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F U C U S esculentus.
Eatable Winged Fncus.
CRYPTOGAMIA Algae.
Gen. Char. Seeds produced in clustered tubercles,
•which burst at their summits.
Spec. Char. Frond simple, undivided, lanceolate,
stalked, with a prominent mid-rib. Stalk winged
with numerous, oblong, ribless leaflets; the uppermost
covered with fructification.
Syn. Fucus esculentus. Linn. Mant. 135. Huds. 5*J8.
With. v. 4 . 93. Lightf. 938. t. 28. Turn. Syn. 104.
F. tetragonus & teres. Gooden, and Woodw. Tr. of
L. Soc. v. 3. 140. Hull. 318.
F. fimbriatus. Gmel. Fuci, 200. t. 29. f . 1, imperfect.
F. scoticus latissimus edulis dulcis. Raii Syn. 46.
T h is remarkable Fucus has long been known on the Scottish
coast, where it is, according to Light loot, called Badderlocks,
and the stalk is eaten both by men and cattle, being esteemed
wholesome to the stomach. Its season is said to be September,
but our specimens in fructification, which no botanist has yet
seen, were sent by Mr. Brodie early this spring, 1807. The
plant occurs also on the coasts of Cornwall, Anglesea, &c.
Root of thick radiating fibres, not much branched. Whole
plant of an olive brown, or greenish, from a few inches to 10
feet in length. Stalk simple, cylindrical, terminating in a
simple, lanceolate, undulated leaf, with a strong mid-rib,
occasionally cylindrical or square, for we cannot but concur
with Mr. Turner in believing these, differences to be mere varieties.
The upper part of the stalk, when at maturity, is
winged with crowded, more or less numerous, oblong, ribless
leaflets, in which Mr. Turner with his usual acuteness presumed
the fructification might be found. My young friend
Mr. J. D. Sowerby, by his own observation alone, detected
it there, spreading over great part of both sides of the upper
leaflets, in the form of a wide-extended swelling, in which the
tubercles of seeds are perpendicularly imbedded.