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F U C U S tomentofus.
D o w n y F u c u s .
CR Y P TOGAMI A Alga.
Gen. Char. Seeds produced in cindered tubercles,
which burft at their fummits.
Spec. Char. Frond roundith, much branched, downy,
green ; the_ branches dichotomous ; the points and
angles obtule.
Syn. F ucus tomentofus. Hudf. 584. With. v. 4.
107. Hull. 324. Gooden. £5? Woodw. in Linn.
Tranf. v. 3. 195.
Spongia dichotomos teretifolia viridis. Rail Syn. 29.
S. dichotomos comprefla, ex viridi fplendens. Dill, in
Rail Syn. 29.
T H I S fpecies feems confined to the fouth-wefi: angle of our
ifland. Mr. D. Turner and Mr. Sowerby colle&ed it in King’s
Cove near Marazion, Cornwall, in June lath SirT. Frank-
land has fince favoured us with fpecimens from Exmouth.
It grows on rocks and ftones under the fait water, and is in
fome refpefts one of the moll curious of the family to which
it belongs.
The expanded bafe of the Item fixes it to the rocks. The
whole frond is much branched, forked, roundifh, but more or
lefs comprefled, of a full green colour, hollow, remarkable for
being all over clothed with fhort fine velvet-like down, a rare
circumftance in aquatic vegetables. This covering indicates
fome affinity to the Ulva decorticata defcribed by Mr. Woodward
in the 3d vol. of the Linnaaan Society’s Tranfac-
tions, p. 33, with which alfo the colour and habit of our F. tomentofus
much accord; and as no fructification to prove it a
Fucus has yet been feen, it mull ftill remain in doubt between
thofe two genera.