442 Contribution towards a 



pears areolated. The young leaf is convolute, and expands but 

 slowly ; the prickly stem ascends with the young leaf till it has 

 reached the surface ; by the time it is developed its own weight 

 depresses the stem, and it floats now on the water. The stem of the 

 flower is an inch thick near the calix, and is studded with sharp 

 elastic prickles, about three quarters of an inch in length. The calix 

 is four-leaved, each upwards of 7 inches in length, and 3 inches in 

 breadth ; at the base they are thick, white inside, reddish brown and 

 prickly outside. The diameter of the calix is 12 to 23 inches, on it 

 rests the magnificent flower, which, when fully developed, covers 

 completely the calix with its hundred petals. When it first opens, 

 it is white, with pink in the middle, which spreads over the whole 

 flower, the more it advances in age, and it is generally found the next 

 day of pink-colour. As if to enhance its beauty, it is sweet scent- 

 ed. Like others of its tribe it possesses a fleshy disk, and the petals 

 and stamen pass gradually into each other, and many petaloid 

 leaves may be observed which have vestiges of another. The pe- 

 tals next to the leaves of the calix are fleshy, and possess air-cells, 

 which certainly must contribute to the buoyancy of the flower. 

 The seeds of the many-celled fruit are numerous, and imbedded in 

 a spongy substance. We met them hereafter frequently, and the 

 higher we advanced the more gigantic they became. We measured a 

 leaf which was 6 feet 5 inches in diameter, its rim 5^ inches high, 

 and the flower across 15 inches. The flower is much injured by a 

 beetle, (Trichius. " Spec ?".) which destroys completely the inner 

 part of the disk, we have counted sometimes from 20 to 30 in one 

 flower. Extract of a letter from Dr Schomburgh to the Botani- 

 cal Society of London, I'Jth October 1837- 



VIII. — Contribution towards a knowledge of the Crenilabri (CW) 

 of Ireland, including Descriptions of Species apparently new to 

 Science.* By William Thompson, Esq. Vice-President of 

 the Natural History Society of Belfast. Plates XIII and XIV. 



Crenilabrus tj(nca, and C. Cornubicus of Authors. 



During the month of September 1 835, which I spent at Bangor, 

 on the coast of Down, I embraced the opportunity of examining 

 these species in a recent state, as on every calm day they were in 



* Read in part to the Zoological Society of London in June 1837, when 

 specimens of all the species and varieties treated of were exhibited. 



