ALGACE^. 



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. 



134-5. F. vesiculosus Linn. sp. pi. 1626. E. Sot. 1. 1066. 

 Grev. Scott. Crypt, fl. 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 ^ 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, in 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 



