scientific accuracy of Mr T u r n e r , who transmitted the specimen
figm-ed under that name in English Botany, I cannot believe
the plant there published to belong to our species. It has
a totally different habit, and, besides being merely compressed
instead of plane, appears to have the articulations of that group
of marine algæ named Hutchinsia by A g a r d h , as indeed Sir
J a m e s E d w a r d S m i t h has justly remarked. So far the figure
in English Botany. In an attentive examination of specimens
from Miss H u t c h i n s (which are three inches long, and
of a black red colour), I find the structure rather resembling that
of a Ceramium, the joints perfectly regular and distinct towards
the extremity of the branches, which divide precisely as in
many Hutchinsice of A g a r d h ; and, what may be regarded
as conclusive in removing it from Sph. cristatus, each of the
minute cylindrical divisions terminates in a long, hyaline, jointed
filament, which also occurs in several species of Hutchinsia,
and is present in a new individual I hope to publish in the
next Number. It may be observed, that my specimens from
Miss H u t c h i n s grew on rocks, amidst sand and shells,—a
situation very different from that of the true cristatus.
The specimen from which the annexed figure is taken, was
found on the coast near Edinburgh, attached to an old stipes
of Laminaria digitata, and is probably the only British specimen
in existence.
Fig. 1. Sphcerococcus cristatus, nat. size. Fig. 2. A branch, magnified. Fig. 3.
One o f the ramuli, with tubercles. Fig. 4. A tubercle. Fig. 5. Sporules.
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