Fucus VESICULOSUS. 



ONE can hardly take up a pharmaceutical or medical journal of 

 the day without seeing something in it about the wonderful 

 anti-fat remedy Fucus Vesiculosus. The questions naturally pre- 

 sent themselves, where is it from ? what is it ? how does it look ? 

 With these questions in mind, we will study it for a short time. 



It is found in great abundance on the shores of the Atlantic, 

 from Greenland to the Canary Isles, both on the American and on 

 the European coasts. It grows where it can a part of the time be 

 covered by water and a part of the time be dry, so it is found 

 between tide marks on almost all of the rocks and stones. It lines 

 our Western coast from Kamchatka to California. It is used in 

 large quantities in making kelp, and in many of the European 

 islands and in Scotland is used as fodder for horses and cattle ; 

 while, on our Eastern shore, it is sold by the wagon-load as a 

 fertilizer. No satisfactory chemical test has as yet been made. It 

 contains much soda in saline combination, and iodine in the state 

 of iodide of potassium. 



We find mentioned in part "D" of the United States Dispensa- 

 tory that Fucus Vesiculosus belongs to the cryptogamic algae in the 

 sexual system, and to the natural order algacece. There can 

 be a question raised at this point, as there is no natural order 

 known in botany as algacece. It does belong to the sea weeds 

 alga and is found in cryptogamic botany. For the use of those 

 who would like to trace it out we give below a synopsis of the gen- 

 eral plan.* 



The Fucus is from two inches to two feet in length, and from 

 one half an inch to an inch and a half in width. It grows 

 attached to rocks or stones by an expanded disc-shaped root. The 



*BOTANY: Phaenogamic or flowering plants; Cryptogamic or flowerless plants: Ferns, 

 Mosses, Lichens, Fungi (molds, rusts, blights *-tc.); Algae (sea-weeds): Chorospermese (green 

 algae), Florideae (red); Melanosporse (brown): Phaesp.'reae, Dictyoteae, Sargassum, Fucus 



Fucus has nearly a hundred varieties, the most prominent of which are vesiculosus, nodc- 

 sus, serratus, fastigiatus, distichus, platycarpus, etc. 



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