Geogb. D is t b . 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.
D e scb. Root, an expanded, conical disc, fronds from two inches to two or
three feet in length, and from a lin e to nearly an inch in breadth, flat,
fm-nished with a strong, compressed, percurrent mid-rib, many times
dichotomous, sometimes spirally tw isted ; the margin very entire. Hir-
vessels generally in pairs, one a t each side of the mid-rib, spherical o r ovid,
their size varying with the breadth of th e frond, formed at uncertain
intervals along the segments. Receptacles terminal, turgid, and full of lax
mncns, variable in form, eUiptical, ovate, or Unear-lanceolate, sometimes
forked, dioecious ; those producing spores, of a greenish-olive colour ; those
with antheridia, a more or less brig h t orange yellow. Substance thickish
and very tough. Colour, a dark olive, paler in th e 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, constituting
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
eifflit book-species, quoted as synonyms, have been constituted.
Fucus vesiculosus is largely used in the manufacture of kelp ;
and also yields marmite in considerable quantity. In the north
of Emrope, 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 Linnæus and others inform us.
Fig. 1. Fuous VESICULOSUS ; a branch. 3. A pair of lanceolate receptacles :—
' both of the natural size. 3. Section of a spore-bearing receptacle. 4. Spores
and paraphyses from the same ;— both mag