DUBLIN MICROSCOPICAL CLUB, 199 



Dr. Macalister showed the hairs of Elatheura onarrjinata, also a 

 portion of the tip of the ear oi Megaderma lyra, composed of pure 

 yellow elastic fibrous tissue. 



Dr. Frazer showed some examples of Uredo graminis, from a 

 field in Co. Kildare, which had become so covered with this 

 fungus that it presented quite a yellow appearance, from the ex- 

 cessive abundance of the spores ; settling on some clothes placed 

 out to dry, these became so stained as to require rewashing as 

 the only means to get rid of the discoloration. 



Dr. Richardson exhibited a slide containing several specimens 

 of striated muscular fibre, which had been passed with the urine 

 by a gentleman in whom a communication had formed between 

 the large intestine and the bladder. At first, the urine was not 

 discoloured, so that the finding of them was a striking demonstra- 

 tion of the value of the use of the microscope in clinical medicine, 

 for it had enabled him to give a positive opinion of the ultimate 

 result of the case, which ended fatally in about ten days after the 

 communication had formed ; the accuracy of the opinion was 

 verified by a post-mortem examination. 



Rev. M. H. Close drew attention to some dendritic forms 

 occurring in a layer of diamond cement between two slips of 

 glass, the wonderful elegance of the disposition and figure of the 

 branchings causing it to become a singularly pretty object. 



Mr. Archer once more ofi"ered to the Club's attention some ad- 

 ditional DesmidiesB, a few of them new, from the late Galway 

 gatherings, and he presented likewise one or two further draw- 

 ings. Amongst these was a very fine and very large form, with 

 sub-elliptic, turgid, smooth segments, showing in front view two 

 closely posed hyaline, stout,'taperiug, sub-acute spines at each oppo- 

 site lateral extremity, these slightly directed upwards, which he felt 

 it safer, at least for the present, to refer to Didymocladon longispinum 

 (Bailey, "Micros. Observ. in S. Carolina, Georgia, and Florida," 

 ' Smiths. Contrib.,' vol. ii, fig. 7), for though that author's figures 

 are but coarse and descriptions nearly nil (as in the case of Docl- 

 diiim nodosum, Bailey, lately shown to the Club), it were better 

 to let this stand, at least ar^ interim, as o««r Irish Staurastnim lon- 

 gispinum, for, admitting the identification as regards the present 

 form does not involve the acceptance of the genus Didymocladon, 

 Ralfs. In fact, that genus cannot stand, at least it is unneces- 

 sary ; just as well might there be instituted a distinct genus for 

 such forms of Staurastrum with a pair of elongate processes at 

 each angle, when these originate on the same horizontal plane (as 

 in Staurasirtim leave, Ralfs, St. hijidum Ehr.), as maintain a 

 distinct genus for those forms also with a pair of processes at each 

 angle, of which one, however, is posed vertically above the other. 

 But the present fine form offers a marked example of a charac- 

 teristic, in which it, however, is by no means unique, either 

 amongst certain forms appertaining by external figure under this 

 genus or under some other genera of Desmidiese, and that is the 

 chlorophyll-contents being arran Ted inconspicuous parietal bands, 



