence whatever between the basal or ter- 

 minal cell of such a filament and any of those along its length, 



