96 Dr. GooDENOUGH and Mr. Woodward'j Obfervat'tom on 



produ£lions, F. laceratus van laciniatus., has not only this kind of root, 

 but Ibraetimes for the fpace of two or three hnes, has a roundifh 

 ftalk before it is diflTolved into its thin laminas or branches. 



The root is either purely fibrous as in Saccharinus^ or between folid 

 and fibrous as in Serratus^ where a tendency to fibrous divifion is 

 obfervable; but the fibres, which are fomewhat prominent upon 

 the furface, are webbed as it were, or connedled by a thick mem- 

 brane or the intervening part of the difk: or laflly, which is by far 

 the mod numerous, an entire folid difk. There are different modi- 

 fications of this lafl fort of root. Sometimes, as in Siliquofus, it be- 

 comes in its more advanced age a folid woody cone — fometimes a 

 plant having fprung from this difk, conflantly throws out from its 

 very bafe clufters of little furculi, which accidentally touching the 

 rock form a callus, by which as by a new difk it adheres, and 

 thence becomes the parent of a new plant. Its original, from a 

 fmall difk, is thus fo covered over and obfcured, that it is not to be 

 difcerned. This takes place particularly in F. purpitrafcens^ which 

 hence is generally defcribed with a fibrous root. From this furcu- 

 lofity at the bafe, and the furculi occafionally forming new difks 

 and new plants, fome Fuci appear to have creeping roots. Mr. 

 Lightfoot defcribes hisF. repens,frondibus cafpilojis repentibus. The Fuci 

 in the divldon Frofidep/and avcnid, when they attach themfelves (as is 

 no uncommon cafe) to other Fuci, envelop the whole branch, the 

 thin papyraceous branches adhering wherefoever they touch. 



The F. naians is defcribed by Linnseus, libere natam nee radicatus. 

 Thefe words mu ft be under flood to rcita.n float lr,g at large, and not 

 fajlened by any root. He never could mean, having no root ; for his 

 own fpecimen in the herbarium has one, which is a difcus explanalus, 

 and appears to have a very flight power of adhefion. It may be 

 prefumed that it is an inhabitant of the deep waters, beyond the 



reach 



