497 
Fructification of the submersed Alga. 
doubt, have given us the true and simple account of the fruc- 
tification of the submersed algae, if the specious Adansonian - 
theory of aphrodite plants, and his own ideas of the perfect 
seed, had not led him (according to my opinion) astray. The 
grains of the Ceramiums and Ulvae, and the lateral internodia 
of the Confervas, he excludes from the number of seeds, and 
believes them to be gems of a particular kind, which he calls 
gongyli, ox gemma carpomorpha, consequently not standing in 
need of fecundation. The grains of the fuci he judges to be 
true seeds ; but, in this case, he believes that the uterus performs 
the male functions, and that the plants, in respect to their fecun- 
dation, are aphroditce, having only the apparatus fcemineus, et in- 
timam utriusque sexus sub specie singuli copulam. Both he and 
Gmelin, forced by phenomena which they could not help ob- 
serving, have been in some moments very near to what I con- 
ceive to be the truth, but have sacrificed it to preconceived 
opinions. 
In the last year two English botanists, to whom science 
stands indebted for many excellent descriptions and figures of 
fuci. Major Velley, and Mr. Stackhouse, treated this same 
matter, the first at large, the second occasionally. Both have 
stated, with great ingenuity and candour, the many objections 
which attend the existing systems, and both declared them- 
selves not fully satisfied with the present state of our know- 
ledge on this subject. Mr. Stackhouse, indeed, seems to 
cherish hopes of future discoveries of the male organs, in 
what he calls the concealed fibrous fructification, the antherae 
not seeming necessary to him, nor the farinaceous pollen.* 
Perfectly agreeing with him, in what respects the; needlessness 
of a farinaceous pollen, I cannot accede to the other parts of 
* Nereis Britannica, in the preface, and page 30. 
3 s 2 
