fructification as immersed tubercles ; an indefinite expression considering
that Algoe were formerly examined without reference to generic
distinction, and leaves us in tlie dark as to its real nature.
Mr Dawson Turner, in his description of this species, has not failed
to observe, that the substance of the frond is different under the microscope
from that of Iridoea edulis ; and that the surface appears to he
every where full of small circular spots resembling cavities. This appearance
arises from the cellules, of wliicli tlie whole substance is composed,
and which are very small on the surface. The ternate granules,
however, which are only half imbedded, fall out, and leave numerous
real cavities, as may be easily seen by examining some perpendicular
sections of the frond.
A state of this plant by no means unfreqiient, is described hy Turner
as his variety marginifer. It consists in the margin being proliferous,
and pinnated, as it were, with elliptical or ohlong leaves, supported
upon little footstalks. A figure of the proliferous frond is to he
seen in the twelfth plate of Stackhouse’s Nereis Britannica.
This species, without having so imposing a name as Iridoea edulis,
is in reality more generally considered as an article of food, both
for men and cattle. It is cried about the streets of Edinburgh, under the
well known name of Dulse. By the Highlanders it is called Duillisg, a
word compounded of Duille, a leaf, and Uisge, water ; literally the leaf
of the water *. It is the Dillesk of the Irish, a name evidently derived
from the same source, as is also the Lowland Dulse. Both the Scots
and Irish wash the plant in fresh water, dry it in the sun, and, rolling
it up, chew it like tobacco. But it is usually eaten fresh from the sea.
The Icelanders, after drying it, pack it down in casks for occasional
consumption, and it is then ready to be eaten, either raw, with fish and
batter, or boiled with milk, to which, we are informed by Dr Hooker,
is sometimes added a little rye-flour, by those who can afford it. In
Norway it is named Sou-soU or Sheep's-weed, sheep being exceedingly
fond of it, and frequenting the sea-shore at ebb-tide in order to obtain
it. On this account also, it was named Fucus ovinus by Bishop Gunner.
According to Lightfoot, it is used medicinally in the Isle of
Skye, to promote perspiration in fevers. In the Islands of the Archipelago,
it is a favourite ingredient for ragouts, to which it imparts a red
colour, besides rendering them of a thicker and richer consistence.
The dried frond, like many other marine Algoe, when infused in water,
* O n t h e a u th o r i ty o f th e l a t e D u k e o f G o rd o n , in J am ie s o n ’s D i c tio n a ry o f th e S c o ttis h L a n g
u a g e . (S u p p lem e n t.)
exhales an odour resembling that of violets, and Mr Neill mentions
that it communicates that flavour to vegetables with whicli it is mixed.
I have already stated in another part of this work, that the present
plant, and not Laminaria saccharina, is the true saccharine Fucus of
the Icelanders.
9. R h o d o m e n ia s o b o l i f e r a .
Frond membranaceous shortly stipitate, stem filiform dividing into
hranches which expand into flat dilated fronds, much deeply and irregularly
cleft, the segments linear-wedge-shaped laciniate at their apex.
Halymenia? sobolifera, A g . S p . A lg . v . 1. p . 218. S y s t. A lg . p . 246.
Fucus soboliferus, F I. D a n . T u r n . H is t. F u c . t . 45. Sm . E n g . B o t. t . 2133.
H a b . In the sea, growing on the stems of Laminaria digitata. Shores
of the Orkney Isles, Mr Charles Fothergill. Messrs Hooker and
Borrer. Brackish Loch of Stenhouse, Orkney, Rev. C. Clouston.
Mull of Galway, Rev- Dr Walker. Glenarm, Ireland, Dr Drummond.
Root scutate. Fronds growing in bushy tufts, two to six inches in
length, arising with a very slender filiform stem, dividing into an indefinite
number of very slender filiform branches, which soon begin to
expand insensibly into flat, dilated, or wedge-shaped fronds, varying
from a few lines to two inches in width, always more or less cleft,
generally down to the middle, often to the base, the segments frequently
again divided, all of them, large and small, laciniate, and sometimes
even almost fringed at the apex. Fructification unknown. Substance
membranaceous, semitransparent, obscurely reticulated. Colour dark
purplish-red to rose-pink, changing in decay to dirty yellow and white.
In drying it adheres but slightly to paper, and scarcely changes colour.
Although I have received most splendid specimens of this beautiful
species from my obliging correspondent Mr Clouston, I have not been
so fortunate as to observe the least trace of fructification, so that, convinced
as I am of the distinctness of the plant from all other described
species, some doubt must still exist respecting its proper place. Agardh
is extremely uncertain about it ; but, Sprengel, paying less deference
to Turner’s plate and description, confirmed as it is by Smith, in
“ English Botany,” cuts the knot of difficulty by leaving it out altogether.
Much unnecessary perplexity has probably been occasioned
by an error in the Flora Danica, by which two plates, with their descriptions,
were transposed, viz. 1065 and 1066,—the one a variety of
Chondrus crispus, the other Fucus soboliferus.