96 Dr. Goodenough and Mr, Woodward'j Obfervations on 



productions, F. laceratus var. laciniatus^ has not only this kind of root, 

 but fometimes for the fpace of two or three lines, has a roundifh 

 ftalk before it is difTolved into its thin laminae or branches. 



The root is either purely fibrous as in Saccharinus, or between folid 

 and fibrous as in Scrratus, where a tendency to fibrous divifion is 

 obfervable; but the fibres, which are fomewhat prominent upon 

 the furface, are webbed as it were, or connected by a thick mem- 

 brane or the intervening part of the difk: or laftly, which is by far 

 the mod numerous, an entire folid difk. There are different modi- 

 fications of this laft fort of root. Sometimes, as in Siliqmfus, it be- 

 comes in its more advanced age a folid woody cone — fometimes a 

 plant having fprung from this difk, conftantly throws out from its 

 very bafe clufters of little furculi, which accidentally touching the 

 rock form a callus, by which as by a new difk it adheres, and 

 thence becomes the parent of a new plant. Its original, from a 

 fmalldifk, is thus fo covered over and obfeured, that it is not to be 

 difcerned. This takes place particularly in F. purpurafcens, which 

 hence is generally defcribed with a fibrous root. From this furcu- 

 lofity at the bafe, and the furculi occafionally forming new difks 

 and new plants, fome Fuci appear to have creeping roots. Mr. 

 Lightfoot defcribes hisF. repens,frondibus cajfpitofis repentibus. The Fuci 

 in the divifion Fronde plana avenid, when they attach themfelves (as is 

 no uncommon cafe) to other Fuci, envelop the whole branch, the 

 thin papyraceous branches adhering wherefoever they touch. 



The F. nutans is defcribed by Linnaeus, libere natans nee radicatus. 

 Thefe words muft be underftood to mean floating at large, and not 

 faflcned by any root. He never could mean, having no root; for his 

 own fpecimen in the herbarium has one, which is a difcus explanatus, 

 and appears to have a very flight power of adhefion. It may be 

 prefumed that it is an inhabitant of the deep waters, beyond the 



reach 



