Z S'C [ 15 74 ]
FUCUS articulatus.
Jointed Fucus.
CRYPTOGAMIA 'Alga.
Gen. Char. Seeds produced in clustered tubercles,
which burst at their summits.
Spec. Char. Frond tubular, regularly contracted
at intervals as if jointed, much branched: joints
elliptical: branches forked and whorled.
Svn. Fucus articulatus. L ig h tf 959. Gooden, and
Woodw. Tr. o f Linn. Soc. v. 3. 217. Turn. Syn.
383. Stack. Ner. 28. t. 8 . With. v. 4. 90. Hull.
326.
Ulva articulata. Huds. 569.
Corallina lenta purpurea compressa. Raii Syn. 34.
G a t h e r e d in full fructification in the summer, at Lame,
in Ireland, by Mr. Drummond. Mr. Turner, in whose account
of this species we can find nothing to correct or improve,
mentions it as not uncommon on most parts of the British
coast, particularly the southern and western counties.
The root is creeping. Fronds in large tufts, very much
branched, sometimes whorled, of a red or purple hue, transparent,
tubular, cylindrical, regularly contracted at intervals
into elliptical apparent joints, but these are destitute (as Mr.
Turner asserts) of septa or partitions, in which they totally
differ from the articulations of a Conferva. Tubercles small,
prominent, solitary on the sides of some of the joints, each
filled with a mass of red seeds, which when ripe are sprinkled
over the adjoining part of the branch; and hence Mr. Hudson,
seeing the plant in that state, referred it to Ulva.