Puck 
—— 
Order in 
which fuci 
grow on 
the shore. 
Floating 
sea-weeds, 
Mar do 
Sargasso, 
16 
finer in Orkney than in. Cornwall: it has been obser- 
ved eyen in Davis, Straits... 
Many species which grow most abundantly on) all 
the shores of Europe. which are oven to the great 
ocean, are not. to be found in the Baltic Sea, the waters 
of which are less salt; and are little affected» by the in- 
fluence of the tides. Hasselquist, in his. Travels, ex- 
pressess delight at meeting with our common F, saccha- 
rinus when he first coed senso Saris of those 
ies, particularly F. vesiculosus, which grow very 
orga in the lochs or friths of the west of Scotland, do 
not appear in the Baltic, . F. nodosus and serratus, it 
may be added, continue near to the heads of the Seot~ 
tish arms, of the sea; and F.. canaliculatus is found in 
the most extreme corners to which the  sea-beach)can 
be said to extend; being exceeded only by. F. amphibi- 
us, (Turn. t. 109,;) which grows: like a coralloidal lichen, 
parasitically on herbaceous plants, in salt marshes. On 
the banks of rivers too, where they enter the sea, F. ca- 
niculatus is found very high up, even among the brack- 
ish water, : ui 
On our, open sea-shores a certain, order is observed 
in the habitat of the fuci, each’ species occupying pretty 
regularly its own zone or station. | Pofilmw or sea- 
laces grows in water some. fathoms deep. In: places 
where the tide seldom entirely ebbs, but generally leaves 
from two to three feet .of water, grow E. esculentus and 
bulbosus, and the’ larger specimens sof! digitatus and 
saccharinus,. with some small kinds, as-F. palmatus, si- 
liquosus, and sanguineus.._ In places uncovered only:at 
the lowest ebbs, smaller plants of; digitatus and sacchas' 
rinus abound, with F. loreus or» sea-thongs. _On the 
beaches uncovered by every tidée, F. serratus occurs 
lowest down, along with crispus and mamillosus; next 
comes F’..nodosus; and higher up, F: vesiculosus. Be- 
yond this F., canaliculatus (already (mentioned) still 
grows, thriving very well.if only wet at flood tide, and 
though, liable to. become dry and shrivelled’ during a 
great pas of the day, ‘Lastly, F. pygmeus, figured by: 
Lightfoot, 
the spray. 
Floating Sea-weeds. 
The great accumulations of sea-weed found floating 
in the Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian Oceans, on each side 
of the equator, nearly to the 40th degree of north and 
south latitude, have already been alluded to; but they 
are not undeserving’ of! further attention. 
The Mar do Sargisso (or sew of seasweeds) of the 
Portuguese, stretches between the 18th and 32d: 
lels of north latitude, and the 25th and 40th meridians 
of west longitude. It is often called the Grassy Sea, 
and is mentioned by many navigators. It is. thus 
described by, Barrow, in his Voyage to Cechinchina : 
“ The surface of the sea for several days was literally 
covered with plants. Some of them were many feet in 
diameter ; others only a few inches: all appeared in a 
growing state. The globose berries (by which Mr Bar= 
row means the air-yesicles ) were in some plants green ; 
in others red. If taken out of the water, the plant be- 
came flaccid, and in the of four and twenty hours 
turned brown or black. The naturalist in every plant 
may find.a t. variety of marine insects’ and worms, 
some naked and others with testaceous coverings.” 
Those plants with green vesicles, it may be.remarked,) 
were probably specifically distinct from such as had! 
red, 
It is stated by Humboldt in his Personal Narrative, 
(t. 32.) is satisfied: if if be within reach of 
| FUCL 
size and beauty. as we’ proceed northwards, and ismucl:, 
that in the great basin of the Aflantit Northern Ocean, 
there exist two banks of floating sea-weed. . The most 
extensive is’a little west of the meridian of) /one 
of the Azores, between Jatitude 25° and: 36°), Violent 
north winds sometimes prevail in this:space, and drive 
the sea-weed to the low latitudes, as far as\24° or even 
20°, Vessels.returning to’ either from Monte 
Video or the Cape of Go pe, eross the bank near~ 
ly. at an equal distance from the Antilles and Canaries. 
The other occupies a much smaller space between 22° 
and 26°, eighty leagues west of the meridian of the Ba« 
hama Islands. It is.generally traversed by vessels on 
the passage from the Caiques'to'the Bermudas,; 
. Columbus ‘and Lerius encountered most: extensive 
banks of floating fuci im: their adventurous voyage : 
th them to extensive inundated meadows, 
pre wearer of their impeding ‘the: pro; of the 
vessels. So novel a scene produced: no: little: conster~ 
nation and.alarm in the crew of the Santa Maria.) ~~ 
' Detached patches of floating sea-weeds of various ex 
tent, but not deserving the name of banks or meadows, 
are met with indifferent parts of the Atlantic. ~ Bons 
land observed such patches to the north of the Cape’ 
erd Islands, APL alter Le aikes 
eatery pay ages ba tlt loner ompaart 
Pla m, says, “ Vegetabile; inter ommiarin” 
orbe suadentchecale , alto boned this title he inclu» 
ded.a considerable number of ‘species, ‘indeed all that 
generally occur in’ the» ** sea of sea-weeds.” » Tur- 
ner was the first who effectually distributed the Lins 
nean Fucus natans into various species. He remarks 
that they form a tribe by Ives; th clear- 
these floating sea-weeds were natives of the Gulf of Mex- 
ico, and were carried across the Atlantic by the Great: 
Stream: \hence the common name: of d. It is 
very evident, however, thatthe Gulf Stream would convey 
them rather to the Banks of Newfoundland that to the 
latitudes in which they usually occur; and it could notin 
any ease accumulate then to’ the south of the Azores. 
There is no doubt that it was the opinion of Linneus: 
gathered in their native place of growth, where they 
were fixed to the rocks; It appears likely that they 
won rocks, probably at’ very:consiclerable depths, 
fy thi Atlantie, Pacific, and Indian Oceans, whence 
they are carried, among other rejectamenta of the seas 
to the shores of almost every’ country, accumulating 
however on the surface of the ocean, in certain lati- 
tudes, owing to™ ailing winds and currents. - Some 
are inclined to think, that, being torn front their native 
rocks before they attain ese , they perfect: their 
seeds while in w Honting state; andit seems not unlike- 
ly that this may sometimes be the case. M. Humboldt, 
however, is of a different opinion : he thinks’ that 
tation can scarcely continue for a longer time in a 
tached floating sea-weed, than it would do in the branch 
of a tree torn from its trunk; and he considers these 
floating fields‘as composed of plants which have passed 
maturity.. ° , 
 Itis a very difficult to explain'why mo~ 
ving’ masses of marine plants should be for ages 
nearly in the same local positions: When decaying, they 
may indeed be supposed to be carried away by the equi- 
5 
Fuchs) 
