Since he finds fault with Mr. Fox, for adding to the calculated deficiency of the East India Company, the fum of 8,200,000l. the amount of their capital tock, which Mr. Macpherson fays (Vol. IV. p. 32.) "must furely, in any way of reckoning, be allowed to be a part of their joint property, and by no means a debt upon them." But, in our way of reckoning, and we fhould fuppofe in that of every other perfon, the joint stock of any company is a debt due by the company to the ftockholders. Even Mr. Macpherson has admitted this to be true in a former statement of their affairs, Vol. III. p. 660.

The language of this work is deformed by a number of provincialilms, as fleeped (Vol. I. p. 129); feverals, which is conftantly used; fo fhirreff, Vol. I. 445, and frequently elsewhere, for fheriff; and again, in page 293 of the fame Volume, he fays, "It was called the book of Winchester (Liber de Wintonia) by the compilers of it, but Domesday book has afterwards [fince] become the established name of it." The quotations have been fo carelessly incorporated into the work, that reference is fometimes made, as in Vol. I. p. 179, 224, to plates, of which none are given.

ART. IV. A Synopfis of the British Fuci. By Dawfon Turner, A. M. Member of the Imperial Academy Natura Curioforum, of the Linnean Society of London, Sc. 12mo. 2 Vols. 9s. White, &c. 1802.

WE E are afhamed to obferve that thefe elegant little volumes have lain fo long, overwhelmed by more ponderous, and perhaps lefs ingenious tomes. We will not, however, feek concealment of our overfight from filence, but proceed to give a fhort account of their contents.

It is well known that the difficulties attending the investigation of characters of the Fuci, are much greater than are found in the terreftrial plants in general; nor, till of late years, has the enquiry been carried on with fufficient accuracy. Mr. Turner, therefore, by felecting this branch of natural history for the fubject of his work, has rendered confiderable fervice to the philofophy of botany. His plan is clearly opened to the reader in the introduction, from which we fhall take the following paffage, relating to the general phyfiology of the Fuci.

"The

The genus Fucus, in its prefent ftate, at different points, borders upon, and touches, the furrounding genera of Lichens, Ulvæ, Confervæ, and Byffi, in fuch a manner, that, till a more appropriate distinction is found, experience only will enable us to know the individuals that compofe it. The character affigned to it in the Syft. Nat. depends altogether upon the ob fervations of Reaumur, and has already been fo often refuted, that it cannot be neceffary here again to repeat the arguments upon the fubject, all which are to be found in Gmelin's Hiftoria Fucorum, and indeed in almoft every other fubfequent work upon the fubject. Hence fucceeding naturalists have been at confiderable pains to alter it; and Mr. Stackhoufe has gone ftill farther by fub-dividing the plants that compofe it into fix new genera: but, though I fully agree with that gentlem in as to the neceffity of fuch a meafure, I cannot altogether acquicfce in the arrangement he has made, nor have I allowed myfelf at present to think of any other, becaufe, when a thing of this nature is done, it is defirable that it fhould be done in a manner to preclude the neceffity of future alteration, which can hardly be expected from a distribution framed folely upon the British fpecies, without attending to those which are the natives of distant feas, and are fo diffimilar in their appearance. On this fubject I will offer the fingle hint, that the fubmerfed alge, with the addition perhaps of the Byffi and Tremellæ, ought to form a diftinct order of the clafs Cryptogamia; and that, in a new arrangement, the firft ftep must be to throw them into a general mafs, paying no refpect to the genera as they now exift, all of which comprize plants of the moft anomalous nature, many Confervæ having the fruit of Fuci, fome Fuci that of Ulvæ, and vice versa. I might be tempted here to enter in fome meafure upon a flight digreffion refpecting the remaining aquatic genera, were not the Confervæ already in the hands of Profeffor Mertens and Mr. Dillwyn, who will foon favour the world with their obfervations on the fubject; and did I not wish to reserve what I have to fay upon the Ulvæ till it is in my power 'to publish an history of them; materials for which I have been fome time engaged in collecting." Introduction, p. xiii.

