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It has again fallen to my lot to present my readers with an
Alga belonging to the difficult group of which D. punctata is
perhaps the best known. In regard to the present individual,
though perfectly convinced of its distinctness as a species, from
every other published by Professor A g a r d h , yet I am compelled
to speak of it with caution, when I compare it with the
Fucus ulvoides of T u r n e r . In the size of the capsules, their
form, and the very short stipes, that plant resembles the present
one; but it wants the veins at the base, and the divisions
of the frond are much more regular, and vastly narrower. Mr
T u r n e r ’s plant, too, is of a pale pink colour, turning to a dirty
white in decay; mine is of a dull pinkish-red, changing in all
my specimens to a dirty green in decay, but they probably would
have at length become colourless. The substance of Mr T u r n
e r ’s plant is very thin and tender; mine is described by the original
discoverer as being soft and thickish; but I confess had I
judged only from dried specimens, I should have said it was very
thin indeed. Lastly, Mr T u r n e r ’s plant adheres firmly to
paper; mine imperfectly, having a tendency to partial separation
and laceration. I shall now leave the subject to future botanists.
Like Mr T u r n e r , I have laboured under tbe disadvantage of
having only dried specimens to work upon ; but under the
doubts that exist regarding the identity of the two plants, and
having materials to decide the features of one of them, I have
ventured to name that one in honour o f Miss H i l l of Plymouth,
a lady not unknown to fame in tlie marine botany of
England, as an accurate observer and assiduous collector.
Fig. I. D. Hillice, niith capmlar fructification. Fig. 2. Portion o f a fro n d with
sori; natural size. Fig. 3. Capside. Fig. 4. Sporidia. Fig. .5. Sorus.
Fig. 6. Ternate sporidia ; magnified.