AN INQUIRY INTO THE PROPAGATION
OF SEA PLANTS.
I t is an obje£i o f regret that the marine plants, ail o f which are well deferving our notice, either
for the beauty or fingularity o f their ftruflure, ihould have been lefs attended to, than the other
branches of that extenfive clafs, under which Linneus has arranged all thofe vegetable produ6Hons,
which originate from latent fources of propagation.'
If we except the hiilory o f the fucufes written by Gmelin, who with much ingenuity and experimental
knowledge, has endeavoured to elucidate the myfterious principle by whicLtheir propagation
is effefted ; and the general obfervations of Gtertner on this head, with refpeft to the cryptogamous
clafs; it may be difficult to point out the work from whence any material information is to be derived,
refpefling the CEconomy o f Nature, in the origin and mode of increafe peculiar to this numerous
branch o f the algas. For while we have caufe to lament that the remarks which cafually occur upon
this particular fubjefl; in the celebrated work o f Bailer, are fo very few, and confined only to two
or three fpecies ; we may find as little reafon to be fatisfied with the ingenious, but fpeculative and un.
iounded theory, which Reaumur has given us in the A c t a G a l l i c a , upon the florefcence o f the
fucus.
It mull be allowed that the defcriptions, which we fometimes meet with in various botanical works,
with refpeft to the fruaification o f the marine plants, appear rather to be founded on the analogy *
fuppofed to exia between vegetables in general, than on any aaual obfervations refultingfrom a feries
o f experimental difcoveries. T o this it may be added that much information cannot reafonablv be
expeBed from the curfory remarks o f thofe, who pay Ihort and cafual vifits to the fea-lhore: when
the want o f feafonable opportunities to attend repeatedly to the gradual changes which thefe plants
may undergo, muft render doubtful the obfervations, and oftentimes fruftrate the attempts o f the
moil ingenious inveiligators.
1 The illQilraiions, which had been firft thrown upon the numerous tribe of MoITes and Lichens, by the incomparable work of Dillenius were
t. CeM difco,.™. of Hodwig. Tl.ofo boon Ml.wod by .ho .ooo,™ oofe.oohos of o„, ¡„d.tyb.o
eou„.wma„ D.okfo., »bid, b..c g„„l, oooiribmcd lo difTofo a gone»l tnowledgo of ,ho obovo p.,oi.._TI,= Licben,, Sphiri.a, &c. ha.o booo
oaplorod by Hoff«o„_Tho B.i.ilb »i.b thoi, t,„aifica.io„., by Bolion.-The variable „ibo of r.agufo. have f„,„in,=d •„ .„p,o Bold fo.
the mveihgaiine talents of Batfch, Bolton, Schteffer, Builliard, &c.
The works of all thcfo authors abound with highly-finiihcd and charaileriftic figures delineated from Nature.
2 This opinion fecms to have been adopted by Wulfen, in his defcription of the Fucus corniculatus, which w
A of Jacquin. » Vcficulasvcras fotmineas hoc in fuco baud dctcxi : mafcula ci
1 in the COLLECTAa
contra tubercula hemifphxroidica, apice poro imprefib umbilicaia,
n foliorum lateribus...............f«o oecurrcrc folcnt tempore.” Colica. Vol. i. p. 359.
SecalfoF.concatenatus, and F. fclaginoides, in’thc fame Vol. p. 355-358.
Wc likewifc find fomc of the confervas arranged under the dicccious clafs. For inftance. Co
990-996.) And in the fame work, the C. nodulofa is referred, though not decidedly, to the
B
polymorpha—C. plumofa. (FI. Scot.
clafs.