four plants to which it is my object, in the present paper, to call the attention of the Linnaean Society, and of which two only can properly be said to be either altogether new, or even very uncommon; there being little doubt but the others will be found to be ſufficiently abundant, at leaſt upon the eastern ſhore of England, where their having remained ſo long unnoticed has arisen only from their having been regarded as varieties of ſome of their congeners, to which they are in reality very nearly allied. From theſe authors I ſhould not now venture to openly to differ, or rather ſhould expreſs my sentiments with far greater diffidence, were not the plants which I have undertaken to deſcribe, and upon which I trust that future inveſtigators will confirm my decision, eſpecially natives of the Yarmouth beach; and had not my attention been particularly directed to them, from almoſt the earliest period that I have made the marine algæ my ſtudy, by my inſtructor and coadjutor Mr. Wigg, upon whoſe knowledge of them the Society have heard too much from more able as well as more eminent botaniſts, to make it neceſſary for me in any wiſe to enlarge.
I had propoſed to myself to extend this paper to a greater length than my contracted leiſure will now admit, and, among other plants, to have included in it a figure of Fucus fruticuloſus of Jacquin, which, in company with Mr. Sowerby, I found not unfrequently upon the ſhores of the more western counties; the excellent account however of this plant, given by the Baron de Wulfen, made ſuch an intention useleſs; and I am now induced to mention the circumstance, only from a fear that my having abandoned the idea may have been the cauſe of leading my friend, Mr. Stackhouse, into error, as, I underſtand that, in the third faſciculus of his Nereis, the appearance of which may ſoon be expected, he has declined figuring this ſpecies from an idea that it would previouſly be done by me.
Fucus