SEAWEEDS. 



131 



A specimen of the Pyenophycus tubereulatus, the only 



British member of the fourth family in the Fucus order, 

 was sent to me from Jersey. It has a rounded forked 

 frond, and is very brittle, as my fractured morsel pro veil. 



But to return to the heap at our feet, where fair speci- 

 mens of several of the true Fuci were lying : there were 

 large forked fronds of a dark colour, and with -harp 

 cuttings on its margin like the \ 

 teeth of a saw : that was num- 

 ber 1, Fucus serratus [Plate /., 

 fig. 3), Then there was a great 

 branch with laro^e air-vessels and 

 thick flat branches like a coarse 

 cvstoseira ; that was number 2, 



Fucus nodosus. A smaller plant l fucus. 2 cystoseira. 

 of paler olive, with forked branches entire at the edges 

 the tips swollen with air-vessels was number 3, the Fuc?/s 

 vesicalosus ; and finally, there were tufts of narrow 

 forked fronds, channelled in the centre, and this was 

 number 4, the Fucus canaliculatus. 



Here was certainly an excellent start for our collection, 

 and these unattractive weeds are really the most import- 

 ant in their uses. In olden times, "vile Algae" was a term 

 for anything utterly useless, but this error has long since 

 died away. Once on a day, some country-folk gathered 

 a bundle of dry Fucus, and made a fire of it upon the 

 sands, and anions; the ashes coarse frae:ments like glass 

 were found. This suggested an idea, and, by degrees, 

 sea- weed ashes, or kelp, became a very important article 

 of commerce, as an ingredient in the manufacture of glass, 

 bringing in a revenue of £200,000 per annum to Scot- 



