soft, elastic, and adhering to paper, shrinking very much in drying. Frue- 
tification, abundantly scattered through the ‘whole substance of the frond, 
resembling minute dots. 
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Though probably first noticed foe: Hudson, whose Ulva rubra 
we have quoted as a synonyme, this plant was first clearly des- 
cribed, and its characters defined by Woodward, im the ‘ Linn. 
Trans.’ for the year 1797. Among British. Alge few exhibit 
wilder variations in form, and yet I have never known it to be 
mistaken by any person who has once had the advantage of seeing 
it in a living state. The pinky colour, and peculiarly soft sub- 
stance, between gelatinous and membranaceous, and the mnume- 
rable dots of fructification are found im every specimen, and 
sufficiently mark the species. In form and size, there is extra- 
ordinary variety. ‘The specimens we have selected for illustration, 
unlike as they are, are only very moderately different, compared 
to some others which exist in our herbarium. And yet an ex- 
tensive suite of forms exhibits so perfect a gradation from the 
narrowest and most compound, to the broadest and most simple, 
that it is impossible to fix exactly the limits where one variety 
ends, and another begins. That all, therefore, belong to one 
species, is generally allowed. 
Possibly the H. elongata of Agardh, of which I have seen no 
authentic specimen, may be, as Prof. J. Agardh states, a distinct 
plant. But the specimens which I possess under this name, are 
certainly only a narrow form of H. /igulata, such as is frequently 
found on the south coast of England. Our variety y, /atifolia, in 
its typical form, has much more the characters of a species, 
distinguished by a thinner and more compact substance, and a 
darker colour. 
Fig. 1. HaLyMENIA LIGULATA, var. 8. and y., small specimens :—0f the natural 
size. 2. A transverse section of the frond. 8. Portion of the membranous 
wall. 4. A favellidium. 5. Spores. 
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