” Bucis 
F. digitatus. 
‘writers. 
20 
in the form of naked grains. Lamouroux is of opi- 
nion, that it is to be sought in certain tubercular ex+ 
erescences sometimes to be observed near the base: 
or root of the plant. Turner has lately ascertained, 
that the seeds, or perhaps capsules containing seeds, 
are situated in the substance of the frond; that they 
are’ of a pyrivorm shape, and crowded together; and 
that they escape as the epidermis melts away. 
F. digitatus: « The root fibrous; stipes or stem 
woody, cylindrical, expanded at its apex into a single 
cartilaginous, flat, nerveless, roundish leaf, quite en- 
tire at its margins, deeply cleft into numerous ensiform, 
mostly simple segments.”—This species has in England 
received the appellation of sea girdles and hangers, and 
in Scotland it is very generally known by the name of 
tangle: in Orkney it is called red-ware, It is the Skal- 
metare of the Norwegians, and the slat-mhara or sea- 
wand of the Scots Highlanders, Itis one of the largest 
native species, having a stem often three feet in length, 
and a large divided frond ; and was denominated phy- 
codendron- or Fucus arboreus by: some of the older 
It is very abundant on all our rocky shores, 
growing chiefly on rocks which are only partially un- 
covered at the lowest ebbs, so that in neap tides the 
fronds are scarcely perceptible. The root consists of 
a congeries of thick horny fibres, often covered with Ba- 
lanus striatus, and the interstices inhabited by asterias 
spherulata and other vermes. In deep water, exposed 
to a moderate current, but protected from the neeee 
action of the waves, it attains a great size, the stal 
becoming as thick as one’s wrist, from three to four 
feet long, and the fronds of corresponding length, per- 
haps from ten to twelve feet. Both Turner and Wah- 
lenberg seem to doubt whether F. saccharinus (next 
described) and this, be specifically distinct. Wahlen- 
berg observes, that, near the shore, the winds and 
- waves prevent a large growth, or the copious produc- 
tion of mucilage, and that in this way the appearance 
of F. digitatus is so much changed, that a new name 
(saecharinus) is applied to it. We must be excused for 
remarking, however, that we have seen specimens of. 
Fucus saccharinus cast ashore from the Frith of Forth, 
which measured fifteen feet in length ; and for adding, 
that the Fucus digitatus which grows at the Bl 
Rocks near Leith exposed to winds and wayes, is uni-+ 
formly possessed of the distinctive characters of F. di- 
gitatus as described by Turner. In Scotland, the very 
young stalks and leaves are eaten along with dulse, or 
F. palmatus, *Old Gerrard indites, that being boiled 
tender, and eaten with butter, pepper and vinegar, it 
makes-good food, But at present it is employed only 
in the raw state. On the shores of some of the Ork- 
ney islands, particularly Westray, it is cut by means 
of long knives or-scythes, managed by men in_ boats 
at low water ; itis tied in large bundles, and being 
floated ashore, sis burned into kelp in reverberato- 
ry furnaces. .Captain Richan of Rapness has consi-» 
derable merit m ‘forming a very-pure kelp by these 
means. It may be stated, that Dr Traill of Liverpool, 
from a series of experiments made by him while resi- 
dent in the northern islands, found that its fronds yield- 
ed more kelp than equal portions of F. vesiculosus, or 
any of the other species generally used in the manufac- 
ture. 
In Scotland the stems are sometimes: put to rather 
an unexpected. use,—the making of knive-handles. A 
pretty thick stem is selected. and cut into pieces about 
four inches long. Into these, while fresh, are stuck 
blades of knives, such as gardeners use for pruning and 
FUCI. 
grafting. As the stem dries it contracts and hardens, 
closely and firmly embracing the hilt of the blade. In’ 
the course of some months the handles become quite: 
firm, and very hard and shrivelled, so that, when tipt 
with metal, they are hardly to be distinguished from 
hiartshorn. In the north of Scotland, and especially in the 
Orkney and Shetland islands, the large stalks are dried 
and used as fuel. This is likewise done in Norway, 
and on some of the shores of France, where fuel is 
nearly equally scarce, but much less needed. The 
stems are algo invested with many parasitic fuci’ 
and confervee, and not unfrequently with the shell-fish’ 
called anomia ephippium and scala. » 
A curious fact may be mentioned relative to this spe- 
cies. Dr Yule of Edinburgh being en in some 
experiments, in order to ascertain the state in which the 
saline matter exists naturally in the fuci, had some thick» 
stems of F. digitatus hung up in his cellar. From dif- 
ferent parts of one of these, young shoots of frondiets 
germinated,—of great delicacy and beauty, being nearly 
transparent.. Do the fuci, then, produce buds from their 
stems, like most land plants ; or did these germs origi« * 
nate from seeds accidentally attached to the stem, when 
in its native element? On being brought into a warm 
room, the. young shoots speedily decayed. 
F. bulbosus: “* The root hollow, swollen into a bulb, F. bulbo 
rough all over; stipes coriaceous, flat; twisted once at its’ 
origin, its margins undulated in the lower part ; its a 
expanded into a single, cartilaginous, flat, nerveless leaf, 
entire at its margins, deeply cleft into numerous ensi- 
form, mostly simple segments, The fructification con- 
sists in oblong seeds immersed in the ins of the 
stipes.”—-This is the Fucus polyschides of the Flora 
Scolica, sometimes called sea furbelows. In size it far 
exceeds any other sea-weed found on our shores, and: _ 
is certainly not undeserving the titles’ of giganteus and» 
arboreus, sometimes bestowed on it by the earlier bo« 
tanists. It is very curious that, notwithstanding its 
size, Linnzeus seems to have been unacquainted with it. 
It sometimes occurs twelve feet | ; and it is of such 
a specimen in its wet state, that Lightfoot s when 
he says, that a single plant isa sufficient load for a man’s. 
shoulders. It is plentiful. in the Pentland: Frith, and 
numbers of large specimens are frequently cast ashore 
in the bay of Thurso, as well as on the Orkneys. It 
is likewise pretty common among the Western Islands.. 
It is found more sparingly on the east coast of Scot- 
land. -On the shores of the:south of England, of France, 
and in the Mediterranean, it. is very abundant. It is’ 
always found in deep water, occupying very common< 
ly, in the southern seas of 
bitat which F. digitatus generally fills in the north. It) 
very often forms a constituent of the drift-ware collect- 
ed on the Scottish shores after storms, and either burnt 
into kelp, or laid on corn lands as a manure. ~ 
In treating of the kelp fuci, it has already 
tioned, that most of them yield a substitute for winter 
provender to cattle on the bleak shores of northern 
countries. Some others, which are frequently employ- 
ed as articles of human sustenance, and which have 
sometimes saved the inhabitants of those countries from 
the horrors of famine, are now to be enumerated ; with 
the addition of two or three which are occasionally em- 
ployed as ingredients in salads and condiments. ; 
. saccharinus: ‘* The root fibrous; fibres long and p 
branching ; stipes almost woody, cylindrical, undivided, nus. 
expanding at its apex into a single cartilaginous flat © 
simple linear oblong nerveless leaf, entire at its mar- 
_gins; .the fructification consists in scattered seeds im-~ 
v 
Europe; those kinds of ha< . 
been men~ peoutent 
‘ 
— 
ae 
