C 57° 3
F U C U S nodofus.
Knobbed Fucus,
Ç R Y P T O G A M I A Alg*•
Gen. Char. Seeds produced in cluttered tubercles,
which burft at their fummits.
Spec. Char, Frond fomewhat forked, comprefTcd,
here and there inflated into oval bladders. Fructification
on obovate leaves.
S yn . Fucus nodofus. Linn. Sp. PI. 1628. Hudf. 584*
With. v. 4. 84. Gooden, and Woodw. Tr. of Linn.
Soc. v. 3. 190.
F. maritimus nodofus. R ail Syn. 48,
A VERY common Fucus upon all our coafts, generally
wafhed up by the tide plentifully in the mouths of great rivers.
Jt bears its.fructification in December.
The fronds are three or four feet long, flat, leathery, oliveT
coloured, forked, and when full grown are fwelled out, at the
diftance of every 2 or 3 inches, into a folitary elliptical bladder,
full of air, and occupied alfo by a few white flender cobweblike
filaments, formed merely of the central pulpy fubftance
of the plant. Numerous flattifh obovate pale-olive procefles
grow out of the edges of the frond, upon footftalks, in art
alternate order, which have been called leaves, not with exaCt
propriety, for they are deftined chiefly to produce the fructification,
with which they are thickly clothed on both fides.
The clufters of feeds, when cut acrofs, are of a full yellow or
orange colour.
This fpecies can be confounded with no other. The oval
bladders, which crack with a fharp report when trodden upon,
and the peculiar fituation of the fructification, both clearly
djftinguifh it,