60 
HoPER^ on the genus Licmophora. 
large variety^ and mixed up the true Licmophora flabellata 
of Kiitz. and Echmella flabellata of Ehr. in his synonymy with 
the L. splendida of the ' British nora/ 
That in many cases there is great difficulty in clearly ascer- 
taining the species really described by the earlier writers^ I 
am quite ready to admit, as we are almost dependent on short 
descriptions and imperfectly drawn figures ; and even speci- 
mens named by Kiitz. and Agardh I have found to be erro- 
neous. I have seen a gathering named Rhipidophora grandis, 
by Kiitzing^ which is the true L. flabellata of Agardh, and of 
two gatherings by Agardh of L. argentescens ; one was L. fla- 
bellata, the other a mixture of a large Synedra with a Rhipido- 
phora. That Professor Smithes transposition of the names in 
this genus has arisen from some similar cause I have little 
doubt, and that, without looking with sufficient care into the 
synonymy, he has depended on specimens which have been 
erroneously named, or of which the names had been trans- 
posed. It is hardly possible that so careful an observer as 
Dr. Greville, after his description of Eocillaria flabellata in the 
' Scot. Cry p. Flora,^ and his subsequent account of it as 
L. flabellata in the ' Brit. Flora,^ could have intentionally sent 
the small and widely cuneate form of which he made the 
species splendida to Professor Smith, as stated in the ' Sy- 
nopsis,^ as the true flabellata of Agardh. But I am still more 
at a loss to understand how in the ' Synopsis^ the locality, 
" Saltcoats, Dr. Landsborough, from Dr. Greville^s ^ Her- 
barium/ could be placed under the splendida, as described 
by Professor Smith, as I have had an opportunity of examin- 
ing Dr. LandsborougVs gathering, which has the widely 
cuneate valves of the true splendida of the ' Brit. Flora,^ and 
is synonymous with the L, radians of Kiitzing. Dr. Lands- 
borough, in speaking of this gathering in 1851, two years 
prior to the appearance of the ' Synopsis,^ says, This plant 
has not been found by any since its discovery at Appin by 
Captain Carmichael, till it was got in considerable abundance 
by D. Landsborough, junr., in September, 1848, at low water- 
mark, in a creek formed by trap-dykes in the parish of Ar- 
drossan. Hoping it was the L. splendida I sent it to Dr. 
Greville, and was gratified by his pronouncing it that rare 
plant. The fans were spread out, in many cases, so as to 
form more than a semicircle, the rays numbering ten to 
twenty-six. Each ray or frustule was wedge-shaped and a 
little denticulated at the top ; the upper part was amber- 
coloured, and each ray had a lighter-coloured dot in the 
middle of this portion. These bright dots formed a crescent 
of sea gems. Under this amber- coloured portion there was a 
