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F U C U S purpurascefis.
P u r p l i s h K n o t t e d F u c u s .
CRYPTOGAMIA Alga.
G en. CffAR. Seeds produced in clustered tubercles,
which burst at their summits.
Spec. Ch a r . Frond thread-shaped, much branched:
ultimate divisions bristle-shaped, scattered. Tuber*
cles globose, turgid, imbedded.
Syn. Fucus purpurascens. Huds. 5 8 9 . Gooden, and
Woodiv. Tr. o f Linn. Soc. v. 3. 2 2 5 . Turn. Syn.
3 5 7 . With. v. 4. 113. Hull. 3 2 7 . Velley, t. 2 ./ . 2.
F. tuberculatus. Lightf. 9 2 6 .
F. teres albus tenuissime divisus. Ravi Syn 50.
W E are obliged to Mr. Turner for a Yarmouth specimen of
F.purpurascens, which indeed frequently occurs on various parts
of the English and Scottish coasts. Root perennial, of many
thick clasping fibres. Frond thread-shaped, consisting of a
simple stem bearing numerous compound.branches throughout
its whole length, as mentioned by Doody in Ray’s Synopsis
p. 51, under n. 52. All the general and partial branches are
of the same thread-shaped figure, tapering at each end; the
ultimate ones very slender and acute. About the middle of
many of the smaller branches, in their very substance, is produced
a tubercle of seeds, darker than the frond, and in process
of time swelling much beyond it in diameter. Sometimes
two of these tubercles grow one a little above the other in the
same branch. The general colour of the whole Fucus is reddish
or greenish, more or les3 pale, and sometimes almost
white.