416 
with ‘six different magnifying powers, and have 
begun a course of observations on the fructification 
of every species which has offered itself in fruit. 
Instead of the semple process of Gertner, I find 
nature more elaborate in her processes in proportion 
to the minuteness of the operation. In the larger 
Fuci (the £. vesiculosus, spiralis, nodosus, &c.) the 
mucus, as I called it, in which the seeds are lodged, 
appeared through high magnifiers to be a collection 
of pellucid tubes, in some places seemingly divided 
by septa. These tubes are curiously reticulated ; 
and each species seems to have the form of the net- 
work different. The seeds at first adhere to the 
inside of the fruit in orbicular masses, but after- 
wards are dispersed through the tubes. Though it 
is asserted by Velley, in / veszculosus and F. ca- 
naliculatus, that the seeds issue out of holes in the 
tubercles of the fruit, yet I have reason to think 
that is by no means general to all the species. In 
some there are tubercles permanent on the surface : 
in others the surface is smooth; and though the 
thinnest slice of the outside has been taken off with 
a fine instrument, yet no aperture has been discover- 
able. The air-bladders likewise in F. veszculosus 
and #. nodosus are by no means simple inflated ves- 
sels. Lightfoot calls them hairy within ; but they 
have a curious process: it consists of pellucid 
strings stretched across, swelling at intervals into 
oval beads; these strings are ramified, and dis- 
tended in various irregular directions. All this is 
discoverable by cutting out a slice from each side, 
and looking through the cavity. Whether this 
