F U C U S afparagoides,
Afparagus Fucus.
C R Y P T O G A M I A Alg<e.
Gen. Char. Seeds produced in cluttered tubercles
which burfl: at their ttimmits.
Spec. Char. Frond round, thread-like, much
branched. Ultimate branches briftle-fhaped, oppose*
Tubercles globular, on footftalks, folitary,
alternately oppofite to the little branches.
Syn. Fucus afparagoides. Woodw. Tr. of Linn.
Soc. v. 2 . 2 9 . t. 6, Gooden, and Woodw. <Tr. of
L . Soc. v. 3 . 2 1 4 . With. v. 4 . 1 1 7 .
U •*- O U N D on the beach at Yarmouth from June to November,
though feldom in abundance, bearing its fruit chiefly in
Auguft and September. Mr. Wigg firft difcovered it, and gave
it to Mr. Woodward, whofe defcription, with a figure, may bp
found in the Linn. Society’s 2d volume. The name not unaptly
exprefles the general form of the plant, which in foipe
meafure, though not precifely, recalls the idea of a miniature
garden Afparagus in fruit.
It grows about a fpan high, much and alternately branched,
the Item and branches being all {lender and round. The ultimate
ramifications only are oppofite, thickly fet, and almoft
pedtinate, awl-fhaped, acute, fcarcely a quarter of an inch long,
and often Ihorter 5 indeed each of the longeft is generally op-
poled by a much {horter one. The fru&ifications, in the form
of a fmall red ball, grow on footftalks, -alternate to each other,
or irregularly fcattered, but each of them conftantly oppofite to
one of the awl-{haped branches. The colour, when frefh, is a
beautiful deep transparent crimfon. Mr. Turner, who communicated
our fpecimen, confiders this Fucus as an annual.
Mr. Woodward has found it actually growing upon ftones and
pebbles on the coaft at Cromer, fince his firft account of it
wag publifhed.