the Brii'i/J} Fuci, tuith particular Defer Iptions of each Specks. 95 



imperceptible to our fight, and that thefe pores may be common to 

 the root with the reft of the plant, and thus the divine will may be 

 accompliihed. 



AH Fuci appear to proceed from a thin, round, entire or fifTile, glu- 

 tinous, coriaceous fubftance — This will appear to any one who will 

 watch the growth of F. loreus. In fome few this fubftance is fifTile, 

 and imitates the fibres of land plants: but each fibre attaches itfelf 

 by its extremity, which immediately becomes a flat di(k, to fome 

 rock, and, if the rock be fmooth, longitudinally alfo. This mode of 

 growth contributes greatly to ftrengthen Morifon's opinion before 

 mentioned — not that he thinks nourifhment is performed by this 

 adhefion, for his words immediately following thofe before quoted 

 are—* But the plant, being formed from it, takes aliment to itfelf by 



* means of little fibres {fibrllla;, i. e. branches) being put forth, by 



* which aliment being continually nourilhed, it acquires its juft 



* magnitude ; and there can fcarcely be a doubt but that, together 

 ' with its complete age and growth, it muft receive a power of gene- 



* rating another plant fimilar to itfelf. For fince little tender Fuciy 



* and as it were newly budding forth, are cafl up upon the fhore, 



< which are faftened to fliells and little ftones, and at the ebb of the 



* tide fimilar ones are to be {cen. affixed to hard rocks j it is far 



* more likely that they are produced by this means, than that they 



* fliould fpring up out of thofe more folid bodies to which they 



< adhere.' 



Gmelin's idea of the root does not in this one inftance accord 

 with fadl. He fays, that thofe of our divifion Fronde plana avenia, 

 which are thin and papyraceous, have never fhewn any appearance 

 of root. Never was there a more palpable miftake. The root in all 

 of them is a flat dilated difk, more or lefs in proportion to the fize 

 and fubftance of the plant. One of our thinneft and moft tender 



prcK 



