XV. Remarks on ibe Nature and UE of marine Plants. 
ear A DM = uen Vel. 2» F. L. S. 
T ade | Reid Moy 7, 1799. 
AVING, in à former iiy into the-mode of propagation pe- 
culiar to marine plants, attempted to point out fome material 
errors, which accompanied the theories of Gmelin and Gertner, by 
proving, that the membranaceous'Fuci, which the former confidered. 
as merely ‘proliferous, ‘derived their origin from a@ual feeds; and 
that the numerous tribe of Gonferve, which Gertner, upon a very 
flight and fuperficial examination, has dogmatically declared’ to be 
deftitute of feminal increafe, were beyond-a doubt dependent upon: 
ieral law of Nature, for their propagation, as the Fucus: 
now lay are this Society fome further obfervations upon 
the fubject, arifing principally from an examination of the recent 
theories that have very lately made their appearance in the world. 
It may not however be foreign to the purpofe, to inveftigate the de- 
finition of the generic character prefixed by Linnzus to the Fucus, 
and which does not appear to be clearly ftated. P 
In the Genera Plantarum he defines the fuppofed male flower as. 
` follows :.* Veficule glabre, cave, pilis intus afperfe ;” rendered: by 
the Lichfield Society, “ Veficles fmooth, hollow, {prinkled - with: 
hairs within;" and in the Nereis Britan. * Bladders fmooth 5 hol- 
low, interfperfed within with foft hairs."  Linnxus, boni. cau- 
tioufly introduces this definition upon the authority: of Reaumur ; 
39V OL. V. U : he 
