no Dr. Goodenough and Mr. Woodward'; Obfervations on 



opinion concerning the fructification of certain of the Fuci, enter- 

 tained ideas of the generation of thefe plants nearly correfponding 

 with thofe of Morifon : but, aided by the better afhftance of good 

 glafTes, they more accurately obierved the tubercles ; and Reaumur 

 diflected thefe tubercles, and found them to be capful es replete with 

 minute feeds. 



Reaumur was the author who fir ft: afferted that the Algfy or at 

 leall: a part of them, were monoecious ; for, observing the furface of 

 ibme of thefe plants very minutely, he remarked, in the Facus 

 ferratus more particularly, and in a few others, little clutters of fila- 

 ments, extremely tender and ihort, in the little dots which are ap- 

 parent on each fide of the nerve which runs through all the branches. 

 Unable to account for fuch an appearance, and winning to eftablith 

 his favourite hypothecs, at the expence of numberlefs perplexities 

 and contradictions, to which he could oppofe little better than 

 furmifes and imaginations, he pronounced them to be male flowers. 

 Gmelin very properly takes up the argument againft him ; and, 

 fhewing how very few plants exhibited thefe filaments, and then 

 arguing from their total defect of aniherce (absolutely neceflary 

 were analogy to be reforted to), and their diftance in all, except in 

 Fucus elongatus (our ioreus), from the female flowers (though it mu ft 

 be allowed that this argument is very far from a good one), he 

 ridicules the whole idea — at the fame time fugge fling another full 

 as improbable, if not more fo, that thefe minute threads are organs 

 of nutrition. All thefe ideas mult, however, be left to the develop- 

 ment of future naturalifts. The advantage to be derived from Reau- 

 mur (for we would preclude no future inveftigation even on the fame 

 ground) is, that he defcribed .exactly what he faw, and delineated 

 the parts of which he fpoke, with confummate accuracy. We 

 have the fact Mated exactly ; the argument to be drawn from it; 



depends 



