238 Dr. Goodenough and Mr. WoodwardV ObfervaUons on 



lis — 3-pedalis — Color lutefcens- f. ex flavefcenti olivaceus j poft ex- 

 iiccationem niger. 



Obf. Folia omnia alterna, ante fructificationem longa funt, et in 

 ramos ftatim abeunt — Foliola tandem breviffima, fubulata, bafi tu- 

 mida et tuberculofa — Veficulae, utut fefe frondes quoad aetatem ha- 

 beant, fortuito ad funt, ant, fi fors tulerit, ut in $ defunt — In utroque 

 cafu nihil fructificationis intereft. 



We have reafon to think that there has been much confufion 

 made by different authors with refpect to this plant. In the firft. 

 place, the figure of Morifon is given with a fibrous root, with 

 which we may venture to affert this plant was never feen. In 

 other refpects it is very good. 



In the next place, Gmelin appears to have feen this plant only in 

 the two extreme ft ages of its growth : in its younger, when the 

 upper leaves are all entire and fetaceous, as he charade rifes it un- 

 der the name F. abrotanoides ; and in its oldeft, when the finer leaves 

 are all either for the mofl part broken off, or changed into 

 branches ; when alfo the veficles are confiderably enlarged. Not 

 having iecn the intermediate gradation of its progrefs, we cannot 

 wonder that he deemed his F. baccatus a diftindt fpecies. We 

 would hold out this inftance, among many others we could name, 

 as a warning to naturalifts how they defcribe from fingle fpeci- 

 mens : they cannot be aware, and that more particularly in marine 

 plants, of their true character from fuch a flight acquaintance. 



Mr. Hudfon having found different fragments of this plant, and 

 concluding that they belonged to different fpecies, called it in its 

 finer and more delicate appearance fetaceus, in its more diffufe one 

 fbrofus. 



We found F. fbrofus growing in great plenty on the rocky fhore 



near 



