M £ [ io 53 ]
FUCUS rubens.
Red proliferous Fucus.
CRYPTO G AMI A Alga.
Gen. Char. Seeds produced in cluttered tubercles,
which burfl: at their fummits.
Spec. Char. Frond rather membranous, forked ;
its branches proliferous, the ultimate ones dilated
and cloven, with fharpifh points.
Syn. Fucus rubens. Linn. Sp. PL 1630. Gooden,
and IVoodw. Tr. of Linn. Soc. v. 3. 165. Hull. 321.
F. crifpus. Hudf. 580.
F . prolifer. Lightf. 949. t. 30. With. v. 4. 105.
F. membranaceus purpureus, varié ramofus. Dill,
in Raii Syn. 47.
IV I r . D. TURNER favoured us with this fpecimen from
Yarmouth beach. The plant is not uncommon on the Britith
coafts, and has long been known by the name of crifpus in
England, and of prolifer by thofe more verfed in the Flora
Scotica. The herbarium of Linnæus has at length proved it
to be his rubens, a name we are therefore obliged to retain,
though that of Lightfoot muft be acknowledged the beft, and his
defcription and figure deferve no lefs commendation.
The frond is uniformly red, membranous or fomewhat
cartilaginous and tough, branched at the bafe, remarkably and
repeatedly proliferous upward, the branches or joints fpringing
(as Lightfoot well obferves) from the furface, not from the
edge or point, of the preceding ones ; the branches are rather
elliptical than linear, entire at their edges; the ultimate
ones forked or palmate, ending more or lefs acutely. Old
fronds are mentioned in the Linnæan Tranfadtions as having
fometimes a rib or nerve. Clutters of apparent fructification
are fcattered over the frond, from which innumerable young
plants fprout forth, but whether from feeds or buds no one
has ÿet clearly determined.