than some others, eight ounces of the ashes 
yielding only three of fixed salt. The Dutch 
cover their crabs and lobsters with this fucus, 
to keep them alive and moist, and prefer it 
to any other, as being destitute of those mu- 
cous vesicles with which some of the rest 
abound, and which would sooner ferment and 
become putrid. 
2. The vesiculosus, bladder fucus, com- 
mon sea-wrack, or sea-ware. It grows in 
great abundance on the sea-rocks about low- 
water-mark, producing its fructifications in 
July and August. It has the same habit, co- 
lour, and substance as the foregoing, but dif- 
fers from it in the following respects: tiie 
edges of the leaf have no serratures, but are 
quite entire. In the disc or surface are im- 
mersed hollow, spherical, or oval air-blad- 
ders, hairy within, growing generally in 
pairs, but often single in the angles of the 
branches, which are most probably air-blad- 
ders destined to buoy up the plant in the wa- 
ter. Lastly, on the summits or extreme seg- 
ments of the leaves appear tumid vesicles 
about three quarters of an inch long, some- 
times oval and in pairs, sometimes single and 
bifid, with a clear viscid mucus interspersed 
with downy hairs. This species is an excel- 
lent manure for land; for which purpose it is 
often applied in the maritime parts of Scot- 
land and other countries. In the islands of 
Jura and Skye it frequently serves as a win- 
ter food for cattle, which regularly come 
down to the shores at the recess of the tides 
to seek for it. And sometimes even the stags 
Have been observed, after a storm, to de- 
scend from the mountains to the sea-sides to 
feed upon this plant. 
Lin nas us informs us, that the inhabitants of 
Gothland in Sweden boil this fucus in water, 
and, mixing with it a little coarse meal 
or flour, feed their hogs with it ; for which 
reason they call the plant swinetang. And in 
Scania, he says, the poor people cover their 
cottages with it, and sometimes use it for fuel. 
In Jura, and some other of the Hebrides, 
the inhabitants dry their cheeses without salt, 
by covering them with the ashes of this 
plant, which abounds with such a quantity of 
salts, that from five ounces of the ashes may 
be procured two ounces and a half of fixed 
alkaline salts, that is, half to their whole 
weight. But the most beneficial use to which 
the fucus vesiculosus is applied, in the way 
of economy, is in making pot-ash or kelp, a 
work much practised in the Western Isles. 
There is great difference in the goodness 
•arid price of this commodity, and much care 
and skill required in properly making it. 
That is esteemed the best which is hardest, 
finest grained, and free from sand or earth. 
The price of kelp in Jura is 31. 10s. per ton, 
aud about 40 or 50 tons are exported annu- 
ally from that island. So great a value is set 
upon this fucus by the inhabitants of that 
place, that they have sometimes thought it 
worth their while to roll fragments of rocks 
and huge stones into the sea, in order to in- 
vite the growth of it. 
Its virtues in the medical way hare been 
much celebrated by Dr. Russel, in his Dis- 
sertation concerning the use of Sea-water in 
the Diseases of the Glands. He found the 
saponaceous liquor or mucus in the vesicles 
of this plant to be an excellent resolvent, ex- 
tremely serviceable in dispersing all scorbutic 
and scrophulous swellings of the glands. He 
FUCUS. 
recommends the patient to rub the tumour 
with these vesicles bruised in his hand, till 
the mucus has thoroughly penetrated the 
part, and afterwards to wash with sea water. 
Or otherwise, to gather two pounds of the 
tumid vesicles, in the month of July, when 
they are full of mucus, and infuse them in a 
quart of sea water, in a glass vessel, for the 
space of 15 days, when the liquor will have 
acquired nearly the consistence of honey. 
Then strain it olf through a linen cloth, and 
rub this liquor with the hand, as before, three | 
or four times a day, upon any hard or scro- j 
phulous swellings, washing the parts after- j 
wards with sea water ; and nothing can be 
more efficacious to disperse them. Even 
scirrhosities, he says, in women's breasts, 
have been dispelled by this treatment. I he 
same author, by calcining the plant in the 
open air, made a very black salt powder, 
which he called vegetable sethiops; a medi- 
cine much in use as a resolvent and ueot>- j 
struent, and recommended also as an excel- 
lent dentifrice to correct the scorbutic laxity 
of the gums, and to take off the foulness of 
the teeth. 
3. The plicatus, matted or Indian-grass 
fucus, grows on the sea-shores in many places 
both of England and Scotland. It is gene- 
rally about three or four, but sometimes six, 
inches long. Its colour, alter being exposed 
to the sun and air, is yellowish or auburn ; ; 
its substance pellucid, tough, and horny, so 
as to bear a strong resemblance to what an- j 
glers call Indian-grass, that is, the tendrils 
issuing from the ovary of the dog fish. 
