JLGM 639 



-the Bengal Phannaeojya'ia^ p, 276 :— For a decoction, take 

 2 drachms ground to fine powder^ water 1 quart, boil for 

 20 minutes and strain throug-li mu&lin. By inei-easing the 

 proportion of the ground moss to half an ounce, the filtered 

 solution on cooling becomes a firm jelly, which, when 

 flavoured by cinnamon or lemon peel, sugar and a little wine, 

 is an excellent article of light food for sick children and 

 convalescents. 



Description. — Ceylon Moss is in whitish or yellowish- 

 white ramifying filaments of several inches in length (when 

 unbletiched it is purple). At the base the largest fibres do 

 not exceed in thickness a crowquill ; the smallest fibres are 

 about as thick as fine sewing thread. To the naked eye the 

 filaments appear almost cylindrical and filiform ; but when 

 examined by a microscope, they appear shrivelled and 

 wrinkled. The branchings are sometimes dichotomous, at other 

 times irregular. The coccidia are inconspicuous when dry, 

 but when moist ai*e readily seen. They are hemispherical, 

 about the size of a poppy seed, and contain a mass of 

 minute oblong, dark-red spores- The consistence of Ceylon 

 nioss is cartilaginous. Its flavour that of sea-weed, with a 

 feebly saline taste. {Fereim's Mat.Meil, Vol. II., Pt I., p. 14.) 



Microscopic stnicfure, — Frond composed of large oblong 

 cylindrical cells, containing granular endochrome, those of 

 the surface forming moniliform, densely packed filaments. 

 Fructification of two kinds— 1.^/, hemispherical coccidia, 

 containing a glomerule of oblong spores on a central placenta, 

 within a pericarp of moniliform densely crowded filaments ; 

 "^nd, oblong tetraspores imbedded in cells of the surface. 

 {JEndlicher.) 



Chemical compositlon.-Thh algal has been examined chem- 

 ically, in 1834, by O'Shaughnessy ; in 1842. by Guibonrt ; 

 and in 1843, by Wonneberg and Kreysiig, by Bley and by 

 Riegel. O'Shaughncssy found it to consist in 100 parts of 

 vegetable jelly 54-5, starch 15'0,ligiieous fibre (cellulose ?)l8-0, 

 mucilage 4'0, inorganic salts 7*5. 



