Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XVI.djvu/757

 WRACK GRASS and foliage are executed in the best style of his school. He left upward of 800 carefully finished pictures, best described in Smith's catalogue (London, 1829). Many of his pieces have been engraved, especially by J. Moyreau, (Euvres de Philippe Wouverman d'apres ges meilleurs tableaux (Paris, 1737). There are many of his masterpieces in Dresden and in the Louvre at Paris ; his largest battle picture is in the royal museum at the Hague. WRACK GRASS, or Grass Wraek, the plant sos- tera marina, of the pond-weed family (naia- dacece), growing at or beyond low-water mark upon sandy or muddy sea shores in most parts of the world. Wrack is an old Norse name for sea weed thrown ashore, this being called grass wrack in distinction from the proper sea weeds or algae. Along our coasts it is usu- ally called eel grass (see VALLISNERIA for the eel grass of fresh water), and incorrectly sea weed ; on the Florida coast it is known as aloa. The genus sostera (Gr. txrr#p, a band, in refer- WRANGELL 733 Wrack Grass (Zostera marina). ence to the long and narrow leaves) contain: but two species ; they are marine herbs witl .-jointed creeping stems, and long grass-like leaves which grow completely under water, or are covered at high tide; the monacious flow ers have both kinds enclosed in the sheathing base of a leaf which serves as a spathe ; they arc arranged in two rows upon one side of a nar row leaf-like spadix ; the staminate consist o single, ovate, one-celled, sessile anthers ; th< fertile of oblong ovaries, attached near thei apex, and terminated by two long, bristle-lik styles, and in Z. marina ripening into an pi long ribbed seed, or nutlet. The other species Z. nana, found on the shores of western Lu rope, is seldom a foot long, and has srnootn seeds. Wrack grass is very abundant in th< bays and inlets of the coast, and is often washed up in large quantities by the tide ; it is co lected with the true sea weeds for a fertilizer it is also used to protect tender plants in win ter, and to place around cellar walls to keep ut the frost. In Holland it is utilized in the onstruction of dikes. When dried the leaves ave considerable toughness, and they make an excellent material with which to pack glass and china ware; dried and baled, it is an arti- .le of trade, being used by upholsterers to stuff jushious, mattresses, &c. ; but it is not suffi- ciently durable, and is only used for the cheap- est kind of work. The fibre has been used to some extent in paper making. WRANGEL, Karl Gnstaf, count, a Swedish sol- dier, born Dec. 13, 1613, died in the island of ilugen in July, 1676. In the thirty years' war served under Gustavus Adolphus, Bernhard of Weimar, Baner, and Torstenson. In 1644, as commander in the navy, he defeated the Danish squadron off Femern. He was made a count in 1645. In 1646 he succeeded Tor- stenson as chief commander of the army in ermany, and in 1647, in conjunction with Turenne, he compelled the elector Maximilian of Bavaria to conclude an armistice. When the latter broke it, he defeated him and his Austrian allies near Augsburg in May, 1648, and occupied Bavaria. The war being ended in the latter part of the same year, he retired from active service, but in 1655 joined Charles X. in his Polish campaign, and in 1656 com- manded in the battle of Warsaw. In 1658, as high admiral, he compelled the surrender of the fortress of Cronburg, and would have taken Copenhagen but for the reenforcement of the Danish by a Dutch squadron. He pre- vented the Danes, however, from taking the island of Funen in 1659. At the close of the war in 1660 he became grand marshal and generalissimo. When Sweden joined France in 1674 against Germany, Wrangel with 16,000 men suddenly invaded the electorate of Bran- denburg ; but his health failing, his troops were defeated and obliged to evacuate the ter- ritory and part of Pomerania, and he resigned. WRANGELL, Ferdinand, baron, a Russian trav- eller born in Esthonia about 1795, died in Dorpat, June 6, 1870. He was a naval officer, and in 1820-'23 commanded a sledge expedi- tion to the Polar sea, N. of East Siberia, in conjunction with Anjou. They penetrated t lat 72 2' N., and reported an open sea in the distant north. In 1825-'7 he made a .voy- age round the world. From 1829 to 1834 he was governor of Russian America, and sub- sequentlv he held office in the navy depart- ment at St. Petersburg till 1849, when the Russian American company chose him director. In 1854 he returned to the navy department as chief of the hydrographical di- vision; in 1858 he was adjoined to the im- perial council with the rank of admiral and general aide-de-camp. An account of his arctic expedition was prepared in German by E hardt (2 vols., Berlin, 1839), after the travel- ler's diaries, and in 1840 was translated into English by Mrs. Sabine, under the title "Wrangell's Expedition to the Polar Sea in 1890_">3 A fuller narrative was published