S6 Dr. Goodenough and Mr. Woodward'^ Obfervations on 



fays, FruEfijicaUo, P roles frondium decidua *. In his divifion penicilliferi y 

 of which Ga'ertnera^ Mr. Hudfon's pedunculitis as we fuppofe, {lands 

 as the pattern and authority, he makes the growth of a little green 

 Conferva upon the tubercles to be the defcription of the divifion : we 

 have feen fpecimens quite free from it. Obfervations of the fame 

 fort might be made upon the others ; but one thing alone precludes 

 all acceptation of his method ; which is, that he admits plants into 

 thefe very nice difcriminations of divifion eftablifhed by the fructifi- 

 cation, of whofe fructification he profeffes himfelf entirely ignorant. 

 Laftly, he has not given any fpecific characters ; which makes the 

 investigation extremely laborious. 



His descriptions in general are very faithfully attended to, but 

 his fynonyms are feldom to be depended upon. He was not allured 

 even of the Linnsean fpecies, as may be proved, among many other 

 inftances, from his miftaking F. ceranoides. It is a work however 

 of great merit, and absolutely neceffary to every one who 

 would wifh to ftudy the fubject . We truft our marking thefe de- 



* Gmelin, obferving in fome of our plants of the divifion Fronde pland avetiid, a pro- 

 liferous tendency, and taking it for granted, that thofe plants produced no feeds becnufe 

 he had obferved none, but that the fole mode of propagation c'onfifled in thefe rudi- 

 ments of plants falling off, attaching themfelves to other bodies, and thus becoming new 

 plants, becaufe he had feen a probability of this procefs in fome ; at once rafhly adopted 

 Adanfon's unphilofophical idea, that fome plants- were unifexual, that is, produced 

 flowers of one fex (female) only (fuch are all the Fuci which bear tubercles}-, and that 

 the others were afexual, that is, were merely proliferous, and had no flowers at all of either 

 fex : — ideas and terms, though followed by the great names of Gmelin and Gae'rtner, 

 yet in our judgment quite unworthy of any thing that deferves the name of philofophy. 



Since writing our preface, we have feen Major Velley's elegant and ingenious publi- 

 cation en marine plants ; where, among a variety of curious obfervations, he very pro- 

 perly expofes the futility of Gaertner's remarks upon the fructification of Lcnferva j an 

 idea whkh we hope to be able to purfue when we treat of that genus. 



5 fe&s 



