QO Dr. GOODENOUGH (tnd Mr. WoodwardV Ohfervations on 



opinion concerning the fruiSlification of certain of the Fuci, enter- 

 tained ideas of the generation of thefe plants nearly correfponding 

 with thofe of Morifon : but, aided by the better affiftancc of good 

 glaffes, they more accurately obferved the tubercles ; and Reaumur 

 diirefted thefc tubercles, and found them to be capfules replete with 



minute feeds. 



Reaumur was the author who firft aflerted that the ^/^^, or at 

 leaft a part of them, were monoecious ; for, obfcrving the furface of 

 fome of thefe plants very minutely, he remarked, in the Fucus 

 ferratus more particularly, and in a few others, little clufters of fila- 

 ments, extremely tender and ihort, in the little dots which are ap- 

 parent on each fide of the nerve which runsthrough all the branches. 

 Unable to account for fuch an appearance, and wilhing to eftablifh 

 his favourite hypothefis, at the expence of numberlefs perplexities 

 and contradidlions, to which he could oppofc little better than 

 furmlfes and imaginations, he pronounced them to be male flowers. 

 Gmelin very properly takes up the argument againft him ; and 

 fhewing how very few plants exhibited thefe filaments, and then 

 aro-uin"- from their total defe6l of antherce (abfolutely necefiary 

 were analogy to be reforted to), and their diftance in all, except in 

 Fucus ehngatus (our loreus), from the female flowers (though it mud 

 be allowed that this argument is very far from a good one), he 

 ridicules the whole idea — at the fame time fuggefting another full 

 as improbable, if not more fo, that thefe minute threads are organs 

 of nutrition. All thefe ideas mufl;, however, be left to the develop- 

 ment of future naturalifts. The advantage to be derived from Reau- 

 mur (for we would preclude no future invefl:igation even on the fame 

 ground) is, that he defcribed exaflly what he faw, and delineated 

 the parts of which he fpoke, with confummate accuracy. We 

 have the fa£t ftated exa6lly ; the argument to be drawn from it, 



depends 



