86 PROCEEDINGS OF SOCIETIES. 



foand, presenting itself exceedingly scantily. Staurastrum elon- 

 gatum (Barker) was found very sparingly, though two years ago 

 in the same situation, where Dr. Barker first met it, compara- 

 tively plentiful, though confined to a circumscribed area (since 

 then, however, as previously recorded, Mr. Archer took it in 

 Connemara). Tetrachastrum oscitans (Ralfs), Dixon, Micrasterias 

 Jenneri (Ralfs), Peniiim spirostriolatum (Barker), Staurastrum 

 Pringsheimii (Reinscli), PleurotcBnimn \_Docidium] nohile (Rich- 

 ter), and several others less uncommon, were to be seen on the 

 table ; but the takings in this, or, indeed, any department, were 

 on the whole, very poor, owing to the excessive rains and univer- 

 sally flooded condition of the best sites ; very few zygospores 

 seen. 



Mr. Archer was, however, able to draw attention to the conju- 

 gated state taken at Gh^ncar at same time, of Navicula serians, a 

 very common diatom, but one seemingly but rarely met with in 

 that condition. The present examples, as might be anticipated, 

 presented no feature not already so correctly described by Mr. 

 Carter in his valuable paper on the conjugation of this form 

 ('Ann. Nat. Hist.,' vol. XV, 3rd ser., p. 161). In the main, too, it coin- 

 cides with the conjugation of Stauroneis -plioenicenteron (see ' Quart. 

 Journ. Micr. Science,' vol. viii, n. s., p. 189) ; still, as an object, 

 the present was very interesting to see, as the conjugated state 

 in diatoms is so comparatively seldom encountered. 



Mr. Archer likewise presented examples of a I'ather large form 

 of Chlamydomonad, taken also at Glencar, Co. Kerry, showing a 

 seemingly singular speciality ; that is, instead of the flagella, here 

 four in number, originating from one and the same place, they 

 proceeded from four distinct and comparatively widely separated 

 points at the anterior end, each flagellum starting from a circum- 

 scribed pale spot or region, as it were, of its own, like that single 

 common one immediately at the end, at which, in allied forms, the 

 usually two flagella co-originate. Thus, to a certain extent, one 

 might look upon the present, as it were, as a form with four 

 apices, or as four uniciliated individuals combined into one. 

 Such a supposition, though assisting to realise an idea of the 

 form in question, would not be tenable apparently, because each 

 of these quadriciliated examples showed but one "eye speck;" 

 this was deep crimson in colour, and lateral or parietal in posi- 

 tion, and placed rather low down the elliptic " body" of this 

 organism, seemingly lenticular in shape when seen at the extreme 

 margin, and then appearing to produce a minute convexity some- 

 what projecting from the general curve of the outer contour. 

 The general chlorophyll contents were brilliant green ; outer 

 "wall" colourless, hyaline, and often seeming to be faintly 

 obliquely striate. The motion was vivid, and this form being 

 rather large, and occurring in great quantities, formed a very 

 pretty exhibition. This may, indeed, come very close to Ghlamy- 

 domonas multifilis (Fresenius, in his memoir " Beitrage zur 

 Kenntniss mikroskopischer Organismen," 1858, t. >!, f. 34, 35, 



