a 2445 ]
F U C U S aculeatus.
Prickly Fucus.
CRYPTOGAMIA Algce.
Gen. Char. Seeds produced in clustered tubercles,
which burst at their summits.
Spec. Char. Frond cartilaginous, thread-shaped,
much branched; branches linear, compressed,
bordered with scattered, awlshaped, upright teeth.
Syn. Fucus aculeatus. Linn. Sp. PL 1632. Huds.
585. With. v. 4. 113. Hidl. 3 2 3 . Gooden. 8$
Woodw. Tr. o f Linn. Soc. v. 3 . 179. Turn. Syn.
262. Hist. Fucor. v. 3. 122. t. 187. Stackh. JVer.
24. t. 8. Lightf. 924.
F. muscoides. Linn. Sp. PI. 1630 ? Huds. 590 ?
Gmel. 130. t. 12.
F. angustifolius, foliis dentatis. Rati Syn. 48.
N o t unfrequent on the coasts of Britain. The root is a
small, callous, perennial disk. Stalk of the frond round, subdivided
and cartilaginous; upper part repeatedly and alternately
branched, compressed, olive-coloured; the branches
linear, very narrow, flat, tapering at the base and summit;
their edges fringed with scattered, awlshaped, slightly spreading,
soft teeth dr bristles. Mr. Turner quotes Mrs. Griffiths
and Miss Hutchins, whose discoveries we have so often mentioned,
as having, detected, in an early state of this plant’s
growth, little tufts of fine, jointed, compound filaments, resembling
a minute Conferva, which falling off are succeeded by
the above-mentioned teeth; the latter perhaps being the elongated
bases, or stalks, of such tufts. Various appearances
have been mentioned by different botanists as the fruit of this
species, but none ascertained to be so. What the F. muscoides
of Linnaeus really was, we find no original specimen to determine.