four fiew Species of Fucus. i ji 



_ minis rapce, verrucofa, pallide rubentia, feminibiis replctp., utrique 

 frondis paginal infidentia. Subftantla coriacea. Color e fufco 

 faturate fanguineus, fugacifTimus, et in fordido-flavefcentem tranl- 

 lens. r r; , 



Var. /3. fubflantla tenuiore, marline integro, apicibus plerumque ob- 

 tufifllmis. 



in fele(Sling for defcription this Portugucfe Fucus, in preference 

 to many more beautiful as well as more rare fpecies, which my 

 friends have been fo obliging as to procure for me from foreign 

 fhores, I am adluated principally by the hope that it may thereby be 

 hi my power to throw fome light upon the botany of my own 

 country ; what I confider a variety of this having been found abun- 

 dantly at Dover by my friend Mr. L. W. Dillwyn, and by him 

 obligingly communicated to me in the courfe of the laft autumn. 

 When this plant becomes more generally known and underftood, it 

 may probably admit of well-founded difcuflion how far what I have 

 now made a variety may not in reality be a diftinft fpecies; and I 

 have little doubt but almoft every botanifl-, who has only an oppor- 

 tunity of examining them in a dry ftate, will immediately decide in 

 favour of the latter opinion. For my own part, I can only fay that 



.1 have had many fpecimensof each under my obfervation, and that, 

 after having frequently examined and compared them as attentively 



'ks was in. my power, I could find no permanent difference between 

 them ; though the Englilh plant is ftrikingly diffimilar at firfl: fight, 

 in having the edges of the frond far more entire, the ends generally 



'blunt and frequently emarginate, but neither of thefe are conftant, 

 and the angles of the forks much lefs acute. The final determina- 

 tion of this point muft be referved for future inveftigation: it is fuf- 

 ficient for my purpofe here to fhow how this fpecies differs from its 

 congeners. Fucus cremlatus was brought me in fuch quantity 



S 2 frora 



