34 COMMON SEAWEEDS. 



Guernsey horse has to swim, and the cartload floats 

 on the bosom of the inexorable tide which waits for 

 no man. 



Out of the cutting season there is still a vraicking 

 always more or less going on. After every gale of 

 wind, the waves cast up the Fucus they have torn 

 from deep sea rocks, and women and children rake it 

 in, spread it on the sandy or shingly shore to dry, 

 then stack it for winter fuel, the ashes of which is the 

 best manure of all for fields under crop. Fresh vraic 

 is laid on as top-dressing for fallow ground or green 

 pastures. 



In the Hebrides, cheeses are dried by being covered 

 with the ashes of this plant, which abounds in salt. 

 In the Highlands, during snow-storms, the red deer 

 descends from the wild mountains to the shore, to 

 feed on this seaweed. The vesicles, which are full of 

 a glutinous substance, are most valuable, both as a 

 remedy for glandular affections, and, when bottled in 

 rum, as an embrocation, really efficacious in rheumatic 

 pains, and for ricketty or bandy-legged children. 



Eor glandular swellings, the plant is burnt to a 

 black powder, and taken inwardly. 



"We now come to the botanical description of the 

 plant and the number of its species. 



The four common Fuci on our coast are 

 Fucus JS r odosus, Knobbed Wrack. 



Fucus Vesiculosus, Bladder Wrack. 



Fucus Serratus, Serrated Seaweed. 



Fucus Caniculatus, Channelled Seaweed. 



Generic character. — A flat, brown, leathery frond, 

 branched, and abounding with air vessels. The fruit 



