2,6s [Proc B. N. F. C, 



moderately civilised tribes went to battle without any metal 

 headgear. As for fixing the date of the helmet more exactly 

 than this from any. intrinsic evidence, I find it hopeless, and 

 can only hope some expert may take the matter in hand. 

 Ulster has had a stormy history. Before the arrival of the 

 Milesians, about a.m. 3500, there had been many invasions 

 chronicled. It has since then been held by the Picts, invaded 

 by the Northumbrians, and scourged by the Norsemen. The 

 Anglo-Normans, under De Courcey, subjugated it a.d. 11 J J, 

 and the Scots repeatedly encroached, and often maintained 

 their footing. Whether the helmet was worn by invader or 

 invaded, and whether the chieftain retired wounded to breathe 

 his last in his islet fortress, died in his armour, or the helmet 

 was merely carried there as a trophy, is a secret that has been 

 locked in the peaty crannoge for hundreds, perhaps even 

 thousands, of years." 



The third meeting was held on Tuesday evening, January 

 20th, in the Museum — the President (W. H. Patterson, Esq., 

 M.R.I.A.) in the chair — when a paper, entitled " Notes on 

 Gilled Fungi," collected in the North of Ireland, was read by 

 the Rev. H. W. Lett, M.A., of which the following is an 

 abstract : — 



Futigi, or Funguses, are thought by most persons to be un- 

 important vegetables, the humble mushrooms and toadstools 

 making up the class, according to their ideas, whereas the most 

 numerous and important fungus plants are either microscopic 

 or else so small as to attract little attention. About them much 

 can be learned from Dr. M. C. Cooke's book on Microscopic 

 Fungi, and Mr. Worthington G. Smith has just brought out a 

 little well-illustrated work, called " Diseases of Field and Gar- 

 den Crops," chiefly such as are caused by fungi, which ought to 

 be in the hands of everyone who grows or studies plants and 

 flowers. The number of fungi is enormous. The two volumes 

 of Cooke's " British Fungi," published fourteen years ago, 



