FUCUS punctatus.
Dotted Fucus.
CRYPTOGAMIA Alga.
Gen. Char. Seeds produced in clustered tubercles,
which burst at their summits.
Spec. Char. Frond membranous, palmate, dichotomous,
smooth: its segments obtuse. Fruit in
scattered oblong patches.
Syn. Fucus punctatus. With, v, 4. 405.
Ulva punctata. Stackh. Tr. o f Linn. Soc. v. 3. 236.
Hull. 313.
" W E have no hesitation in referring this beautiful sea-weed
to Fucus rather than Ulva. Our much respected friend Mr.
Stackhouse has candidly expressed his doubts on this point, or
we should be much more cautious of going counter to his
opinion. We have been more fortunate than that gentleman
in the freshness of our specimens, gathered on the coast at
Larne, Ireland, by Mr. Drummond, which show the true
colour to be a delicate pale pink, with dark red seeds, and
that the brown hue, when observable, arises from some degree
of decay.
The root is affixed to some other marine vegetable. Fronds
uniformly very thin and membranous, without rib or veins,
palmate; the segments repeatedly forked, linear and obtuse;
the margin growing waved with age. Seeds in elliptic-oblong,
rather prominent, tubercles, half immersed in the frond, and
scattered over all the broadest part 6f it.