F U C U S digitatus.
Fingered Fucus, or Sea Hangers.
CRYPTOGAMIA Algae.
Gen. Char. Seeds produced in clustered tubercles,
which burst at their summits.
Spec. Char. Frond leathery, palmate, with swordshaped
segments, destitute o f ribs. Stalk round.
Root fibrous.
Syn. Fucus digitatus. Huds.579. Linn. JV7ant. 134.
Gooden. 8$ Woodw. Tr. o f Linn. Soc. v. 3. 152.
Turn. Syn. 207. Hist. Fucor. v.3. 65. t. 162. With,
v. 4. 98. Hull. 320. Light/. 935. Stackh. Ner. 5.
t. 3. FI. Dan. t. 392.
F. hyperboreus. Gunner. Norveg. 34, t. 3.
F. arboreus polyschides edulis. Raii Syn. 4 6 .
F. polyschides. Ger. em. 1570.
F o u n d on various parts of the British coasts, especially
towards the north. It is often thrown up on the shore at Leith
in great abundance, and of a very large size, with the stalk
even six feet long, and an inch in diameter.
The root consists of many thick clasping fibres. Stalk
simple, various in length and thickness. Frond more or less
deeply and copiously palmate or fingered, without rib or vein,
leathery, olive brown, rounded at the base; its segments taper-
pointed, entire, flat, sometimes subdivided. Fruit first discovered
by Mr. Borrer at Brighthelmston, along with that of
F. saccharinus, t. 1376, both which bear a strong analogy to
those of F. esculentus, t. 1759, and lulbosus, t. 1760. We
cannot thence deduce any characters to refute or to confirm
Mr. Turner’s suspicion that the present plant is not specifically
distinct from saccharinus, except that the fruit of the latter,
represented in our present plate at f. 2 , is rather the largest,
but this might be owing to its more advanced state.
This Fucus serves for manure, and for the manufactory of
kelp, like many other species.