112 



The hish Naturalist. 



May, 



IRISH SOCIETIES. 



ROYAL ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



Recent gifts include four Jerboas from Sir Frederick Shaw, a Crested 

 Grebe from Mr. W. P. H. Vaughan, a Muscovy Duck, a Kestrel, twelve 

 Chaffiuclies, four Greenfinches, and a Goldfinch from Mr. W. W. 

 Despard ; an African Owl from Capt. Cassellis, a Curlew from Mr. R. 

 Warren, and a pair of Guinea-fowl from Mr. E. Carton. Many new 

 Monkeys, a Bear, a pair of Racoons, some Marmosets and Pelicans are 

 on their way from Antwerp, while one of the young lyions lately born in 

 Dublin has been sent to Germany. The Council has decided to erect the 

 proposed new open-air aviary on the far side of the lake. 



DUBLIN MICROSCOPICAL CLUB. 



March 8.— The Club met at Leinster House. 



F. W. MOORK exhibited Dadylella implexa. This fungus was found 

 covering the roots of some Apple trees, and was supposed to have caused 

 the roots to decay. However, the species is purely saprophytic, and on 

 enquiry it was found that the injury to the roots had been caused by 

 frost. 



W. F. GuNN exhibited living specimens of a small Nematode worm 

 found in decayed Potatoes. The species was not determined, but it 

 appears to be very frequent in potatoes, in which the decay is caused or 

 accompanied by liquifying bacteria. In the potatoes examined the 

 process of decay appeared to be as follows : — The tubers are first 

 attacked by a fungus {Fusarium Solani) which disorganises and kills the 

 tissues, which are then seized on by putrefactive bacteria. These 

 organisms soon reduce the substance of the tuber to a semi-fluid glairy 

 mass, providing the moist condition necessary for the existence of the 

 worms. 



D. M-ARDi,Ei exhibited, for the Rev. Canon H. W. LETT, of I^ough- 

 brickland, Co. Down, specimens of Adelanthns ditgorlensis, Douin and 

 Lett, a new species of Liverwort from Achill, described and figured in 

 the Irish Naturalist, vol. xiii., 1904, pp. 157-8, pi. 2. Canon Lett also sent 

 for exhibition specimens of Codonia Ralfsii (Wilson) whose capsules, 

 ripened in May, appear when the little lettuce-like frond of the previous 

 season has almost entirely withered away ; they are about the size of 

 turnip seed, and are raised just above the sand, so that one has to lie down 

 to discover them. A few collected by the exhibitor in May, 1904, among 

 the sand dunes at Magilligan, Co. Londonderry, were grown on sand, 

 in pans 3I inches across, where their spores were shed, with the result, 

 in the following November, of a crop of 70 nice plants. The tissue of 

 the capsule breaks up, when ripe, longitudinally and irregularly. It is 

 composed of two kinds of cells, some being oblong, very thin, mem- 

 branous, and hyaline; others very narrow, full of brown pigment, en- 

 circling the hyaline cells or connecting them with each other. 



