168 HAY ON MARINE ALGiE 



the rocks for miles are clothed with them. On the sandy shores of the Gulf of St. Law- 

 rence, the Fuci miss the rocks which afford them a substantial foothold, and are of rarer 

 occurrence. The zone of the Laminarise extends from low-water mark to several fathoms 

 in depth. They occur in greatest profusion on the Gulf of St. Lawrence coast, where, after 

 a southerly gale, vast masses thrown up by the waves may be observed for miles along 

 the shore. On the southern coast their occurrence is somewhat rare for a considerable 

 distance east and west of St. John, probably owing to the strength of the tides which 

 sweep them from their resting-places. Towards the mouth of the bay, however, they 

 occur in greater abundance. 



Only two forms of Fucus are common on the coast of New Brunswick, viz., Fucus 

 nodosus {Ascophyllum nodosum) and F. vesiadosus. These two species form nearly the whole 

 covering of tidal rocks in the vicinity of St. John, and westward to Passamaquoddy Bay. 

 Dr. Harvey, in his introduction to the " Nereis Boreali- Americana," remarks on the poverty 

 of species of Fucus on the north-east coast of America, compared with the northern coasts 

 of Europe. Of the four species found in abundance in Europe, two of these, F. serralus 

 and F. canaliculatus, had not been found in America at the time of Harvey's visit in 1850. 

 The latter has not yet occurred here. The former is mentioned in the supplement to the 

 " Nereis " as having been found at Newburyport, Mass., but has not since been detected 

 there or at any other point on the New England coast. A specimen of this plant, collected 

 at Pictou by Rev. Prof. Fowler in 1869, is in the Natural History Society's Herbarium in 

 St. John. It has not yet been reported from the New Brunswick coast. Two other spe- 

 cies of Fucus occur here, confined as yet to a single locality for each, although they may 

 be expected elsewhere, as Dr. Farlow describes them as common on the New England 

 coast, viz., F. evanescens 1 found at Frye's Island, and F. furcatus just below low- water mark 

 on the flat shores on the north-west side of Miscou Island. These two species have not 

 yet been reported from Nova Scotia. 



Although the Fuci are excellent fertilisers, very little use is made of them in that 

 respect in New Brunswick. Near the southern coast of the province they are used to a 

 limited extent on grass lands. I noticed some fine fields of grass on Grand Manan, last 

 August, w T here these plants had been used as a top-dressing. Applied fresh to the land 

 after the grass has been cut, and kept moist by the fogs which prevail there, they rapidly 

 decompose and melt into the ground. The experience of those who have used them for 

 fertilising purposes goes to prove that they yield the best results when used fresh. Their 

 value as fertilisers is diminished, if used for other than grass crops ; or if carted for any 

 considerable distance from shore, owing to the expense of conveying so bulky a material. 

 In some countries (Ireland and Scotland), crops of potatoes are raised by their means, but 

 the crops thus yielded, though abundant, are of coarse and inferior quality. The ashes of 

 the Fuci contain a large quantity of carbonate of soda ; and Dr. Harvey states that they 

 were once cultivated on the shores of Scotland, where rocks were deposited to attract them 

 to sandy or pebbly shores. The total amount of revenue, says the same author, derived by 

 the proprietors of these kelp shores on the coast of Scotland, during the eighty years from 

 A.D. 1*720 to 1800, was .£595,000. But this trade was long since destroyed by obtaining 



1 Quite as common at Eastport as F. vesiculosus, for which it might be mistaken." Farlow's Marine Algse of 

 New England. 



