Mr. Correa de Serra on the Fructification , he. 495 
endeavour to ascertain what parts of these plants perform the 
sexual functions : and, in order to be clear, I will first relate 
in a few words, what has been observed and believed on this 
point, and' proceed afterwards to the exposition of the opinions 
which observation and the strictest analogy induce me to 
hold on this subject. 
Reaumur was the first naturalist who bestowed a proper 
attention upon the fructification of the Fuci. Two elaborate 
memoirs of this great man are to be found, in the Parisian 
Transactions for the years 1711 and 1712, in which he endea- 
vours to persuade us, that the vesiculas filled with small grains 
are the female part of the fructification, in the fuci, and the 
filamentous hairs, which are found in different parts of the 
frons, the male organs. He examined eleven species of fuci, 
in eight of which he found grains, and only in six the fi* 
lamentous hairs. It is unlucky for his opinion, that these hairs 
have no anthers, and still more unlucky, that their existence 
has no relation at all to that of the vesicles which bear the 
grains, for they are persistent through all the life of the plant, 
without any remarkable alteration. Their situation besides is 
very unfit for the fecundation of the grains, except in the Fucus 
elongatus. Notwithstanding the weight of these objections, 
which he did not conceal, this otherwise sensible naturalist 
tried to the last to support by hypotheses, what he could not 
fairly prove by observations. His great name, joined to the 
general ascendency which the sexual system gained a little 
after all over Europe, gave nevertheless a common currency to 
his opinion ; and it was received, though in a wavering manner, 
by Linnaeus himself, and, what is more surprising, by the last of 
the Jussieus. These great men indeed gave it as the prevail- 
mdccxcvi. 3 S 
