BOTANY. 179 



yields nourishment to more persons than six acres cultiva- 

 ted with wheat. 



Jan iph a Man ih o t . 



Jatropha " 



EDIBLE MOSS. 



This is a sea weed, abundant on the Coast, and exceed- 

 ingly valuable for its nutritious and medicinal properties 

 for invalids. It was first brought to public notice by Dr. 

 O'Shaughnessy, as " The edible moss of the Eastern 

 Archipelago," who referred it to the genus fucus. 

 The fructifications, however, being in small tubercles, I 

 should consider it a species of Agardh's genus, spheerococ- 

 cus ; but that genus having been broken up, it now con- 

 stitutes a member of the genus plocaria. It is an allied 

 species with the Ceylon moss, P. lichenoides, with a spe- 

 cies found on the coast of Devonshire in England.. P. 

 compressa; with the Corsican moss of the Mediterranean, 

 P, Hriminthochorton ; and with a species used in China 

 as a substitute for glue and gum-arabic, P. teriax ; but 

 differs generically from the Irish, or Carrageen moss, 

 Chondrus crispus ; and is not of the same natural family 

 with the Iceland moss, Cetraria islandica, which is neither 

 a moss nor a sea weed, but a lichen. 



The Tenasserim moss is said to be superior to all others, 

 as it is wholly free from the bitter principle, which renders 

 other fuci so objectionable. It contains a considerable 

 proportion of starch, and was hence named by Dr. 

 O'Shaughnessy, the starch fucus, F. amylaccus ; but his 

 specific name has since been changed to Candida, white, 

 probably from a mistaken idea that the substance is natu- 

 rally white, whereas it becomes so only by bleaching in 

 the sun ; its natural tint being a shade between olive and 

 purple, such as the natives designate red. 



According to Dr. O'Shaughnessy's analysis it contain? 

 as follows : 



Vegetable jelly, 54-5 



True starch, 15-0 



Wax, a trace, 05? 



