DUBLIN MICROSCOPICAL CLUB. 465 



2Uli May, 1877. 



Characters of Graspedodisciis elegans. — Rev. E. O'Meara ex- 

 hibited a fine specimen of Craspedodiscus elegans, Ehr,, from the 

 Maryland deposit. He remarked that in Ealfs' description of this 

 species (Pritch. Inf., PI. XI, f. 38) the central rosette of elongated 

 areoles and the large rhombic areoles of the broad border are accu- 

 rately described, but that the central portion of the disc, instead of 

 being turbid, as in the figure referred to, is perfectly pellucid, and 

 the areoles, instead of being fine and granular, are large and dis- 

 tinctly hexagonal. 



Areyria punicea {OapilUfium) exhibited. — Mr. Pim showed a 

 portion of the capillitium of Areyria punicea from Vale of Avoca. 

 He had met with rather plentifully an allied, but distinct, form A. 

 incarnata in Powerscourt Demesne. The habitat is similar, viz. 

 rotten sticks. 



Section of Tip of Spine of Arhaeia steUata exhibited. — Mr. 

 Mackintosh exhibited a cross section of the tip of the spine of 

 Arbacia stellata, Gray, and called attention to the structure of the 

 sheath which covers the tip of the spine in every species of the 

 genus. It was apparently identical in structure with the crust of 

 the spines of Cidaridse, and seemed to present the link between this 

 family and the Desmosticha, in which the sheath is not found. 



Microgromia mucicola shown in the recent state. — Mr. Archer 

 showed the little, probably the most minute, perfect rhizopod 

 known, nestling in the mucus of his quondam Dictyospha&rixim con- 

 strictum, viz. Microgromia mucicola. It would be hardly possible, 

 so inert is this form, to demonstrate at a meeting that it was a 

 thing of life at all, yet positively exerting all the activity of which 

 it is capable. It would almost require the use of a micrometer eye- 

 piece to note the action of the pseudopodia. The nucleus could 

 readily be made out. Although Mr. Archer had already recorded 

 this form in the Minutes, he had not had an opportunity before to 

 show a living recent example at a Club meeting. 



Ectocarpus sphcerophorus exhibited. — Dr. E. Perceval Wright 

 exhibited freshly gathered specimens of Ectocarpus sphcerophorus, 

 Carm., a species found in Bantry Bay by Miss Hutchins, and cer- 

 tainly not very common in Ireland. Harvey describes the spores 

 as " opposite to each other or to a ramulus, each spore in fact occu- 

 pying the normal position of a ramulus, and substituted for one on 

 fertile specimens." Agardh better describes them as " intra-peri- 

 sporium hyalinum ad fila sessiles, oppositse aut 4-verticellat£e nunc 

 singulse ramulo oppositse." Both authors apparently mean by 

 "spores" "spore-cells," and Dr. Wright hazarded the suggestion 

 that these hyaline spore-cases in this species were only parasitic 

 forms, and that the Ec. sphcerophorus, Carm., was after all but the 

 Ec. brachiatus, Agardh, only under altered circumstances, and that 

 it would then belong to the group of Ectocarpi with fruits as in 

 Ectocarpus Mertensii. 



Salicylate of Morphia exhibited.— Dt. Tichborne then exhibited 



