SEAWEEDS. 133 



fed principally upon it. Inglis, in his work on the 

 " Channel Islands," gives a most interesting picture of 

 the sea- weed harvest in Jersey. On the 10th of March 

 and on the 20th of July, all the inhabitants repair to the 

 shore, with such vehicles as they can press into their ser- 

 vice, and they gather the weed in great quantities. Some 

 they dry and use for fuel, and the remainder is laid upon 

 the land as manure. It suits potatoe land remarkably 

 well, and on this account is eagerly seized upon in Ire- 

 land, where it is carried at least fifteen miles inland. The 

 Icelanders cook several of these olive weeds as food ; and in 

 Borneo there are some species entirely soluble, from which 

 a strong jelly is formed and exported to China. The 

 Fuci grow with wonderful rapidity : the Carr rock in the 

 Frith of Forth was clear in November, and in the May 

 following there was a dense crop of Fuci upon it, some of 

 the plants six feet in length ! 



The Fucus order contains one more family, the sole 

 British representative of which, the Sea thong, was not 

 present in the heaps Ave were examining. Its peculiarity 

 is that it grows first in the form of a top, and from that, 

 long strap-shaped fork fronds shoot out, which merely 

 live to ripen the seed, and then fall off. Edward got a 

 fine specimen last February on the Coast of Cornwall, 

 (Himanthalia Lorea, Plate I., jig. 9). 



Leaving the dry weed on the shore we repaired to the 

 margin of the water, and disregarding the danger of wet 

 feet, we took our station on some low rocks covered with 

 Fuci, at the foot of which noble fronds of the Sweet 

 Tangle were idly waving in the calm tide. Here were 

 specimens of the second order of Algae the Laminariae 



