6000 



Dublin University Association. 



Adelostoma (diffeiiiig from all tlie known Scaritides in the opaque surface of the 

 body), and remarkable for the two deep oblique canals on the under side of the head, 

 united behind in front of the very small neck, and within which the antennae are 

 lodged when at rest. The genus is founded on a single species recently sent from 

 the River Amazou by Mr. Bates, to which Mr. Westwood 'applied the name of 

 Solenogenys faeda. 



Part VT. of the current volume of the Society's 'Transactions' was on the 

 table.- ^. S. 



Dublin University Zoological and Botanical Association. 



Jmiuary 15, 1858.— Professor W. H. Harvey, M.D., F.L.S., in the Chair. 

 The minutes of last General Meeting being read, were approved of and signed by 

 the Chairman. 



Mr. E. Percival Wright read a resume of a paper on the classification of the 

 Ccelenterata, which had been laid before the Association in December last by 

 Professor J. Reay Greene, of Cork. 



He also made some remarks on our knowledge of parthenogenesis, a subject about 

 which much had been written by Owen, Waldo, Burnett, Sallock, Huxley, Siebold 

 and others. Not that all these authors used the word to express the same idea — 

 perhaps the term should be limited, as it is by Siebold, to the production of a perfect 

 individual from a germ cell, without it receiving any stimulus from the sperm cell. It 

 is known, to use the language of Quatrefages, that both in plants and animals the 

 concurrence of two agents is necessary in order to assure the perpetuity of species. 

 Among plants flowers are generally both male and female, thus realizing one of the 

 most graceful fictions of pagan mythology. Around the pistil which encloses the 

 ovule are grouped the stamens, w^hose pollen is destined to fecundate this germ and to 

 determine its development under the form of seed or fruit. In many cases, however, 

 the sexes are separated. Growing sometimes on the same tree, and sometimes on 

 different trees, the male and female flowers require the aid of some intermediate agent 

 to eff'ect their union, and thus the winds convey to the pistil of these flowers the 

 vivifying emanations by which alone it can be fructified. These diverse relations are 

 all to be met with in the animal kingdom. Here also the myth of the son of Venus 

 and Mercury becomes a reality, and here the ocean's wave and the river currrent takes 

 the place of the winds of heaven. This general law had, however, some exceptions, 

 and the startling revelations of Dzierzon, pastor of Carlsmarkt, in Silesia, as told us 

 by Siebold, show how that the eggs which the queen bee lays the moment she 

 emerges from her chrysalis state are developed into drone bees. 



Professor Harvey had been greatly pleased with Mr. J. Reay Greene's paper, 

 which was on a very interesting subject. It was well known that the male plant of 

 one of the Euphorbiacea had never yet been discovered, and yet the female flowers 

 produced perfect seeds, which, on being sown, in their turn produced perfect plants. 



Professor Kinahan read a list of the various ferns found in Powerscourt demesne 

 on the last excursion of the Association. 



The Rev. Eugene O'Meara also read a list of the Diatomacea found upon the 

 same occasion, and exhibited specimens under his microscope. 



Professor R. W. Smith gave an account, illustrated by sketches, of some curious 

 monstrosities of ferns he had lately discovered. 



