178 DESCRIPTION OF TWO NEW SPECIES 



the ova in a very early stage. I unfortunately did not succeed in 

 keeping the specimens alive so as to observe their further de- 

 velopment. 



Halecium labrosum. pi. XII. 



Polypary between 3 and 4 inches high, irregularly branched 

 and rather flaccid. Stem compounded of several tubes, 

 and fixed at the base by numerous fibres; the larger 

 branches compound and generally dividing dichotomously, 

 bearing alternate branchlets or pinnge, which are jointed, 

 and more or less ringed or transversely wrinkled above each 

 joint. The cells arise singly or in pairs below the joints, and 

 are also jointed and ringed at the base, above which a short 

 tubular portion bears the true cell, which is moderately deep 

 and much expanded and everted at the margin. Capsules 

 ovate, broad below and obtusely pointed above, without 

 any tubular aperture ; they are of a purplish-brown colour, 

 and set unilaterally on the stem by a short pedicle of 

 about two rings. 

 This Halecium has occurred to me occasionally from deep water 

 on the Northumberland coast ; but I have never had an oppor- 

 tunity of seeing it alive. Its distinctness from the other British 

 species, however, cannot be doubted. It differs from H. halecinum 

 in its more lax and irregular mode of growth, as well as in 

 colour, which has somewhat of a purplish hue when fresh. The 

 branches, too, are more ringed and wrinkled, and the capsules 

 more regularly and broadly ovate, than in that species.* But 

 the best distinction is found in the form of the cell, which is deeper 

 than in any of the other species, and has a remarkably expanded 

 lip, which usually turns over at the margin. I may here remark that 

 what Dr. Johnston calls the cell in this genus consists of two por- 

 tions, the upper and shallower of which constitutes the true cell, 

 and contains the polype. The cells in this species, as in others of 

 the genus, are often seen to rise one within the other, occasioned 



* It has been pointed out by Mr. Hiucks, that the male ixnil female capsules are of difFer- 

 e;it forms in //. hdlerinum. Should this be tlie case in other members of the genus, those 

 of //. labrosum now described may belong to the former sex. 



