The English flora - SeaweedAfrica

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Fucus.] ALG.K INARTICULATE. 267
I. F. vesiculosa*, Linn, (bladdered Fucus) ; frond plane
linear dichotomous quite entire with a central rib, vesicles
sphserical, receptacles terminal compressed turgid mostly elliptical
and solitary.— Turn. Syn.Fucp. 117, Hist. Fuc.t.88. E.Bot.
t. 10G6. Grev. Alg. Brit. p. 12. t. '2. Grev. Fl. Crypt, t. 319.—
j3. spiralis ; frond spirally twisted, vesicles none, receptacles
roundish. Turn.—F. spiralis, Liyhtf.— E. Bot. t. 1685.
y. linearis ; frond narrow dwarfish, vesicles none, receptacles
long between linear and lanceolate. Turn.—F. distichus,
Liyhtf.— b. bakicus ; yellow-brown, very dwarf, densely tufted,
with an indistinct midrib and no vesicles or receptacles. F. balticus,
Ay. in Svensk, Bot. t. 576. Grev. Crypt. Fl. t. 181.
Rocky shores, every where, most abundant.— j3. Leith and Newhaven,
&c. y. Orkney, Dr. Hope'. Anlthur, C'/pt. Carmchuel.— 5. Salt-imu^hes
and sands occasionally flooded by the sea in the West Highlands and
islands of Scotland. Summer and autumn. 2£ .— Very variable, according
to the substance on which it grows and its being more or less constantly
covered with salt-water: sometimes, besides the usual true
vesicles, there are elongated swellings occasioned by an accidental accumulation
of air between the coats of the frond. This sea-weed is
abundantly employed in the manufacturing of kelp, if it he not the best.
But this, important as it is in a commercial point of view, is not the
only end it serves. In the isles of Jura and Skye it is frequently a
winter food for cattle, which regularly come down to the shores at the
receding of the tide to seek for it; and sometimes even the deer have been
known to descend from the mountains to the sea-side to feed upon this
plant. Linnaeus informs us that the inhabitants of Gothland, in Sweden,
boil this Fucus with water, and, mixing with it a little coarse meal or
flour, feed their hogs upon it; for which reason they call the plant
Swintangi and in Scania, he says, the poor people cover their cot!
with it, and use it for fuel. In Jura and some other Hebrides, the inhabitants
dry their cheeses without salt, by covering them with the ashes
of this plant; which abounds BO much in that substance, that from five
ounces of the ashes may be procured two ounces and a half of fixed
alkaline salts, or half their own weight.
l\ F. a ranoides, Linn, (horned Fucus); frond coriaceo-membranaceons
Linear Bubdichotomous with a central rib pinnated
with narrow lateral scattered multiiid spreading fruit-bearing
branches, receptacles solitary terminal siibevlindrieal linear
acuminated.— Turn. Syn. Fuc. />. 136, Hist. Fuc. t. B9. Z£ Bot
t. 21 15, Grev. Alg. Brit. p. 14. Ay. Sp. My. p. i.p.\
Abundant on the sea-shores of Scotland, especially in the sheltered
bays and inlets of the sea on the west coast, often half imbedded in sand.
Hare in Rngland. Coast of Hampshire, Shoreham, Anglesea, Dorset ;
near Belfast, Ireland. Spring and Summer. 1£ .— This is of a thinner
substance and paler colour than the preceding, and its ramification ora-
liderably different.
:i. F,mrrdtut, Linn* (serrakd Fttcui )j frond flat broadly linear
dichotomous with a central ril> and serrated, receptacles solitary
terminal flat elongated -enaled.- Turn. Syn. I'nr. p. I JO,
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