158 SEAWEEDS. 



The rare Grateloupia, named after a French naturalist, 

 I have never found. 



The Gelidium cartilagineum was sent to me from 

 Jersey. It is pale and much branched. Its branches are 

 too strong and firm to become entangled : and the flat 

 pinnate branches of the very similar gelidium corneum 

 were here upon the Ardrossan shore. 



A species of Gelidium is said to be the plant chosen by 

 the swallows of Japan for building their famous " edible 

 nests," which form an extensive article of commerce with 

 China. Burnett tells us that in his time, £230 to £290 

 worth of these nests were commonly exported from the 

 Indian Archipelago, and were sold in China at the rate of 

 £5, 18s per lb. The collecting of these plants, according 

 to Mr. Crawford, is as perilous as our samphire gathering 

 used to be : they are found in damp caves, and are more 

 esteemed if taken before the birds have laid their eggs. 

 They are collected twice in the year. Some of the 

 caverns can only be approached by a perpendicular 

 descent of many hundred feet by ladders of bamboo and 

 rattan, over a sea rolling violently. When the mouth of 

 the cavern is attained, the perilous office of seeking the 

 nests must often be performed by torchlight ; and as you 

 penetrate far into the caverns, the slightest trip would be 

 instantly fatal. 



In the rock-pools at Ardrossan, there was abundance 

 of a red leathery forked weed, with little pimples all over 

 it. It was very tough, so that it was not easy to detach 

 it from the rock, and still less easy to press it for the 

 herbarium. This was the Gigartina mammillosa {Plate 



