- ! 



FUCHSIA. 



FULGORA. 



mentions also that the saponaceous mucus of the vesicles has been 

 recommended to remove glandular swelling*, and the calcined powder 

 of the plant is said to be valuable as a dentifrice. The great use now 

 made of this weed, as well as of others, is in the manufacture of kelp 

 and iodine. 



P. ceranoidtt is sometimes called the Horned Fucus. It resembles 

 the preceding species, but is much thinner and more transparent, the 

 midrib is more distinct, and the leafy part is narrower, although it is 

 a more graceful plant than P. retiftdona. 



P. trrraiia. Serrated Sea-Weed, is very common on all our sea- 

 shore*. It is perennial. The frond differs from the" preceding by 

 being serrated. In Scotland it is called Black-Wrack, or Prickly 

 Tang. It is not so rich in kelp and iodine as the others. It is useful 

 as manure. In Norway it is used as food for cattle, mixed with meal. 

 The Dutch use it to cover their crabs and lobsters, to keep them alive 

 and moist, preferring it to any other because it is destitute of that 

 mucus which causes them to ferment and putrefy. It is a handsome 

 species, the fronds on both sides being dotted with pencil-like clusters 

 of whitish capillary fibres, and the fronds being often broad. 



P. no<lonu, Knobbed-VVrack. The root is a large hard conical 

 mass, from which spring several branches, from 2 to 4 or 6 feet in 

 length. It is called in some places Yellow Wrack. In England it is 

 often called Sea-Whistle, in consequence of the custom among children 

 of converting the vesicles into whistles. The air-vessels are called 

 cracker* ; for when thrown into the fire they make a slight 

 explosion. 



/'. tfactaii is found on muddy sea-chores, usually in land-locked 

 bay* and among boulders. The frond is from 6 to 10 inches long, 

 densely tufted ; branches crowded, spreading, compressed at the base, 

 cylindrical upwards. The vesicles wider than the frond. In substance 

 leathery ; when dry somewhat horny. 



P. eanaiiculalut. Channelled Fucus. This is abundant on rocks on 

 the sea-shore near high-water mark. It is perennial. Cattle are 

 exceedingly fond of it, and never fail to browse on it in winter as soon 

 as the tide leaves it within their reach. 



VI. HIMANTHAI.IA has coriaceous orbicular top-shaped fronds. Very 

 long strap-shaped receptacles, repeatedly forked, spring from 

 the centre of the frond, filled with mucus, traversed by jointed 

 fibres, and pierced by numerous pores, which communicate with 

 immersed spherical conccptacles, containing either parietal spores 

 or antheridia. 



//. lorea is common on rocky sea-shores. It seems difficult to deter- 

 mine as to the duration of this plant Some regard it as annual, as 

 the thongs are produced every year ; but others say the long thongs 

 are only receptacles, that the cup-shaped disc is perennial, and that 

 this part is truly the plant. The cup-shaped frond which adheres 

 firmly to the rock is more than an inch in diameter. The branches 

 or receptacles are in Scotland about 6 feet long. In Cornwall they 

 are sometimes 20 feet long. The name in English signifies sea-thongs. 

 The fruit consists of tubercles immersed in the fronds, and these 

 tubercles discharge their seeds by pores, which give the thongs a 

 potted appearance. This is remarkably the case when, after lying on 

 the shore for some time, every pore is covered with a yellow dot, 

 which is the mucus of the plant discharged in the death-struggle 

 which goes on, when, torn from the rock and tossed out by the waves, 

 it lie* withering in the open air. Dr. Neill mentions that in the north 

 of Scotland a kind of sauce for fish or fowl, resembling ketchup, is 

 made from the cup-like or fungus-like fronds of this sea-weed. 



(Harvey, HrUuh Marine Alga ; Landsborough, BrUith Sea- Weeds.) 



FUCHSIA, a genus of Plant* belonging to the natural order Oua- 

 gracea. This genus was named after Leonard Fuchs, one of the 

 earliest of modern cultivators of botany. He was born at Wembdingen, 

 in Swabia, in 1501, where he kept a school, but was made a professor 

 at Ingoldstadt in 1621, whence be removed to Anspach, and sub- 

 sequently to Tubingen, where he died in 1556. He wrote a great 

 work on Botany, with the title ' De Stirpium Historia Commentarii 

 Inrignn,' which was published in folio at Basle in 1542. This work 

 wa* illustrated with wood-cuts executed by Spacklin of Slrassburg. 

 These engraving* an admirably done, and some of them would bear 

 comparison with the wood-engraving* of the present day. This work 

 has been translated into almost every European language, and many 

 edition* of the original Latin have been published. It was however 

 only a part of a great work which the author had on band ; and when 

 be died he left about 1500 drawings, with which he had intended to 

 illustrate a second and third part. 



The genus Fuchsia has the tul of the calyx adhering to the ovarium 

 at the base, and drawn out at the apex into a cylindrical 4-clcft tube, 

 whose lobe* soon fall off; four petal* alternating with the lobes of the 

 calyx, and inserted in the upper part of the tube, very rarely wanting ; 

 eight stamens ; the ovary crowned by an urccolate gland ; the style 

 filiform, crowned by a capitate stigma; the berry oblong or ovate- 

 globose, 4-valvrd, 4-ce)led, many-seeded. The species are shrubs, 

 usually with opposite leaves, and axillary 1 -flowered pedicels, which 

 are sometimes disposed in raceme* at the top* of the branches. The 

 flowers, which are very elegant, are usually drooping, of a red colour, 

 rarely white, sometimes 5 cleft, and decandrous. There are few 

 genera of plant* in which, under cultivation, there is a greater 



tendency among the flowers to sport; and thus they frequently 

 afford the most interesting and important illustrations of the doctrines 

 of morphology. 



