ACOTYLEDONS. ALGJE. FltOUS. 95 



brane of the frond, receptacles solitary terminal compressed 

 turgid mostly elliptical. Turn. Hist. Fuc. t. 88. E. ..1066* 

 Lightf. p. 904, and p. 910 (F. inflates), and p. 909 (-F. di- 

 varicatus). 



/3. spiralis, frond twisted in a spiral manner, vesicles none, re* 

 ceptacles roundish. Turn. F. spiralis, Lightf. p t 911. . J3* 

 f. 1685. 



>j. lineartSy frond narrow dwarfish, vesicles none, receptacles long 

 between linear and lanceolate. Turn. F. dis fichus, Lightf. 

 .912. 



HAB. Rocky shores, abundant. /3. Shore near Leith and Newhaven, 

 Mr. Yalden. y. Loch S tennis, in Orkney, Dr. Hope. 



This species is by far the most abundantly employed in the manufac- 

 turing of kelp, if it be not the best. But this, important as it is in 

 a commercial point of view, is not the only end it serves. In the 

 isles of Jura and Skye it is frequently a winter food for cattle, 

 which regularly come down to the shores at the recess of the tide 

 to seek for it j and sometimes even the deer have been known to 

 descend from the mountains to the sea-side to feed upon this plant, 

 Linnaeus informs us that the inhabitants of Gothland, in Sweden, 

 boil this Fucus with water, and, mixing with it a little coarse meal 

 or flour, feed their hogs with it j for which reason they call the plant 

 Swintang : and in Scania, he says, the poor people cover their cot- 

 tages with it, and use it for fuel. In Jura and some other He- 

 brides, the inhabitants dry their cheeses without salt, by covering 1 

 them with the ashes of this plant j which abounds so much in salt, 

 that from five ounces of the ashes may be procured two ounces and 

 a half of fixed alkaline salts, or half their weight. The medicinal 

 virtues of this Fucus have been much celebrated by Dr. Russel,. in 

 his Dissertation concerning the Uses of Sea-water in Diseases of the 

 Glands. He found the saponaceous mucus or liquor in the vesicles 

 of this plant to be an e'xcellent resolvent, extremely serviceable in 

 dispersing all scorbutic or scrophulous swellings of the glands ; and 

 by calcining the plant in the open air, he made a very black salt 

 powder, which he called vegetable SEthiops, a medicine that has 

 been much in use as a resolvent and deobstruent, and recommend- 

 ed also as an excellent dentifrice, to correct the scorbutic laxity of 

 the gums, and take off the foulness of the mouth, Lightf. 



8. F. serratus, frond coriaceous flat with a central rib linear di- 

 chotomous serrated at the margins, receptacles solitary termi- 

 nal flat linear serrated sharpish. Turn. Hist. Fuc. .90. 

 Lightf. p.9Q2. E.B.tA22l. 



HAB. Rocks on the shores, most abundant. 



The serrated fronds and absence of vesicles will always distinguish 

 this species. It contains far less salt than the last species, and 

 is consequently much less esteemed for kelp. In Norway it is the 

 food of cattle, sprinkled with a little meal, according to Gunner. 

 The Dutch cover their crabs and lobsters with it, and say that it is 

 preferable to F. vesiculosus, because the mucus from the vesicles of 

 the latter ferments and soon becomes putrid. 



