The Scottish Naturalist. Cg 



very large quantities must be consumed if one may judge from 

 the basketfuls on the stalls in the markets or hawked about the 

 streets. The Pepper-dulse (Laurencia pinnatifida), which takes its 

 popular name from its hot peppery taste, is a smaller plant, and is 

 not much esteemed. Another seaweed (Alarm eseulenia) also is 

 eaten raw in some parts of Scotland. The frond is often some 

 feet in length, and has a thickened central rib, which, when its 

 outer skin is stripped off, is the part made use of. It has a slightly 

 sweetish, but rather insipid taste. Ulva lactuca, the broad green 

 fronds of which are not unlike the leaves of lettuce, is sometimes 

 eaten as a salad in the same manner as lettuce. 



Several other seaweeds are made use of when cooked. Por- 

 phyra laciniata and P. vulgaris have thin purple or greenish fronds, 

 which, after several hours' boiling, form a pleasantly flavoured food, 

 when seasoned with pepper and vinegar, or lemon juice. The 

 Sweet Tangle (Laminaria saccharitia) takes its name from the 

 abundance in all its parts of a peculiar form of sugar, called Man- 

 ?iite. This can be obtained from the alga, by laying the plant for 

 a time in fresh water, and then drying it by the sun's heat. After 

 a time the mannite appears, as a white powdery coat, on its sur- 

 face. The Icelanders are said to boil this seaweed in milk, and 

 to prepare in this way a kind of pottage. The Carrageen or Irish 

 Moss (Chondrus crispus) is collected, dried, and employed when 

 boiled, to make a jelly, to which other nutritive substances can 

 be readily added if desired. 



Many other seaweeds can be employed in the same way ; in 

 fact, none are known to be hurtful ; and many, or even most, con- 

 tain a large amount of gelatine, which they yield on being boiled. 

 Far more extensive use of them is made by the Eastern Asiatics 

 than by European nations ; in fact, they form very important 

 articles of diet among the Chinese and Japanese. Among others 

 largely eaten by the latter is the E?iteromorpha comp?'essa, so 

 common on our own coasts. In the Scotch islands the sheep, and 

 even cattle, often feed largely on seaweeds (e.g., the species of 

 Fucus), in the fresh state ; and dried seaweeds in some places are 

 stored for winter fodder. 



Seaweeds possess certain medicinal properties. Besides the 

 compounds of iodine and of bromine already referred to as ob- 

 tained from their ashes, several are made use of in virtue of worm- 

 destroying properties of a well-marked nature. 



