ALGACEtE. 



Nat. syst. ed. 2. p. 430. 



FUCUS. 



Frond plane, compressed or cylindrical, linear, dichotomous, 

 coriaceous. Air-vessels when present innate in the frond, sim- 

 ple, large. Receptacles terminal, turgid, containing tubercles 

 imbedded in mucus and discharging their spores (sporangia) by 

 conspicuous pores. Greville. 



13i5. F. vesiculosus Linn. sp. pi. 1626. E. Bot. t. 1066. 



Grev. Scott. Crypt, fi. t. 319. alg. britt. 12. t. 2 Sea 



shores very common. (Sea Wrack.) 



Root a hard flattish disk. Frond a few inches to 3 or more feet in 

 length, and 2-3 lines to 1 inch in width, flat, furnished with a midrib, 

 occasionally twisted in a spiral manner, repeatedly dichotomous, the 

 angles of the dichotomy acute, except when a solitary vesicle happens 

 to be placed there; the sterile branches obtuse and often notched at 

 the extremity. Air-vessels from the size of a pea to a hazel nut, in 

 pairs, and situated at irregular intervals in different parts of the frond ; 

 sometimes 2 or 3 pair are arranged next to each other ; they are rarely 

 altogether wanting. Receptacles terminal, compressed, mostly ovate 

 or elliptical, and about a an inch long, but varying from nearly sphe- 

 rical to linear-lanceolate, and in length from i of an inch to nearly 

 2 inches ; they are also mostly in pairs, but are sometimes solitary and 

 occasionally forked. The whole frond is proliferous in a remarkable 

 degree in cases of injury, throwing out numerous new shoots from the 

 injured part. Greville. — This has been employed as a local and con- 

 stitutional agent. Dr. Russell recommended scrofulous swellings to be 

 rubbed with the bruised vesicles and afterwards to be washed with sea- 

 water, in order to produce the resolution and disappearance of the 

 swellings. The effect produced appears to be owing to the iodine 

 contained in the Fucus. 



*** Fucus amylaceus O Shaughnessy,'m Med. Gaz. xxi. 566. 

 — Eastern Coast of Bengal. 



In the work above mentioned a short account is given of this plant, 

 which is represented to be very nutritious and alimentary, entirely 

 free " from the bitter principle which constitutes so great an objection 

 to other Fuci." It has been found highly useful in asthmatic com- 

 plaints, &c, and is called by the natives Edible moss. I can find no 

 further record of this plant, which is possibly not a Fucus at all, but 

 more probably allied to Gracilaria, from a species of which a delicate 

 kind of food is procured in the Eastern Islands, or to Gelidium, which 

 furnishes the eatable "birds' nests" of the Chinese. 



GRACILARIA. 



Frond cartilaginous, filiform, cylindrical or compressed, of a 



630 