P. tnicrop/iylta, the Small-Leaved Fuchsia, has pubescent branches, 

 with opposite, small, elliptic-oblong, acutish, toothed, glabrous, a little 

 ciliated leaves; the pedicels axillary, shorter than the flowers; the 

 calyx funnel-shaped, with ovate-acuminated lobes; retuse toothed 

 petals. This plant is a native of the volcanic mountain Jorullo, in 

 Mexico. It has a scarlet calyx, with deep red petals, and blossoms 

 from June to September. It wo* first described by Humboldt, 

 Bonpland, and Kunth, in their work on American Plants, and was first 

 introduced into England in 1 828. It is now one of the most commonly 

 cultivated of the species in the gardens of Great Britain. 



/". coeeinea, the Scarlet Fuchsia, has glabrous branches, opposite leaves, 

 or three in a whorl, ovate, acute, denticulated, on short petioles ; the 

 pedicels axillary, drooping, longer than flowers ; the lobes of the calyx 

 oblong, acute, exceeding the petals, which are obovate and convolute. 

 It is a native of Chili, in marshy district), and is found as far south as 

 the Strait of Megalhaens. It is one of the species earliest introduced 

 into the gardens of Great Britain ; and was first described by Aiton in 

 the ' Hortus Kewcuvis.' It has a scarlet calyx, with violaceous petals. 

 In its native countries the wood is used for obtaining a black colouring- 

 matter, and the leaves and young branches are used as medicine. It 

 grows and blossoms in the open air in the summer, but requires 

 protection in the winter. 



P. corymbiflora (corymbifera, Walpers), the Corymbose Fuchsia, hoi 

 branches somewhat tetragonal ; leaves opposite, petiolate, oblong 

 lanceolate, almost entire ; the pedicels three, nearly terminal, nodding, 

 shorter than the flowers ; the lobes of the calyx lanceolate-acute, twice 

 the length of the petals, which are oblong-lanceolate. This elegant 

 shrub is about 6 feet in height, and is a native of Peru about Chincao 

 and Mima, in shady groves. It has scarlet flowers 2 inches long, 

 which hong down in beautiful corymbs. The berries are ovate- 

 oblong, of a reddish-purple colour. This plant, although described 

 by Ruiz and Pavon, was only introduced into our gardens about 

 the year 1838, and is now justly considered the most ornamental 

 species of this beautiful genus. 



P. arboreta**, the Arborescent Fuchsia, has glabrous branches, the 

 leaves three in a whorl, oval-oblong, acuminated at both ends, ]"(;- 

 late, quite entire ; the panicle terminal, trichotomous, nearly naked ; 

 the calyx funnel-shaped, with the lobes ovate, acute, and spreodiugly 

 reflexed, also the petals. It is a native of Mexico, and has been intro- 

 duced into this country since 1824. It is a larger plant than most of 

 the species, not unfrequently attaining a height of 15 feet. 



/'. yracilu, the Slender Fuchsia, has the branches finely pubescent ; 

 the leaves opposite, glabrous, on long petioles remotely denticulated ; 

 the pedicels axillary, nodding, as long as the calyx ; the lobes of the 

 calyx oblong-acute, exceeding the petals, which ore convolute and 

 retusn ; the stigmas undivided. This plant was first dcscril>ed by 

 Lindley, and has been grown in this country since 1823. The flowers 

 have a scarlet calyx and purple petals. 



About fifty species of I'urhsia have been described, and many more 

 than those named above have been introduced into the gardens of 

 Europe. They are all American plants. They thrive well in a rich 

 light soil ; and young cuttings of them strike root readily in the same 

 kind of soil when covered over with a hand-glass. Many will grow in 

 the open air in this country throughout the winter with a very slight 

 protection. When planted in clump* on lawns or borders they should 

 be mulched at the root to preserve them through the winter. In the 

 spring, when the ground is cleared, the stems of the preceding year, 

 which are generally dead, should be cut off quite close to the ground, 

 to allow tljp young shoots to spring from the root 



(Don, IHcHlamydeoiu Plant* ; Walpers, Kepertorinm liolanica 

 Sytttmatictr, vol. ii. ; Bischoff, Lrhrbucli tier Bvtanik.) 



FUCHSITE, a Green Mica from the Zillerthal, containing 4 per 

 cent of oxide of chromium. From the crystallisation of mica, two 

 additional species have been made out of the old species so called. 

 The common mica has an oblique prism for its primary. Many micas 

 when in perfect crystals have the form of a hexagonal prism, ami 

 but one axis of polarisation ; this last fact proving the primary to 

 be a regular hexagonal prism. This species is properly distinguished, 

 and has boon called hexagonal mica. 



FUCOIU.KA. [PsEUDozOAUiA.l 



FUCOI'DKS, the vogue title for many Fossil Marine Plants, given 

 by Brongniart They are mostly referred to other genera by later 

 writer*. There is a peculiar geological interest in the distribution of 

 Fucoids, since Dr. Forchhammer (' Reports to the British Asso- 

 ciation,' 1844) has shown the probability of their influence in the 

 mctamorphism of rocks. 



FfCUS. [FOOtou] 



FULGOKA, a genus of Hemiptorous Insects, popularly known as 

 Lantern-Flies, on account of their power of emitting light in the 

 dark. The Fulgora lalrrnnria of Linntcus is the type. It is a native 

 of South America. The form of this insect is very remarkable, on 

 account of the regular inflated and enormous head, out of which the 

 phosphorescence was said to proceed. The celebrated Mademoiselle 

 Mcrian was the first naturalist who observed this property, and in 

 her great work on the insects of Surinam she gives an account of her 



