Geogr. Distr. Atlantic shores of Europe and North America. Mediterranean 

 Sea. Baltic. The Icy Sea. White Sea. Iceland. Greenland. Nova 

 Zembla. Spitsbergen. California. Sitcha and Sachalin. Siberia at Ochotsk 

 and Kamtskatka. Canary Islands. South Brazil (?). Cape of Good 

 Hope (?), Ecklon. 



Descr. Root, an expanded, conical disc. Fronds from two inches to two or 

 three feet in length, and from a line to nearly an inch in breadth, flat, 

 furnished with a strong, compressed, percurrent mid-rib, many times 

 dichotomous, sometimes spirally twisted ; the margin very entire. Air- 

 vessels generally in pairs, one at each side of the mid-rib, spherical or oval, 

 their size varying with the breadth of the frond, formed at uncertain 

 intervals along the segments. Receptacles terminal, turgid, and full of lax 

 mucus, variable in form, elliptical, ovate, or linear-lanceolate, sometimes 

 forked, dioecious ; those producing spores, of a greenish-olive colour ; those 

 with antheridia, a more or less bright orange yellow. Substance thickish 

 and very tough. Colour, a dark olive, paler in the younger parts. 



The commonest and one of the most widely diffused species of 

 the restricted genus Fucus. It abounds along the shores of the 

 Northern Atlantic, extending even to the tropics, and is said to 

 have been found in the Southern portion of that Ocean, but the 

 Southern localities want confirmation. In the Pacific, it has 

 been collected on the N. West coast of America. 



As may be judged by the numerous synonyms, this is rather a 

 variable plant, but the variations may be summed up in a few 

 words. The first and most obvious is in size ; some specimens, 

 fully grown and in fruit, being not an inch in length, while 

 others extend to several feet. The dwarfish individuals, con- 

 stituting our var. /3, grow in brackish water and in muddy places. 

 Other varieties are destitute of air-vessels ; or have the air-vessels 

 of a lengthened figure : and others vary in the shape of the 

 fructification, the receptacle being sometimes globose, sometimes 

 ellipsoidal, and sometimes spindle-shaped. Lastly, the frond is 

 frequently spirally twisted. On characters such as these, the 

 eight book-species, quoted as synonyms, have been constituted. 



Fucus vesiculosus is largely used in the manufacture of kelp ; 

 and also yields mannite in considerable quantity. In the north 

 of Europe, when the vegetation of the land ceases, or is covered 

 with snow, it furnishes an abundant winter fodder for cattle, 

 which regularly visit the shores, at the retreat of the tide, in 

 search of it. Various are the uses to which the Icelanders and 

 Greenlanders apply it, as Linnaeus and others inform us. 



Tig. 1. Fucus vesiculosus; a branch. 2. A pair of lanceolate receptacles: — 

 hot h of the natural size. 3. Section of a spore-bearing receptacle. 4. Spores 

 and paraphyses from the same : — both magnified. 



