ARCHEE ON A NEW SPECIES OF BULBOCHiETE, AGAllDH. 15 



simply a bristle. Further, no species appears to possess the septum 

 dividing the cell supporting the oogonium so high up therein as is the 

 case in the present plant. Indeed, when seemingly absent, I should 

 be inclined to think that this is due to its being so close up under the 

 oogonium as to be obscured by it, and thus to be made appear as if absent, 

 the interval between it and the septum dividing off the oogonium itself 

 being reduced almost to a minimum. 



Should this description of a form, probably already well known to 

 Professor Pringsheim, though seemingly not described as yet by that 

 distinguished observer (and should he approve of same), ever meet his 

 eye, I trust that, in token of the great gratification I have enjoyed 

 from several of his beautiful researches and his masterly writings, he 

 may not quite disdain the compliment which so humble an individual 

 as myself, in this far-off western island, would desire to convey to him 

 in venturing to call this plant Bulbochcete Pringsheimiana. 



Dr. E. Perceval Wright said he had listened with great pleasure to 

 the very interesting paper just read. Mr. Archer's papers had a special 

 recommendation, as, in addition to their value to the department of 

 descriptive botany on which they treated, they were likewise of im- 

 portance to the embryologist. He had been much struck by the descrip- 

 tion of the cell development in Bulbochsete, which differed in several 

 respects from that described by Karsten in (Edogonium. But the most 

 remarkable phenomenon by far referred to was the development and 

 growth of Pringsheim' s " androspore." In this he could recognise 

 nothing but a highly specialized bud or phytoid form. Physiologically 

 it had nothing in common with a spore ; and the name chosen was, he 

 thought, an unhappy one, as it did not draw distinction enough between 

 a spore, the product of a true sperm- cell, and a bud, which, however 

 much it might at first sight resemble a spore, was destined to develope it- 

 self into a receptacle of antherozoids. The comparative physiologist could 

 not fail to be struck with the similarity of this form of development 

 with what is met with in some of the Hydrozoa. In both a highly 

 differentiated portion of the organism separates as a motile bud — in the 

 one a phytoid, in the other a zooid form ; in both their destined func- 

 tion being to mingle their matured contents with the products of the 

 germ-cells of the same species. Dr. "Wright regretted that the ques- 

 tions involved in this paper should have come before so diminished a 

 meeting, as in many respects the considerations brought forward 

 therein were most important, and he regarded the paper as particularly 

 interesting. 



The President agreed with the latter portion of Dr. Wright's remarks, 

 and would be glad if comparisons between the growth and development 

 of the two kingdoms of nature were more often made. 



The Rev. Benjamin Dickson, D. D., F. T. C. D., M. P. I. A., Kildare- 

 place, was elected an Ordinary Member of the Society. 



The Society then adjourned to the first Friday in January. 



