Siiidies ill /'rubhiiiatir OrganisiHS. 69 



Obs. — The absence of characters deduced from the fructi- 

 fication or of the internal structure in these fossils, renders 

 the characters of this group very vague ; however, the absence 

 of all vascular nerves and the continuity of the frond, are two 

 essential characters of the Algie that one finds in all the fossil 

 species that we here describe ; some of these present, it is 

 true, a middle nerve, but this nerve is large, thick, badly 

 defined, and never sends out regular secondary divisions. 



It is quite evident from his remarks that, while Brongniart 

 recognized the boundaries of the genus as vague and the 

 limitations of the species difficult to state, he had no hesita- 

 tion in placing it with the Algae ; and in many of his species 

 he was correct, as later investigations have shown. The 

 difficulty of the whole matter lies in the fact that authors, 

 delighted to have some place in which to place the innum- 

 erable forms they felt sure were not of animal origin, referred 

 them all to the vegetable kingdom and called them fucoids. 

 Hence, we find under the genus Fucoides an omnium 

 gatherum, which it has required the labors of many years to 

 sift. This one genus has contained in its time upward of 100 

 species and varieties. Virtually, it now contains none, 

 although, as we shall show later on, we believe at least one 

 should be placed there.. The species described by Brongniart, 

 in 1823, are as follows : 

 Fucoides orbignianus Fucoides gazolanus. 



strictus.''- lamourouxii. 



crispiformis. agardhianus. 



furcatus. pennatula. 



recurvus. elegans. 



difformis. discophorus. 



sequalis. turbinatus. 



var. flexilis. Algacites frumentarius, Schlotheim. 



intricatus. orobiformis, 



obtusus. filicoides, " 



flabellaris. granulatus, " 



One of the laws of nomenclature requires that the first 

 species of a genus proposed be taken as the type of that 



'•'Although placed second here, this was the form mentioned in 1822 as the type 

 of the genus. 



