i f 3 [ 1686 ]
FCJCUS fruticulosus.
Little Shrubby Fucus.
CRYPTOGAMIA Algce.
Gen. Char. Seeds produced in clustered tubercles,
which burst at their summits.
Spec. Char. Frond capillary, brown, bushy, obscurely
jointed, alternately and repeatedly branched; the
ultimate divisions acute. Tubercles lateral, sessile,
roundish.
Syn. Fucus fruticulosus. Wulf. in Jcicq. Coll. v. 3
159. t. 16. ƒ 1. Turn. Syn. 394.
Conferva nigra. Huds. 5 9 5 ? With. v. 4. 1 3 1 ?
Hull. 331 ?
GATHERED on the Cornish coast by Mr. Turner and Mr.
Sowerby. Our specimen was communicated by Mr. Woodward.
It is said to grow on the stems of the larger Fuel, and
to be annual. Mr. Turner is the only British author who has
described this species, except the above synonym of Hudson
and his copiers be right, for which we have no further authority
than the agreement of his short description with our
plant, which in such cases is scarcely satisfactory without a
comparison of specimens.
From one callous root arise many bushy fronds about 3
inches high, capillary, cylindrical, or slightly compressed, of
a dark brown, alternately and repeatedly pinnate, transversely
corrugated as if obscurely jointed ; the ultimate segments awl-
shaped, divaricated/ acute, often tipped, as in our specimen,
with tufts of pale woolly fibres, observed by Mr. Turner on
some other species. See the Introduction to his Synopsis,
p. 18. The seeds are lodged in roundish, sessile, lateral
tubercles, coloured like the frond, and situated about the,
upper branches.