I920. 



Irish Societies. 



35 



IRISH SOCIETIES. 



DUBLIN MICROSCOPICAL CLUB. 



March io. — The Club met at Leinster House. 



Dr. G. H. Pethybridge exhibited spores, both in a resting and in 

 a germinating condition, of a smut fungus which circumstantial evidence 

 very strongly suggested was Ustilago anomala, J. Kunze. This parasite 

 forms its spores in the inner parts of the flowers of Polygonum Convolvulus 

 L. and P. dumetorum, L. The material exhibited was derived from 

 affected flowers, very probably of the first named species, found amongst 

 the impurities in a sample of seed oats grown in Londonderry, and sent 

 to the Department of Agriculture's Seed-testing Station for testing. 

 Miss E. M. Wakefield of Kew was good enough to examine the material 

 and by comparison with the specimens in the Kew Herbarium to suggest 

 that the fungus was, in all probabihty, the species mentioned. No 

 previous record of the occurrence of this smut in the British Isles appears 

 to exist, and the present one may, perhaps, be regarded as not being 

 free from a certain amount of doubt. The smutted fragments in the 

 sample, however, strongly resembled the floral parts of some species of 

 Polygonum and unaffected " seeds " of P. Convolvulus were also present 

 in the sample, this plant being a common weed in tilled land in Ireland. 

 The spores agreed in size and in degree of reticulation with those of 

 U. anomala on P. dumetorum from an American source, and their mode 

 of germination showed that they certainly belonged to the genus Ustilago 

 and not to Tilletia. 



Sir F. Moore showed the fungus Exosporium Tiliae which had been 

 found on dead branches and twigs of Lime trees in Queen's County. 



DUBLIN NATURALISTS' FIELD CLUB. 



November 13, 1919.— The first business meeting of the winter session 

 was held in the Royal Irish Academy House, R. Ll. Praeger in the 

 chair. Reference was made to the great loss the Club had sustained in 

 the recent death of one of its most distinguished members, the late 

 Nathaniel Colgan, and the Hon. Secretary was instructed to forward an 

 expression of the Club's sympathy to the Rev. W. Colgan, The meeting 

 was principally devoted to exhibits, including a series of Saxifrages shown 

 by R, Ll. Praeger, a Wren's nest and some fossils and minerals by Patrick 

 and Sheila Trench, and a Sparrow-Hawk and an immature Great Nortliern 

 Diver by jNIiss Wilson. The Hon. Secretary (Mrs. Long) read a short 

 but interesting account of the life of Sir Charles Giesecke, the celebrated 

 mineralogist, 



