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FUCUS bulbosus.'
G r e a t Furbelowed Fucus.
CRYPTOGAMIA Alga.
Gen. Char. Seeds produced in clustered tubercles,
which burst at their summits.
Spec. Char. Frond palmate, ribless ; its segments
sword-shaped. Staik flat, with a dilated, folded,
undulated border, lodging the fructification.
Syn. Fucus bulbosus. Huds. ,579. Gooden, and Woodw.
Tr. o f L. Soc. v. 3. 153. Turn. Syn. 212. Hull. 320.
F. polyschides. Lighlf. 9 3 6 . With. y. 4 . 97. Stackh.
Ner. 6. t. 4 .
F. palmatus. Gmel. Fuel, 202. t. 30.
S e n t from Scotland by Mr. Brodie, along with F. esculen-
tus, and the same highly interesting discovery of the fructification
has been made by Mr. J. D. Sowerby, in this species as
in that.
This is the largest of the British Fuel, being sometimes as
much as a man can carry. It is found on the western coasts
of England,- as well as on the southern ones. The root
consists of innumerable thick fibres, soon assuming a bulbous
form at their common origin, whence arises one, two or
three broad flat stalks, singularly bordered in the lower part,
at each edge, with a folded undulated expansion, above which
the stalk becomes simple and linear, dividing afterwards into
numerous, oblong or swordshaped, acute, entire segments,
occasionally subdivided, always destitute of ribs or veins,
very smooth, even so as to appear varnished, according to
Mr. Turner, and of a leathery texture. The colour is a dark
olive brown, more reddish about the stalk and its furbelows.
On both sides of the latter the fructification, hitherto unobserved,
is lodged in prominent patches, within whose substance,
but quite distinct from the frond, the tubercles of
seeds are ranged vertically, as in F. esculentus.