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.
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![Fucus volubilis, frond membranous, flat, nerveless, spirally twisted, mostly simple, its margins repando-dentate ; teeth bearing small pedunculate tubercles. Fucus volnbilis. Linn. Syst. Nat. II. p. 715. Si/st. Nat. Ed. Gmel. II. p. 1387. Wulfen, in Jacq. Coll. III. p. 149. t. 13. f. 2. WuLFEN, Crypt. Aquat. n. 12. Espek, Ic. Fuc. I. p. 141. t. 71. (excK Syn. Gmel.) All. FI. Fed. II. p. 333. Fl. Fr. Ed. 2da. II. p. 20. F. spiralis serratns. Barreliek, p. 118. t. 1303. Epatica spirale minore. Ginanni, I. p. 26. t. 27..'' In the Mediterranean Sea. JJnnaus.—In the Harbor at Trieste, plentiful. Wulferi.—In the Bay of Naples neas Paulisippo. Schmidel.—Sent from Ceylon to Dr. Smith. Root an expanded, thin, coriaceous, suborbicular disk, a nail and half, or more, in diameter. Fronds from the same base numerous, forming tufts, three or four inches long, about a nail wide, and of equal %vidth throughout, except that near the base, they are frequently worn by the action of the waves, and consequently more narrow, either simple, or here and there, especially towards the apices, furnished with one or two short, erect, sub-fastigiate branches, twisted for their whole length like a cork-screw, entirely destitute of veins or nerve, rounded at their apices, and at their margins repando-dentate, with sharp teeth sometimes solitary, sometimes placed two or more together. Fructification, extremely small black, spherical tubercles, growing about five or six together, and placed towards the upper part of the frond upon the teeth, which are then lengthened, very narrow, and incurved, so as to perform the office of tubercles : in each of these tubercles lie a few black roundish seeds, 'surrounded by a pellucid limbus. Substance between membranaceous and coriaceous. Color,* blackish red, when dried black. It is not a little singular that, long as this Fucus has been known, and common as it appears to be in the Mediter- ranean and Adriatic, where., according to Baron Wulfen, it grows on shells, sponges, and stones, and is drawn out by the fishermen among their nets, the fructification should still have remained to the present day unnoticed. It does not altogether agree with that of any of the tribes more generally known, the tubercles being spherical, yet very much smaller than those of the globuliferous Fuci in general, and containing only a few largish regular seeds, altogether resembling those of F. vesiculosus and its congeners. The frond of this Fucus is so constantly and so naturally spiral, that it cannot be unrolled without difficulty, and immediately upon being left to itself returns to its former state. Examined under the microscope it is beautifully reticulated. I have quoted Ginanni's figure, with a mark of doubt, as being considered by Wulfen suspicious, and very ill expressing the character of the plant. With regard to Gmelin's F. volubilis, I cannot but adhere to the opinion expressed in the Synopsis of the British Fuci, that it is merely a variety of F. laceratus. The plant described under the name of F. volubilis by Hudson, is sufficiently kno^^ n to belong to jP. vesictdosus, with which species M. Decandolle was led to suppose that the present plant must have some connexion, from their being placed next each other by LinoEeus. They are, however, most different, and indeed there is something so peculiar in the habit of F. volubilis as well as the fruit, that it is not only immediately distinguishable from every other, but it appears to me by no means easy to say which species are most properly its congeners. a. F. volubilis, natural size. b. Fructijied end, magnified - - 6. c. Do. with fruit more in clusters - 6. d. Portion of the same - - - 3. e. Seeds ------]. f. Fortiori of the frond - - - 1. * Greenish-bi'own, according to M. Decandolle, in the Flore Fran^aise,](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b2190246x_0001_0016.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
