Fuci. 
——— 
Germina- 
tion. 
¥ ructifica- 
loon. 
16 
remain greater room for discovery, than in tracing the 
progress of living fuci. The habitat of the plants pre- 
sents many difficulties. It is only in a few favourable 
situations, in calm weather, and at low ebb tides, that 
observations can be made either as ‘to the earliest a) 
pearance of the plants when germinating, or as to the 
progress of the fructification, and shedding of the seeds 
in the mature plant. To afford any satisfa infor- 
mation, individual plants must be watched, visited at 
every season of the year, and the observations must be 
continued for a series of years. 
Germination and Fructification of Fuci. 
Mr Stackhouse, we believe, is the only person who 
has succeeded in vegetating the seeds of fuci, or in con- 
vincing himself that he has done so; for doubts have 
been. started as to the accuracy of his experiments. 
So extremely minute are the real seeds, and so great is 
the liability to error from other seeds floating unper- 
ceived in the waters of the ocean, that to prosecute dis- 
covery in this way, would probably be a hopeless task. 
It may be right, however, to state his mode of proceed- 
ing. He selected three ies for his experiments, 
Fucus serratus, canaliculatus, and bifurcatus, (by which 
last, F. tuberculatus is to be understood.) He detach- 
ed some specimens of these very carefully from the 
yocks, preserving their bases or roots a at He 
placed them in wide-mouthed jars, and changed the 
water every twelve hours, drawing it off by means of a 
syphon, to prevent agitation. In the course of a week 
he succeeded in procuring what he considered to be the 
seeds. These, when ripe, he says, burst asunder trans- 
versely in the middle, with a kind of explosion. They 
appear therefore to have been, in reality, capsules con- 
taining seeds. They were inelosed in a bright mucus, 
immiscible with sea water, and likewise specifically 
heavier than it ; so that this mucus was calculated to 
serve the double purpose of carrying the seeds to the 
bottom, and fixing then to the rocks. He thus as- 
certained that some marine plants scatter their seeds 
when ripe, without awaiting the decay of the frond. 
The next point was to cause the seeds to germinate. 
He took some pebbles and small fragments of rock from 
the beach, the surfaces of which he considered as having 
been oes purified by friction ; and after having 
drained off the greater part of the water in the jars, he 
poured the remaining drops on the stones. He left them 
to dry. for some time, that the seeds might fix themselves. 
He then placed the stones in wide-mouthed jars, and al- 
ternately sunk them for some hours in sea-water, and ex- 
posed them to the air and rain, in order to imitate their 
peculiar situation between high and low water mark. In 
less than a week, a thin membrane was discoverable on 
the stones, precisely on the spots where the drops of 
water containing the seeds had been poured, and where 
of course the seeds had lodged. This membrane gra- 
dually extended. itself and became of a blackish olive 
colour. There at last appeared mucous papillz or buds 
coming up from the membrane. These buds were 
somewhat hollow in the centre, from whence a shoot 
pushed forth : in some instances they seemed to rise on 
a short thick footstalk, and in this case resembled mi- 
nute pezizez, favouring the supposition that other fuci 
besides F. loreus i 
appearance, though on a very reduced scale. 
Till within these few years, the fructification.of. the: 
fuci was little known ; and even yet it is not by any 
means well understood, To the minute and accurate 
3 
resent at their base the mushroom. 
FUCI 
investigations of Mr Turner, Mr Hooker, Sir J. E. 
Smith, the late Miss Hutchins, and Mr Sowerby, jun. 
we are much saps Sey the ae of the. 
largest species in the world, F. pyriferus and buccinalis, a 
sie even if aque slime dehgean onll txieuts aves “Sal 
tish species, such as F. digitatus, filum, and.aculeatus, 
still remains to be discovered. Of the nature of the fruc-. | 
tification of the caulerpe, no conjecture has hitherto . 
been formed. 
By attending to the characters in Lamouroux’s ar-. 
rangement, a general idea may be gathered of the fa- 
milies of fuci.in which the different kinds of fructifi- 
cation occur,. whether consisting of receptacles, tu- ; 
bercles, capsules, or patches.. It seems unnecessary, 
therefore, to enlarge much on this subject.. A few far- Double. 
ther remarks on the double mode of fruclification, may mote of 
however be proper. This double mode, it will be re- fructifica-. 
membered, occurs either on the same plant, or on se~ : 
parate individuals of the same species ; and it is of va~ 4 
rious kinds, some of which may be mentioned. : ; 
a. On different individuals of the same a glo-. 
bular capsules and lanceolate es are ed, as. 
in F. subfuscus, alatus, pinastroides (Turn. t. 11.), and 
coccineus; (see PlateCCLXI. Fig. 10,11.) and both these Pratr 
kinds of capsules sometimes occur on the same frond emg 
of the last named species. This fact did not escape Mr Fi8* 1011. 
Stackhouse ; for in his Nereis Britannica, he it 
art of the specific character of F. coccineus, that it 
s polymorphous fructification ; and Mr Turner, in 
his Syneptiss afterwards divided it into two varieties, 
one with spherical capsules, the other with lanceolate 
or elliptical capsules. 
b. On the same individual, lineari-lanceolate capsules, ° 
and also pedunculate capsules of an. urceolate form, as 
in F. dentatus. (Plate CCXLI. Fig. 8, 9.) 
c. Lanceolate capsules and. patches of naked 
seeds are found on the same plant ; as in F, hypoglos- 
sum, (Turn. t. 14.) : 
d. Ovate capsules and spherical immersed seeds, on 
the same individual ; asin F. dasyphyllus, ( T'urn. t. 22.) 
e. Ovate and oblong epee: on the same plant ; 
as in F, acanthophorus of ouroux, ( Turn, t. 32.) 
Jf. Cilia containing seeds, on the margins and midrib 
of the plant; and spherical tubercles immersed in obo-« 
vate processes on different of the plant; as in F. 
sinuosus. (PlateCCLXI. Fig. 6, 7.) 
g. Urceolate sessile capsules rere and naked 
seeds immersed in the frond on x plant of the 
same species ; as in F. articulatus. It is a remark of 
M. Lamouroux, that the double fructification is never 
found on the truly articulated sea-weeds, that is, the 
marine confervee: but in this he seems mistaken, as the 
double mode occurs in the plant named Fucus fruticu- 
losus, (Turn. t. 227), which, as Mr Turner properly re- 
marks, belongs to the conferve. 
In a few capsuliferous species, as F. plumosus and 
locales Sinem t.61), the seeds, or what are reckon-~ 
ed the seeds, are not inclosed in proper capsules, but 
merely surrounded by set#, producing the appearance 
of an involucrum. In the large species, F. saccharinus 
and bulbosus, the fructification is in irregular patches on 
the frond, and consists of a profusion of seeds imbedded. 
among whitish fibres, but without any covering or epi- 
dermis. Mr Brodie of Brodie, ina communication to Mr. 
Turner, (Hist. Fuc. vol. iii. p. 62.) very aptly compares 
a section of the last-named species when in fruit, and 
placed under the microscope, to a.section of a synge- 
nesious flower, with the seeds protruding from the re- 
ceptacle among the bristly pappus. 
Figs, 6, 7. 
