the BritiJI) Fuci y iv lib particular Defer ipt 'ions of each Species. 95 



imperceptible to our fight, and that thefe pores may be common to 

 the root with the reft of the plant, and thus the divine will may be 

 accomplilhed. 



All Fuci appear to proceed from a thin, round, entire or fiffilcy glu- 

 tinous, coriaceous fubftance— This will appear to any one who will 

 watch the grow r th of F. hreus. In fomc few this fubftance is fiftile, 

 and imitates the fibres of land plants: but each fibre attaches itfelf 

 by its extremity, which immediately becomes a flat difk, to fome 

 rock, and, if the rock befmooth, longitudinally alfo. This mode of 

 growth contributes greatly to ftrength en Moriibr.'s opinion before 

 mentioned — not that he thinks nourilhmcnt is performed by this 

 adhefion, for his words immediately following thofe before quoted 

 are — ' But the plant, being formed from it, takes aliment to itfelf by 

 6 means of little fibres {fibrillar, i.e. branches) being put forth, by 

 ' which aliment being continually nourithed, it acquires its juft 

 ' magnitude; and there can fcarcely be a doubt but that, together 

 ' with its complete age and growth, it muft receive a power of gene- 



* rating another plant fimilar to itfelf. For fince little tender Fuci, 

 6 and as it were newly budding forth, are caft up upon the fhore, 



* which are faftened to fhelis and little (tones, and at the ebb of the 



* tide fimilar ones are to be feen affixed to hard rocks ; it is far 

 ' more likely that they are produced by this means, than that they 

 4 mould fpring up out of thofe more folid bodies to which they 

 ' adhere.' 



Gmelin's idea of the root does not in this one inftance accord 

 with fact. He fays, that thofe of our divifion Fronde plana avenia^ 

 which are thin and papyraceous, have never (hewn any appearance 

 of root. Never was there a more palpable miftake. The root in all 

 of them is a flat dilated difk, more or lefs in proportion to the fize 

 and fubftance of the plant, One of our thinneft and mod tender 



pre* 



