Fructification of the submersed Alga. 505 
the vesicles of the fuci suffers a material alteration, but the 
grains proceed to their perfection. In the Fucus vesiculosus 
this change of colour and consistency in the mucus is evident 
to common sight. It is still more evident in the Fucus selagi- 
noideus, where the temporary bright and vivid colour of the 
mucus, followed by a prompt decay after that period, has 
struck even those naturalists who most decidedly opposed the 
existence of male parts in these plants ;* and I am confident, from 
the steadiness with which nature adheres to her general plans, 
that proper observations will demonstrate the same in every 
species of these submersed algse, and confirm what the fore- 
mentioned analogies induce me to think, viz. 
That the vesicles of all these plants, whatever be their 
shape, if containing grains and mucus, are to be considered as 
hermaphrodite flowers ; the grains they contain as their seeds, 
and the mucous substance as their pollen. 
* Gartner, pag. xxxii. 
3 T 2 
