Others, of a small size, which are never found but in the great ocean, may, it is thought, have originally been torn from the shores: this is the case with the numerous species which have long been confounded together under the con venient name of Fucus natans, and which constitute the well known fields of floating sea-weeds met with in the great oceans.
The fuel of the northern seas are in general different in character and appearance from those of the tropics or of high southern latitudes. To take for example New Hol land. It is well known that the land plants of this singular country have a peculiar character, arising chiefly front many of the trees and shrubs being aphyllous, and many others having leaves pointing upwards, or presenting both surfaces equally to the light. The shores afford a tribe of foci equally different from those of other parts of the world. They belong to the fucifiroprii, and are all com posed of a stem repeatedly pinnated with different series of branches, the whole of which, as well as the stem itself, are flat, and formed, as it were, of a set of distinct joints, placed upon each other in a sort of zigzag direction; the branches almost always arising from the flat part of the stem, and not, as in Europe, from the angles. This tribe of Nei was brought to light by our justly celebrated coun tryman, Mr Brown, during his voyage with Captain Flin ders and residence in Van Diemen's land already alluded to, M. Labillardiere having happened to observe only one species of the tribe : this one was the very remarkable F. Banksii, (Turn. t. 1.) which occupies on the Australasian shores the place of our vesiculosus. Instead of our scr ratus, these shores possess F. conflucns, (Turn. t. 141.) a species which resembles it, but wants the midrib. The place of our large digitatus and bulbosus is there supplied by a distinct species considerably resembling them, de set ibcd and figured by Mr Turner under the name of F. ladiatus, (t. 134.) The temperature of the ocean in different regions may be supposed to Nary much less than that of the land : on account of the moveable nature of the element, the means of transportation of fuel must be more easy than in the case of land plants : and the waters of the sea appear almost every where to teem with the seeds of fuci. It is not sur prising, therefore, that some tropical species should make their appearance in high latitudes, or that particular kinds should be found in places the most remote from each other, and climates the most opposite. Focus agarum is found
chiefly in the Indian Ocean; but it occurs also at Nova Scotia and in I ludson's Bay. F. cartilagineus of Linnaeus, (Turn. t. 124), which is abundant at the Cape of Good Hope, and often gathered there to form ornamental pictures, is found also on the shores of Finmark; and F. Ilagelliformis of Flora Danica, (t. 650.) is found both at the North Cape of Nor way, and at the southern promontory of Africa. Some are most widely distributed over the globe, but are not abun dant in any particular quarter. F. musciformis of Wulfen (Jac. Coll. iii. t. 14 ) has been found on the coast of France in the Adriatic, off the coast of Egypt, at Ceylon, in the West Indies, at New Zealand, and in Nootka Sound. F. thyrsoides is marked by Mr Turner (vol. i. p. 38 ) as found at New Zealand by Sir Joseph Banks, at Jamaica by Dr Wright, and in the Red Sea by Lord Valentia. F. turbina tus, Lin. (Turn. t. 24 ) is a native equally of the seas of the East and West Indies. F. acanthophorus of L•rnouroux, (Turn. t. 32.) is found on the coast of North America and in the Red Sea. F. Wrightii of Turner, (t. 148.) on the shores of Jamaica and the Red Sea. F. triangularis (Turn. t. 33.) has been picked up at Jamaica, New Holland, and New Zealand. Several species inhabit the shores on both sides of the Atlantic, as the common kelp weeds, F. vesi culosus and nodosus. F. dentatus, which is common in the Frith of Forth, grows also in the Chesapeak. Some other British species are very widely disseminated over the world. The elegant pinastroides of our shores was ob served on the coast of New Zealand by Sir Joseph Banks, and has been found also at Ceylon. F. fibrosus (Turn. t. 209.) is common to England and the coast of Guiana ; F. plicatus, to this country and New Holland. F. tomentosus, (Turn. t. 135) which occurs on the southern shores of England and Ireland, has been found also in the Mediter ranean, in Nootka Sound, and at the Cape of Good Hope. A very common British species, F. siliquosus, inhabits likewise the Mediterranean and Adriatic, and has been observed at Newfoundland, and in the Chinese seas.