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F U C U S pedunculatus.
Pedunculated Fucus.
X(/G
C R Y P T O GA M I A AJga.
-Gen. Char. Seeds produced in cluttered tubercles,
which burft at their fummits.
Spec. Char. Stem thread-fhaped, fimply branched in
a pinnate manner. Branches capillary, fomewhat
two-ranked. Tubercles obovate, fcattered, on
Ample footftalks.
Syn.- Fucus pedunculatus. JJudf. 587. With. 4. 120.
Goodenough TVoodward in Linn. Tr, v. 3. 213.
F. Gærtnera. Gmel. Fuc. 164. t. 19.
SPECIMENS of this rare and elegant Fucus have been fent
us from the Yarmouth beach by Mr. D. Turner, along with a
drawing moft accurately taken by the hand of Mrs. Turner.
It is a fpecies hitherto little known. The defcription ofHudfon
is imperfeft, but there feems no doubt of its being his pedunculatus.
We think there can be as little uncertainty about
Gmelin’s fynonym, which the authors of the valuable paper in
the Linnaean Tranfa&ions hefitated to quote, having no original
fpecimens to compare with theirs.
It belongs to thatfubdiviAon of the genus whofe Items are round
or thread-fhaped, and is fimply branched, the branches being
by no means regularly alternate, nor uniformly diftant from
each other; but they neverthelefs fpread nearly in two ranks, and
are Ample, long and capillary, not all of an equal length. There
are no leaves. The branches are thickly fet with minute oblong
or obovate capfules, on Ample ftalks generally of their own
length, and thefe capfules are for the moft part crowned with
a fpread ing tuft of green Alaments, which are jointed. The
colour of the whole plant beAdes is a pale browmfh olive. No
one has yet afcertained whether thefe Alaments certainly belong
to the plant, or are a paraAtical Conferva. Their being jointed,
and not always prefent, favours the latter opinion. Or it is
poffible the plant may be viviparous, and the Alaments its off-
fpring budding out of the capfule; a fuppoAtion we fhould
readily adopt, were it not for the joints, which certainly are
not to be feen in the ftem or branches of the Fucus itfelf.