F U C U S rotundus.
Hound-stalked Fucus.
CRYPTOGAMIA Algce.
Gen. Char. Seeds produced in clustered tubercles,
which burst at their summits.
Spec. Char. Frond thread-shaped, forked, branched;
its terminal branches pointed and level. Seeds in
lateral, shapeless, spongy, reddish warts.
Syn. Fucus rotundus. Turn. Syn. 309. Gmel. Fuci
110. t. 6 ./ . 3. With. v. 4. 110.
F. radiatus. Gooden, and Woodw. Tr. o f L. Soc. v. 3.
2 0 2 . Hull. 325.
COMMUNICATED from Southampton by Miss Biddulph
in November last. It is, according to Mr. Turner, not un-
frequently thrown up on the Yarmouth beach in the autumnal
and winter months.
The root is an expanded leathery disk, bearing a multitude
of fronds various in height, exactly cylindrical, repeatedly
forked, purplish brown, the ultimate branches acute and tolerably
level at their summits. The divarications of the
branches form perhaps less acute angles than those of F. lum-
Iricalis, t. 824, but are less rounded than in iulerculalus, t. 726.
The fructification of F. rotundus best distinguishes it, being
lodged in lateral shapeless spongy warts, of a pink or reddish
colour, consisting of pellucid, seemingly jointed, fibres, among
which are various globules of darker seeds.
F.fastigiatus of Linnaeus, a much smaller and slenderer plant,
is considered by the accurate Mr. Turner as a variety of this,
the proper state of the species being as we have described.
Perhaps nevertheless the Linnsean denomination had better have
been retained for our plant; for nothing can be much worse
than the name given by Gmelin, except the figure in his
book.