1884-1885.] 371 



fungus forays of the Club, that the honorary secretaries or con- 

 ductors would arrange for a locality affording sufficient time to 

 test in a practical way, by cooking, &c., some of the species 

 found and pronounced to be so delicious. 



Mr. Wm, Gray, by his remarks, elicited some useful informa- 

 tion about preparing and mounting the minute forms, and por- 

 tions of the larger ones, for microscopic examination. 



Several other members having asked questions, which were 

 replied to by the reader, an examination of the large series of 

 specimens on the table, and the drawings of the more perishable 

 species, concluded the meeting. 



The fourth meeting was held in the Museum, College Square 

 North, on Tuesday evening, 17th February — Mr. W. H. Pat- 

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

 on the Scale Mosses and Liverworts of County Down," written 

 by the Rev. C. Herbert Waddell, B.A., was read by the Rev. 

 H. W. Lett, Ardmore. The writer stated that the study of the 

 Hepaticae or scale mosses has hitherto been much neglected in 

 the North of Ireland. They come lower down in the scale of 

 life than the true mosses, from which they are distinguished in 

 the following particulars : — Their leaves are constructed upon a 

 different plan, being more like bracts or scales than true leaves; 

 hence the name scale mosses. The fruit is different in shape, 

 and contains elaters, curious little bodies which help to scatter 

 the spores. These plants have also a peculiar bilateral habit of 

 growth, with an upper side turned; towards the light, and an 

 under side next the ground, of a^^different shape. There are in 

 Europe 314 species of Hepaticae in all, and of this number 137 

 species have been found growing in Ireland — that is to say, 

 nearly half of the European Flora. A number of species 

 grow at Killarney that either do not grow elsewhere, or only 

 in the Pyrenees and West Indies. Dr. Spruce says — " When 

 gathering mosses and Hepaticae on the slopes of the Andes he 

 was reminded of the Kerry ^mountains, whose cryptogamic 

 vegetation is the nearest approach in Europe to that of tropical 



