Dublin Mtcroscojncal Club. 165 



Type of a neiv Alcyonarian Qi'uus : Primnoides. — Dr. E. 'P. 

 Wright exhibited mounted .specimens of a small portion of the 

 colony of a Primnoid Alcyonarian, for which a new genus, Prim- 

 nokles, had to be made. The spicules of the coenenchyma were 

 small, orbicular, scale-like, gradually merging into those of the 

 body of the polyp. There were no true opercular scales, but the 

 tentacles were retractile. The species, one of the ' Challenger ' 

 collection, and called from its outline P. sertularire, W. & S., was 

 dredged from a depth of 310 fathoms off Prince Edward Island. 



Continuity of Protoplasm in Sirychnos. — ilr. Greenwood Pirn 

 showed sections of Strychnos ignatia which had been treated with 

 alcohol and iodine, as recommended by Mr. S. Le M. Moore, and 

 which showed very distinctly tho continuity of the protoplasm 

 between one end of the endosperm and another. A section of 

 S. niLV vomica, in which the continuity was originally described bj' 

 Dr. Tangl, was shown for comparison. The protoplasm-threads are 

 much less easily seen in this species than in S. ignatia. 



New Gregarious Monad. — Mr. Archer showed examples, unfortu- 

 nately much deteriorated, which he pin up on a slide in acetate of 

 potash, of an organism sent him in very minute quantity by Prof. 

 Lankester. This turned out (though somewhat algal-like at first glance) 

 to be a form of gregarious monad, the individual monads nestling in a 

 muco-granular coloured matrix. This matrix formed very minute 

 subgiobose masses, the basic substance of great rigidity and elasticity 

 withal. So great was its retrogressive power on being pressed out 

 with some considerable force, that, on its relaxation, it could forth- 

 with pull itself together and restore its figure as if nothing had 

 happened. However, on patiently causing the ejection of a few of 

 the monads, they were seen to be elongate, minute, somewhat 

 greenish in colour, with a narrow pale space at tlie anterior extre- 

 mity, and occasionally, after a little wriggling action, they would 

 swim away. But Mr. Archer had found it impossible actually to 

 detect flagella, still less whether two or one only. Flagellate cer- 

 tainly these little organisms were, nevertheless, and the place of the 

 form would therefore be close to such genera as Sjpongomonas or 

 PJialansterium. Prof. Lankester was about to subject this organism 

 to a closer study, and hoped to give an account of it ere long. 



November 18, 1885. 



Seeds of Lolium perenne and Festuca pratensis exhibited. — Dr. 

 M'Nab exhibited under a low power with a binocular microscope 

 Beeds of Lolium ■perenne and Festuca pratensis for the purpose of 

 directing attention to their special diagnostic characters and also 

 for the purpose of demonstrating the use of Tan Heurck's Helot 

 photophore and the electric light in microscopical research. 



Spumaria alba accompanied by a remarJcable Nettvork of Crystals 



