FUCUS ESCULENTÜS. ESCULENT WINGED FUCUS.
FUCUS esculentus ; fronde membranacea, plana, costata, simplice, ensiformi, integerrima, stipitata,
stipite abbreviate, terete, pinnato; pinnis camosis distichis, oblongis, planis, enervibus,
semina pyriformia immensa includentibus. Turn.
FUCUS esculentus. Linn. M ant. p . 135. Huds. Angl. p. 578. With. Bot. A rr. ed. 4. vol. 4. p. 92.
L ig h t f Fl. Scot. p . 988. t. 28. Turn. Syn. Fuc. vol. 1. p. 104. Hist. Fuc. vol. 2.
p . 122. t. 117. Esper. Ic. Fuc. vol. 2 .p . SO. t. 126. Engl. Bot. t. 1759. Wahl. Fl.
Lapp. p. 494.
FUCUS fimbriatus. Gmel. Hist. Fuc. p. 200. t. 29. f . 1.
FUCUS tetragonus. Good, et Woodw. in Linn. Trans, vol. S.p. 140.
FUCUS teres. Good, et Woodw. in Linn. Trans, vol. 3. p. 140.
FUCUS pinnatus. Gunn. Fl. Norv. vol. 1. p. 96.
FUCUS Scoticus latissimus edulis dulcis. Rail Syn. p. 46. •
Norw. Beuiare. Lidet toreblad. Shaalmetare. Scotch. Badderlocks.
Class and Order. CRYPTOGAMIA ALGAL
[N atural Order. ALGiE, Linn. Juss. Decand.]
Gen . Char. Semina tuberculis confertis apice dehiscentibus innata. Gooden, et Woodw.
Gen . Char. Seeds within scattered tubercles opening at the extremity. Gooden, and Woodw.
Radix fibrosa, fibris horizontalibus brevibus, crassis,
ramosis, sublignosis, nigrescentibus.
Stipes ad altiludinem trium vel sex pollicum, nigro-
fuscus, tereti-compressus, superne pinnatus,
pinnte seu ligulte ab uno ad septem pollices, horizontales,
distichas, approximatæ, plante, line-
ari-lanccolatæ, basi attenuatas, apice rotundatæ,
omnino enerves, substantia carnoso-coriacea.
Frons solitaria, bi- vel tri-pedalis ad viginti ulnarum
longitudinem, (utdicit Gmelinus,) membranacea,
• ensiformis, latitudine bipollicaris ad pedalem,
margine undulata, integerrima, apice attenuata,
et semper fere lacerata, laciniis transversalibus,
nervo seu costa fusco,' compresso, a basi usque
ad apicem percursa. Frondis color, junioribus,
olivaceo-viridis, glaber, adultis sordide fuscus;
superficies punctis elevatis sparsis, fibras parvas,
pallide fuscas, fasciculatas, emittentibus ; substantia
frondis membranacea.
Fructificatio in pinnis, qute tunc magis incrassatæ
sunt. Semina sub superficie latentia, numerosa,
minuta, parallela, pyriformia, basi attenuata,
glaücescèntia, apice globulo pellucido terminata.
Root fibrous, the fibres horizontal, short, thick, branched,
somewhat woody, blackish.
Stipe from three to six inches high, blackish-brown,
cylindrico-com pressed, the upper part pinnated;
the pinnte or ligules from one to seven inches
long, horizontal, distichous, approximated, plane,
linear-lanceolate, attenuated at the base, rounded
at the apex, altogether nerveless; the substance
between carnose and coriaceous.
Frond solitary, from two or three feet to twenty ells in
length, (asGmelinsays,) membranaceous, sword-,
shaped, from two inches to a foot in width, with
the margin waved, entire, the extremity lengthened
out and almost always lacerated with transverse
segments, furnished from the. base to the
apex with a brown compressed nerve or midrib.
The colour of the frond, in the younger plants,
is olivaceous-green, smooth, in the older ones
.dirty brown; the surface having scattered elevated
dots, which send forth small, pale brown,
fasciculated fibres : the substance of the frond is
membranaceous.
Fructification upon the pinnas, which are then more
incrassated. Seeds lying under the surface, numerous,
minute, parallel, pyriform, attenuated at
the base, glaucescent, at the apex terminated by
a pellucid globule.
Fig. 1 Portion of an old frond, with fascicles of fibres; nat. size. Fig. 2. A fascicle of fibres. Fig. 3. Single
fibre; magn. Fig. 4. Portion of a stipes, with two pinnte in a state of fructification. Fig. 5 and 6. Portion
of ditto, dissected; to show the disposition of the seeds. Fig. 7. Seeds;—all but fig. 1 and 4 more or less
magnified.
This species, as its name implies, is an esculent, at least among the people of Scotland, where it is found on
the rocky shores in the greatest abundance, and in the salt-water lakes, growing to a large size. I t is also found
on the coast of Cornwall, Devonshire, and Wales; and in Ireland has been met with near Belfast and in Bantry
Bay. On the shores o f Iceland and Norway it is extremely abundant; and Gmelin quotes Kamtschatka as a
country in which it has been found; but we believe it has been met with nowhere south of the British Isles.
The parts eaten (and they are always eaten raw) are the midrib stripped of its foliaceous part, and the pinnas,
or keys, as they are called by the Scotch in general—mirkles by the natives of Orkney. The provincial name for
the whole plant in Scotland is Badderlocks, or Hen-ware; in the Orkney Islands Honey-ware. The Norwegians
call it Tare or Rue-tare.
We cannot help expressing our doubts how far the pyriform bodies upon the pinnas (the discovery of which was
due to Mr. J . D. Sowerby) have a right to be considered seeds, or a t least perfectly formed seeds. Neither in
form, colour, or opacity, do they accord with what’are usually considered seeds in other species of the genus: but ■
then it may be observed that the whole habit is very different from all others; so much so, indeed, that we cannot
point out any with which it has an affinity.
We have sometimes seen plants of this species a foot or more in length which have been destitute o f pinnas on
the stipes; and Wahlenberg says that the stipe is naked for the first year, but that in the following spring, when
a great part of the frond is destroyed, the middle portion of it swells, is somewhat dilated, and that from these
swellings arise the pinnas-. Mr. Neill, on the other hand, tells us that at the Carr Rock in the Firth of Forth, the
pinnae were visible not only the first year, but in plants only a very few months o ld ; and that the rudiments of
them were discernible in some which were only three or four inches long, and which had sprung up but a few
weeks.
Lightfoot says that Fucus esculentus is recommended in the disorder called the Pica, to strengthen the stomach
and restore the appetite.