98 SEA-WEEDS. 



manure. We may see in England the little 

 cart, or the larger wagon, loaded with these dark 

 tinted weeds, wending its way along some of the 

 green lanes in districts near the sea, and about to 

 deposit its load on the land. But in Ireland this 

 kind of manure is often the only one which the 

 poor man can procure, and the storm which brings 

 up from the ocean depths the large masses of 

 fuci, is often a source of comfort to the Irish pea- 

 sants, who gather on the shore in large companies, 

 at such seasons, in order to appropriate the store 

 of the sea. Dr. Greville states that the dried 

 frond is used for fuel in several parts of the North, 

 and that in the Hebrides cheeses are dried without 

 salt, by means of the ashes procured by burning 

 this plant. These ashes contain half their weight 

 in alkaline salt. Its bladders also yield iodine, 

 the quantity of which is said by Sir Humphry 

 Davy to vary according to the climate under 

 which the plant grows ; for this sea-weed, unlike 

 our other common fuci, has a wide range, and 

 flourishes within the Arctic circle, and lifts a 

 smaller frond to the waves which beat on some 

 tropical shores. It was from this plant that Dr. 

 Russell procured the black salt powder, called 

 Vegetable Ethiops, which has been used in medi- 

 cine, and is also an excellent dentifrice. The 

 frond of the bladder fucus has a rib or vein up its 

 middle, and air vessels, from the size of a pea to a 

 hazel nut, in pairs, scattered irregularly over its 

 substance. 



Another of the very common fuci is the Prickly 

 Tang, or Saw-leaved Fucus (Fucus serratus), which 

 is as frequent as the bladder-wrack, and much 

 like it ; the length of its fronds varying from two 



