154 .. Col. VeLLEY's Remarks on the Nature 
taken to preferve a ftri& connection, and uniform correfpondence, 
between the parts defcribed, and the definitions by which the theory 
-iş fupported. Gertner, in his remarks upon fome of the Fuch find- 
ing that their fecundation was effected by an internal procefs, main- 
tains likewife, that the part containing the feeds is alfo endued with 
the faculty of impregnation. But this author gives an unphilofo- 
phical and a fanciful caft to his hypothefis, in adopting an unifexual 
diftin&ion, when he fuppofes that the female organ impregnates it- 
felf, or rather, the ovula which it contains——* quod ipfe uterus 
fua foe indet ovula, et quod ille ipfe officia genitalium utriufque 
| fexüs, prattet folus.” —— Upon examining the mucilaginous vefi- 
cles (or, ftri&tly fpeaking, the diftended fummits) in which the feeds 
are placed, and confidered alfo by Mr. Correa de Serra as the anthe- 
re, it will appear that the feeds are very feldom fixed in a loofe 
and naked ftate, but contained in minute hard coriaceous tubercles, 
on all fides impervious*, and moft firmly attachéd to the interior 
P ds. 
furface of the fummit, in the veficular Fuci; and that in thefé 
tenacious tubercles the feeds may frequently be difcovered long 
before the folid cellular mafs becomes changed into a mucilaginous 
fub{tance. Again, in feveral fpecies, the central fubftance, in which 
the feeds or pericarps are placed, always remains in an invariably - 
folid ftate, and is never converted into mucilage. This is decidedly 
thé cafe in the Fucus ferratus +, and never found it otherwife in the 
| Fucus nodofus and fome others; and yet the feeds of both thofe plants 
are produced in the fame manner as in the Fucus veficulofus. From 
thefe fa&s there is great realon to conclude, that the mucus, which - 
. is found at certain feafons in feveral of the Fuc:, is not effentially - 
neceffary to their impregnation. And as it fcems to abound moft in 
* See the horizontal fe&ion of one of the fummits of Fucus veficulofus, in which the 
tubercles or pericarps are reprefented. Pell. Marine Plants, plate 1. 3 
T 4 See an horizontal fe&ion of this Fusus magnified, Marine Plants, plate 1. 
e i e the 
