639 MEALS MEDICINAL. 
frequently on cottage tables is “ Dillisk,” another Seaweed, 
(Rhodymenia palmata) chopped up small, and added to a stew 
of limpets, and milk, which is thickened with potatoes, or 
oatmeal. In olden times this, and Laver, were considered to 
‘be great delicacies ; and in many ancient Irish houses a small 
silver saucepan may still be found within which the Laver 
used to be cooked, and served straightway at table, before 
beceming cooled, and then tasteless. 
Eryngo roots (of the Sea Holly) were highly valued in Eliza- 
bethan days for renewing masculine vigour, such as Falstaff 
invoked. Being prepared with sugar, they were called “ Kissing 
Comfits.” Lord Bacon, when recommending the yolks of eggs 
as invigorating if taken with Malmsey, or sweet wine, teaches: 
“You shall doe well to put in some few slices of Eringium roots, 
and a little Ambergrice ; for, by this means, besides the imme- _ 
diate facultie of nourishment, such drinke will strengthen the 
back.” This plant grows in the sand on many parts of our 
coasts, with stiff, prickly leaves, and roots which run to a great 
length among the sand, being charged with a sweetish juice. 
A manufactory for making candied roots of the Sea Holly was 
established at Colchester by Robert Burton, an apothecary, 
in the seventeenth century, as they were esteemed anti-scorbutic, 
and good for improving the health. Gerarde tells: ‘ The roots, 
if eaten, are good for those that be liver-sick, and do ease cramps, 
convulsions, and the falling sickness; if condited, or preserved 
with sugar, they are exceeding good to be given to old, and aged 
people that are consumed, and withered with age, and which 
want natural moisture.” Boerhaave thought the root “a 
principal aperient.” Dryden, in his translation of Juvenal’s 
Satires, tells of certain revellers :-— 
“Who lewdly dancing at a midnight Ball, 
For hot Eryngoes, and fat oysters call.” 
Irish Moss, or Carrageen, which is abundant on our rocky 
coasts, is a marine lichen which has come under notice here in a 
former section, together with Iceland Moss. 
The Bladderwrack, or Kelpware, is a coarse-looking Seaweed 
found in heavy brown masses on most of our coasts. It is 
known quite commonly by the characteristic bladders studded 
about the blades of the branched, narrowish fronds; these 
bladders being full of a glutinous substance which makes the 