This introduction is followed by a Synopfis Specierum, drawn up with exemplary neatnefs and precifion. The Fuci are here feparated into fix divifions. 1. Foliis diftinétis. 2. Foliis unitis. 3. Alati, five fronde plana ftipite medium folium percurrente. 4. Fronde plana enervi. 5. Fronde compreffa. 6. Fronde tereti. They amount in all to feventy-eight fpecies.

As a fpecimen of the execution of the work, we fhall give the defcription of the thirty-fourth fpecies, the Fucus Cc 2 Edulis,

Edulis, with the fubjoined remarks, in which Mr. T. affigns his reafons for making it a feparate fpecies, inftead of a va riety of the Fucus palmatus, in which way it was confidered by Lightfoot.

"Root a very small, folid disk, common to numerous fronds, which are from their origin completely cuneiform, having their apices much rounded, and their margins quite flat, as well as perfectly entire. In this fhape they for the most part continue, and remain fimple, fometimes extending to a foot or more in length, and in their wideft part above the half of one in breadth; but occafionally, moft probably from accident, they are once or twice longitudinally divided into fegments, which, though generally either oblong or dilated, preferve no fixed form or order. Not unfrequently, alfo, they are irregularly perforated in various parts with numerous, roundish, scattered holes, the edges of which, like thofe of the fegments, prove them not to be natural to the plant. Leaves of various fize and age are always to be found from the fame root; and it is to be remarked that the proportion of their width to their length generally increases as they grow older. Their furface on either fide is fmooth, even, and gloffy. The ftem in the young shoots is flat from its very origin, but in mature plants cylindrical, as thick as a crow's quill, and about an inch long before it expánds, which it does very gradually. Its colour is a light, fubdiaphanous red: that of the frond a very deep and opaque bloodred, which foon changes to a pale, dirty, whitish green. The fubftance of the whole is between coriaceous and fleshy in a recent ftate; apparently hard and horny after it is dry, but when again moistened fo extremely tender, that a large plant, if held by the root, is feldom able to fuftain its own weight.

"It is difficult to account for this Fucus, which certainly is not one of the rareft among the British fpecies, and of which there are fpecimens preferved both in Buddle and Petiver's Herbaria, having fo long cfcaped the notice of authors on the fubject; or, to fpeak more correctly, having been so conftantly and fo entirely confounded with the preceding, that no British writer, except Lightfoot, has thought it deferving of being no. ticed even as a fingular variety. It has, nevertheless, always appeared to me, both in its nature and habit, a perfectly diftinct plant; and my opinion being confirmed by Mr. Stackhoufe, Mr. Davies, and Mr. Dillwyn, who have had fuch repeated opportunities of examining it in its places of growth, I feel no fcruple in here introducing it as fuch; refting its claim principally upon the regularly cuneiform fhape of its leaves, their never being either proliferous or branched, and their thick, fiefhy substance; all which circumftances appear to be not only conftant, but peculiar to it, and not common to any of the varieties of F. palma.

