Page:Transactions of the Linnean Society of London, Volume 6 (1802).djvu/157



IX. ''Descriptions of four new Species of Fucus. By Dawson Turner, M. A. F. L. S.''

Read May 5, 1801.

ALTHOUGH the numerous individuals comprehended under that extensive family known by the name of Fucus, and especially such of them as are considered natives of Britain, have of late years been the subject of much inquiry, and have induced many most able botanists to exert their skill in the investigation of them, it never-theless requires but a very slight acquaintance with the subject, to be fully persuaded that, without entering into laborious researches upon their internal organization, or the mode of their frutification, things hitherto almost entirely neglected, a wide field remains for future naturalists to display their ingenuity, in the determination of many even of those species which are most abundant upon every part of our Island. I should feel extremely sorry were this, or any similar observation, to be considered as detracting from the merits of those gentlemen, to whose exertions I have always had a pleasure in acknowledging that the science is most deeply indebted: — far from such an idea, my intention is only to say that our knowledge of the marine algae is still in its infancy; and a stronger proof of the justice. of this remark can hardly be adduced, than the common Fucus vesiculosus, from the varying appearances of which, Linnæus and some subsequent botanists have formed such an infinity of distinct species. Did this circumstance require further confirmation,, it. might possibly in some degree receive it from a consideration of the