NOTES 143 



called the " Fresh-water Dullish " by the country people in the Isle 

 of Man, and this use of it is well known to them. It grows by 

 preference a fact not usually mentioned in books where springs 

 come down the rocks to the sea ; hence the name. 



The Common Dulse (Rhodymenia palmata, Manx name Dullish) 

 is sometimes credited with the same action, but possibly the two 

 plants are confused by those who gather them. About the useful- 

 ness of the Iridea there is no doubt, but I have written to Kew and 

 find that no such use of any British seaweed is recorded there. The 

 " Corsican Moss " seaweed is generally employed for this purpose, 

 and is sold by chemists; but why should not the British seaweed be 

 preferred? It is possible that, besides in the Isle of Man, it is used 

 in other out-of-the-way island places, where ancient plant-lore still 

 survives among the country people. Beatrice Lindsay, The Isle 

 of Man. 



[With a view of spreading the knowledge of and increasing the 

 use of edible molluscan shellfish, a collection of such forms as are 

 or have been used as food in the British Isles has recently been put 

 on exhibition in the Royal Scottish Museum. In the arrangement 

 followed the shellfish have been grouped in four categories accord- 

 ing to the areas in which the collector is most likely to find them in 

 their natural haunts. Of the thirty-one species shown, four occur 

 on land or in fresh water, thirteen in sand or mud, six on shore rocks, 

 and eight in deep water beyond the limit of low tide. Some of the 

 species, such as Oysters, Cockles, Mussels, and Razor-shells are very 

 widely used, while the use of others, such as the Heart shell, Isocardia 

 cor, or the " Butterfish "' or "Purr," Tapes decussatus, is confined to 

 limited areas, sometimes as in the case of the former, because of the 

 local distribution of the mollusc, or more often, as in the case of the 

 latter, on account of local and irrational prejudices against its use. 

 The latter species, found in muddy sand and gravel between tide- 

 marks from Shetland to the English Channel, is seldom eaten in 

 these Isles, notwithstanding that it is a favourite dish in the sea-board 

 countries of the European continent, and in spite of the fact that the 

 Channel fishermen who make use of it as food consider it more 

 wholesome than even Mussels or Cockles. Other forms once much 

 used seem to have dropped out of the running as human food, 

 simply on account of the tendency towards greater luxury and ease 

 in eating. The Limpet nowadays is used entirely for bait, but in 

 the times of our prehistoric and mediaeval forerunners it formed a 

 staple food of the coast-dwelling population ; and the sole reason 

 for its disuse seems to be that boiling renders its " foot " a shade 

 too tough for our degenerate jaws. Eds.] 



