Volume 1
Fuci, sive, Plantarum Fucorum generi a botanicis ascriptarum icones descriptiones et historia = Fuci, or, Colored figures and descriptions of the plants referred by botanists to the genus Fucus / by Dawson Turner.
- Date:
- 1808-1819
Licence: In copyright
Credit: Fuci, sive, Plantarum Fucorum generi a botanicis ascriptarum icones descriptiones et historia = Fuci, or, Colored figures and descriptions of the plants referred by botanists to the genus Fucus / by Dawson Turner. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.
12/326
![HISTORY OF THE FUGI. 1.—F UCUS BANKSII. Fucus Banksii, froud filiform, coriaceous, irregularly branched, and swollen throughout its whole length into spherical receptacles, arranged like the beads of a necklace placed at short distances. On the shores of New Holland, plentiful. Mr. Menzies and Mr. Brown. Root small, discoid. Frond a foot, or a foot and half long, sometimes extending to two feet, simple at first, but very soon divided, and afterwards variously and repeatedly branched: branches divaricated, and almost reflexed, long, in general undivided, but here and there beset with smaller and shorter ones, issuing from them at right angles: the whole plant from base to summit is studded with receptacles innate in the frond, arranged like beads in a necklace, at intervals scarcely exceeding a line each, connected by the filiform frond, which is more thin than a sparrow's quill, the younger ones oblong, those more perfectly formed spherical, all irregularly flattened by drying, and never afterwards recovering their proper shape by immersion or any other means ; those which are situated at the base and summit of the branches are small, the others about the size of a Bullace; the surface of all every where rough with globular tubercles, which, though immersed in the frond, are somewhat prominent, and are perforated with a very small pore. From the resemblance of these tubercles *o those of F. vesiculosm, nodosus, &c. there can be no doubt of their containing the FRUCTIFICATION, though I have not at present been able to detect seeds in them: if examined by the highest powers of a compound microscope, they appear to be internally composed of fibres invisible to the naked eye. Color of the recent plant in all probability olive, when diied intensely black, and if afterwards soaked in water, turning to a dark dull olive, mixed with brown; internally reddish. Substance, while wet, leathery,extremely tough ; when dried, brittle. For my specimens of this most extraordinary Fucus, I am indebted to the Right Honourable Sir Joseph Banks, by whose name I have called it, in memory of the kindness which he has always shewn me, and of the exceeding liberality with which he has assis]:ed me in the present publication. It is said to be no less abundant on the shores of New Holland than Fucus vesiculosus, serratus, and nodosus, plants unknown in that part of the world, are upon those of Britain. In its structure and texture, it resembles these species, and their congeners, and, as has already been remarked in the description, there can be no doubt of the fructification being the same, and of the innate tubercles having, before they discharged their seeds, been wholly similar to those of this tribe, out of which Dr. Weber and Dr. Mohr, in an excellent paper,* have constituted a new genus, which they call exclusively Fucus. Upon this subject I shall soon have occasion to speak more fully. It is most probable that the receptacles, when they have fulfilled their office as to the fructification, become filled with air, and perform the function of bladders designed to give buoyancy to the frond. In a dried state they may not inaptly be compared to a string of acom-cups. In the situation of its receptacles, as well as in general habit and form, F. Banksii is altogether a plant sui generis, and differs from every other species yet known. Its substance is so extraordinarily tough that it almost resembles a piece of leather. a. F. Banksii, natural size. b. Receptacle transversely cut through, magnified - - 6. c. Tubercle - -- -- -- -Q. d. Outside of tubercle, to shew the pore - - - 5. * Einige AVorte iiber ansre bisherigen, hauptsi'iicblick karpologisclien Zerglicderungen von kryptogaiiiischeu Scegewiiclisen. Beitrage zur](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b2190246x_0001_0012.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
