134 ^^' Turner's Defcripttons of 



dertaken the defcription and determination of it. The fate of this" 

 elegant Fucus has been peculiarly unfortunate, and the endeavour- 

 ing to point out its fpecific charader is attended with fingular 

 difficulties ; all authors upon the fubjedt, with the exception of Mr. 

 Lightfoot, to whom I prefume it was not known when he wrote his 

 Flora, having confidered it only as a varying appearance of F. kalt- 

 formls^ and purpofely drawn up their defcription of that plant fo as 

 to include this fpecies : a circumftance far from furprifmg, as they 

 are gathered upon different ihores, fo that few botanifts well ac- 

 quainted with the one are likely to have feen the other in its place 

 of growth: the Fucus kaliformis being principally, if not entirely, 

 confined to the weftern fhores of Great Britain, where I have no 

 reafon to believe that F. ciavellofus, a native of the coaft from Nor- 

 folk to Northumberland, ever makes its appearance. As, during 

 the months of fummer, this latter is far from uncommon upon 

 the Yarmouth beach, I have had an opportunity of watching it for 

 feveral years, in the courfe of which I never, at any period of its 

 growth, remarked a tendency to aflume the appearance of the 

 former; but being acquainted with that fpecies only from having 

 feen a few dried fpecimens, I referved my opinion till my tour into 

 Cornwall in the fummer of 1799 gave me an opportunity of ex- 

 amining it plentifully in a recent ftate, and fatisfying myfelf that 

 the plants are even more diftin(?b when freili than when expanded 

 upon paper, and preferved in herbaria. The points of difference 

 are of a nature to be far more eafily underftood by a comparifon of 

 fpecimens, than by any language it will be in my power to employ ; 

 the moft ftriking of them depending upon the general habit, upon 

 the greater fize of F. kaliformis, and upon its branches, particularly 

 the extreme ones, being verticillated, and at intervals fo contra6led 

 as to give the whole plant a jointed appearance, very nearly re- 

 iembling F. arikulatus^ from which in fome battered fpecimens I 

 ^ have 