tus,

tas. The author of the Nereis Britannica, to whom we are indebted both for an excellent defeription and figure of it, has obferved, that its tender, fucculent texture expofes it to the danger of laceration by ftorms, and its nutritive qualities to the depredation of fishes; and, that, when gathered from its native bed, all the largeft leaves, and many of the fmaller ones, are found, either half eaten off, or with the frond perforated in numberlefs places." This latter circumftance is mentioned above, and I have received fpecimens of it, in which it was fo very re. markable, that they were fent under the name of F. clathrus of Gmelin, with the figure of which they by no means ill agree, though the defcription proves them different. Schmidel, who found this plant in abundance, and has given a good account of it in his Tour through Switzerland, &c. has made fimilar observations; and added, that he had no doubt but Seba's Fuci reticulati, figured in his Thefaurus iii. t. 103. a work I have at this time no opportnnity of confulting, belong to the present species. The error into which Gmelin feems to have fallen refpecting this plant, is both fingular and unaccountable; for his defcription of of F. dulcis evidently belongs exclufively to F. palmatus, while all his figures seem to have been defigned for F. edulis, and admit of no doubt, except from being reprefented with undulated margins. In his notes he chiefly confounded them together, and there can be little queftion but all he has faid upon the efculent qualities of his F. dulcis refers to the prefent plant, which Lightfoot informs us, "the inhabitants both of Scotland and Ireland take pleasure in eating: fometimes they feed upon it like a fallad, when fresh taken out of the fea; but the more ufual method is first to dry it, then roll it up together, and chew it like a plug of tobacco. And this they do more for the pleasure arifing from habit, than from any fuppofed virtues in the plant itfelf. The inhabitants alfo of the iflands of the Archipelago, as we learn from Steiler, are very fond of this plant. They fometimes eat it raw, but efteem it most when added to ragouts, oglios, and fuch like dainties, to which it gives a red colour, and, diffolving, renders them thick and gelatinous. In the Ifle of Skye it is fometimes ufed in fevers, to promote a fweat, being boiled in water, with the addition of a little butter. In this manner it alfo frequently purges." * Mr. Stackhouse discovered the quality that it poffeffes of yielding by maceration a fine colour; a quality common alfo to many other alge, and in the highest

The moft furprising quality of this plant, and one that will probably render it of fervice in dying, I discovered by accident. Having placed fome of the leaves to macerate in fea water, in order to produce feeds from it, I perceived on the

Cc 3

fecond

highest degree obfervable in Conferva fetacea, which, after it has been kept only a very fhort time in fresh water, gives out nearly the whole of the fine lake-tinted fluid with which its tubes are filled, and remains an almoft colourlefs, diaphanous membrane. That even the accurate Ray was not exempt from the univerfal error, if it hereafter prove to be an error, of not dif criminating between this plant and F. palmatus, is evident from his faying that the leaves of that fpecies, infufed in water, emit a ftrong fcent of violets; a remark applicable with the greatest propriety to F. eduiis, but not, at least in a friking degree, to the other. In Profeffor Efper's Icones are two inoft characteristic plates, reprefenting the prefent fpecies in its two most different appearances." Vol. 1. p. 181.

We fhould mention, that a copious lift of fynonyms, with references to authors, and to the places where the Fucus is found, is prefixed to each fpecies. The following account of the Fucus Afparagoides, a late difcovery among this clafs of plants, contains many interefting particulars.

"Mr. Wigg was the firft difcoverer of this highly elegant alga among the rejectamenta of the fea on the Yarmouth beach, and many years ago made it known to Mr. Woodward, who, in the fecond volume of the Linnæan Tranfactions, favoured the botanical world with an admirable account and defcription of it: fince which time he has himself detected it in its place of growth on the rocky shore of Cromer. For beauty of colour it rivals, if not exceeds, any other fpecies of British origin; but this can only be known to thofe who have opportunities of feeing it while perfectly recent, as, whatever care may be employed in the prefervation of it, the bright, gloffy tinge will fade; and though, if well expanded, fcarcely any Fucus is more beautiful on paper, it is nevertheless in that ftate far inferior to what it was before it was dried. When washed by the fea upon the shore it looks like a fhapelefs, gelatinous mafs, fo that it may moft eafily

fecond day a faint ruby tint, very different from the colour of the plant, which is a dull red, inclining to chocolate colour. Being fuprifed at this, I continued the maceration, and the tint grew more vivid, till it at laft equalled the strongest infusion of cochineal. This liquor was mucilaginous, and had a remarkable property of being of a changeable colour, as it appeared a bright ruby when held to the light, and a muddy faffron when viewed in à contrary direction."-Ner. Brit. p. 58.-In a note, Mr. Stackhouse adds, "that the Rev. W. Gregor has procured a fine lake from an infusion of it by means of alum,"’

be