4. The palmatus, palmated or sweet fucus, J 
commonly called dulse or dilse. This grows 
plentifully on the sea-coasts of Scotland and 
the adjoining islands. Its substance is mem- 
branaceous, thin, and pellucid ; the colour 
red, sometimes green with a little mixture of 
red ; its length generally about five cr six 
inches, but vai ies from three inches to a foot ; 
its manner of growth fan-shaped, or gradually 
dilated from the base upwards. Its divisions 
are extremely various. The inhabitants both 
of Scotland and England take pleasure in 
eating this plant, without expecting any me- 
dical virtues from it. The inhabitants of the 
Archipelago also are fond of it, as we learn 
from Stelier. They sometimes eat it raw, 
but esteem it most when added to ragouts, 
oglios, &c. to which it gives a red colour, 
and, dissolving, renders them thick and gela- 
tinous. In the isle of Skye it is sometimes 
used in fevers to promote a sweat, being boil- 
ed in water with the addition of a little butter. 
In this manner it also frequently purges. The 
leaves, infused in water, exhale a scent like 
that of dried violets. 
5. The esculentus, eatable fucus, or blad- 
der-locks, commonly called tangle in Scot- 
land, is likewise a native of the British shores. 
It is commonly about four feet long, and 
seven or eight inches wide; but is sometimes 
found three yards or more in length, and a 
foot in width. Small specimens are not 
. hove a cubit long, and two inches broad. 
The substance is thin, m inbranaceous, and 
pellucid; the colour green or olive. The 
root consists of tough cartilaginous libres. 
The stalk is about six inches long, and half 
an inch wide, nearly square, and pinnated in 
the middle between the root and origin of 
the leaf, with ten or a dozen pair of thick, 
cartilaginous, oval-obtuse, foliaceous liga- 
TSi 
ments, each about two inches long, and 
crowded together. The leal is ot an oval-, 
lanceolate, or long elliptic form, simple and 
undivided, waved on the edges, and widely 
ribbed in the middle from bottom to top, 
the stalk running through its whole length, 
and standing out on both sides ot the leaf. 
This fucus is eaten in the north both by men 
and cattle. Its proper season is in the month 
of September, when it is in the greatest per- 
fection. The membranous part is rejec ted, 
and the stalk only is eaten. It is recom- 
mended in the disorder called pica, to 
strengthen the stomach and restore the ap- 
petite. 
(j. The saccharinus, sweet fucus, or sea- 
belt, is very common on the sea-coast, 'ihe 
substance of this is cartilaginous and leathern, 
and the leaf is quite riblcss. By these cha- 
racters it is distinguished from the preced- 
ing, to which it is nearly allied. It consists 
only of one simple, linear, elliptic leaf, of a 
tav. nv green colour, about five feet long, and 
three" inches wide in its full-grown state, but 
varies so exceedingly as to be found from a 
foot to four yards in length. The ordinary 
length of the stalk is two inches; but it varies 
even to a loot. The root is composed of 
branched fibres, which adhere to the stones 
like claws. This plant is often infested with 
the sertuiaria ciliata. 1 he inhabitants of 
Iceland make a kind of pottage of this fucus,. 
boiling it in milk, and eating it with a spoon. 
They also soak it in fresh water, dry it in the 
sun, and then lay it up in wooden vessels, 
where in a short time it is covered with a 
white efflorescence of sea-salt, which lias a 
sweet taste like sugar. This they eat with 
butier; but if taken in too great a quantity, 
the salt is apt to irritate the bowels, and 
bring on a purging. Their cattle feed and 
get fat upon this p ant, both in its recent and 
drv state ; but their flesh acquires a bad fla- 
vour. It is sometimes eaten by the common 
people on tiie coast of England, being boiled 
as a pot-herb. 
7. The cuiatus, ciliated or herniated fucus, 
is found on the shores of Iona, and other 
places, but is not common.. The colour of 
this is red, the substance membranous and 
pellucid, without rib or nerve; the ordinary 
height of the w hole plant about four or five 
inches. It is variable in its appearance, ac- 
cording to the different stages of its growth.. 
This fucus is eaten by the Scots and Irish 
promiscuously with the fucus palmatus or- 
dilse. 
8. The prolifer, or proliferous fucus, is 
found on the shores of the western coast, ad- 
hering to shells and stones. The colour is 
red; the substance membranaceous, but 
tough, and somewhat cartilaginous, without 
rib or nerve, though thicker in tire middle 
than at the edges. . The u:hole length of the 
plant is about four or five inches, the breadth, 
of each leaf about aquarter of an inch. ’I’lie 
grow th of this fucus, .when examined with at- 
tention, appears to be extremely singular 
and wonderful. It takes its origin either from, 
a simple,, entire, narrow, elliptic leaf, about 
an inch and a half long; or from a dilated 
lorked one of tiie same length. Near the 
extremity of the elliptic leaf, or the points of 
the forked one (but out of the surface, and' 
not the edge), arises one or more elliptic or 
forked leaves, which produce other similar 
ones in the saiqe manner near the summits-,. 
