186 NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY OF DUBLIN. 



" Your Council sees no cause to diminish its congratulations ontrie 

 union of the two Natural History Societies, duly reported last year, 

 and would earnestly hope that there may not again be any splitting of 

 scientific resources, hut that the combined efforts of each and all of the 

 workers in any of the wide and varied departments of Natural Science 

 in Dublin, and the united results of their labours, be those little or 

 much, quantum valeant, may henceforth be submitted to the scientific 

 world through one single channel. If, indeed, it be futile to hope for 

 such a consummation, or to expect that other Societies of greater pre- 

 tensions will not attract to themselves much of the result of the labours 

 of Irish naturalists, which might perhaps naturally be expected to 

 flow hither, your Council yet believes that at least the members of this 

 Society will accord with the view here expressed ; nor does it think 

 that many, even though they be not members, will be found to 

 dissent from the propriety and advantage of a single Journal, com- 

 bining under one cover the aggregate of the papers on Natural Science, 

 in general, emanating from Ireland. Your Council, therefore, thinks 

 that the efforts of the Society should be directed to making its Journal 

 as efficient as possible, thereby to induce those who have Papers to 

 read to bring them before this Society. 



" The Papers read during the Session were sixteen in number, seven 

 zoological, and nine botanical. The zoological were as follow : — ' Na- 

 tural History Notes,' by G. H. Kinahan ; ' Remarks on the Salmonidae, 

 on the Basking Shark, on Malacorhyncus membranaceus and Puffinus 

 obscurus, and on the Spotted Pigeon,' by the President ; ' On the 

 Death of the Lion and Ostrich in the Boyal Zoological Society's Gar- 

 dens of Dublin,' by the Rev. Samuel Haughton, M. D. ; ' On the Irish 

 Vespidoe,' by Eichard L. Edgeworth ; ' On Plights of Swans, seen in the 

 counties of Eoscommon and Galway during the winters of 1863-64,' 

 by P.J. Poot, M.A., P. E.G. S.I. ; 'Notes on the Dissection of 

 the Presh-water Pearl Mussel ( Unio margaritifera)? by John Barker, 

 M. D. ; ' On certain Movements of the Limacidae,' by William Harte, 

 C. E., P. E. G. S. I. (Coit. Memb.). The botanical were—' Observa- 

 tions on Micrasterias Mahabuleshioarensis (Hobson), and on Docidium 

 pristidce (Hobson),' by W. Archer; ' Description of anew species of 

 Docidium (Breb.),' by W. Archer; ' On an Abnormal Morphological 

 Development of the Common Snowberry,' by Alexander Macalister, 

 L. K. Q. C. P. ; ' On the Occurrence of Hymenophyllum Tunbridgense in the 

 county of Longford, with a List of Stations for Cystopteris fragilis in 

 the Midland Counties,' by P. J. Poot, M. A., P. E. G. S. I. ; < Eecord 

 of the Occurrence of Polystichum lonchitis in the county of Longford,' 

 by Eichard L. Edgeworth ; ' Eeport on the Progress made in Collect- 

 ing the Irish Lichens' (accompanying the presentation to the Society of 

 four fasciculi of specimens) by Admiral Jones, P. L. S. ; ' Eecord of the 

 Occurrence, new to Ireland, with Note of a Peculiar Condition of the 

 Volvocinaceous alga, Stephanosphcera pluvialis (Cohn), and Observations 

 thereon,' by William Archer ; ' On the Occurrence of Spiral Vessels in 



