CRYPTOGAMOUS PLANTS. 255 



husk by the pores of the surface. The oval bodies, 

 placed under the microscope, appear dotted, and this 

 results from their containing a great number of small 

 globules ; on observing a recent specimen under the mi- 

 croscope, I have several times seen these sporangia open 

 by one of their extremities, and there comes out a viscid 

 mucus, heavier than water, which falls to the bottom of 

 the glass on which it is placed, carrying with it the seeds 

 swimming with it, and which, on account of their 

 opacity, were visible in the sporangium before its 

 dehiscence. It is evident that these granules are the 

 spores or seeds, and that the young plants proceed 

 from them. 



But have these reproductive grains been fecundated ? 

 This point is very obscure. Reaumur has taken for the 

 stamens of Fucus, certain divided diaphanous filaments, 

 which grow in little tufts upon Fucus serratus, F. vesi- 

 culosus, &c. ; but these appear to me to be simple pro- 

 ductions analogous to hairs : in fact — 1st, their texture 

 indicates nothing which calls to mind the structure of an 

 anther, and there cannot be perceived either pollen or 

 fovilla; — 2d, they are only found upon a small num- 

 ber of species; — and, 3d, in those even which are fur- 

 nished with them, they are scattered over nearly the 

 whole surface, and remain all the year — two circum- 

 stances which are incompatible with the idea of consider- 

 ing them as stamens. Correa has given a much more 

 likely opinion, in admitting that the fecundation of these 

 plants is performed by the viscid mucus which surrounds 

 the bristly masses ; but this opinion is, perhaps, impos- 

 sible to be demonstrated in a direct manner. 



W hatever it be, every Fucus, which has the frond 

 dilated at the period of fructification, comes, with slight 

 differences, under the description which I have given. 



There is another order of Fucus, in which lateral 



