68 Food Plants. 



much used in this country in the manufacture of ketchup. Some 

 large makers are said not to be over-careful in the species they 

 use ; and that accidents do not of tener happen in consequence may 

 be owing to the salt used in the manufacture. This mushroom, 

 the only one most people in this country will use, is, very 

 curiously, altogether prohibited in the Roman market. The 

 chanterelli {Cuntharellus ciharius), a beautiful fungus, is eaten and 

 much esteemed in all countries where it is found, England alone 

 excej)ted. It is of this fungus that a German mycologist observes 

 that " not only did it never do anyone any harm, but that it might 

 even restore the dead." There is a broad-sheet published contain- 

 ing excellent coloured representations of all the British edible 

 fungi, but I would again strongly advise everyone, save experts, to 

 give the fungi, reputedly wholesome or not, a wide berth, some 

 peculiarly noxious ones closely resembling others that are whole- 

 some. One remarkable fungus (Cytharia Darwinii), of which there 

 is a long notice in Charles Darwin's Voyage of the Beagle, is very 

 abundant in Tei'ra del Fuego, supplying tlie Fuegians with their 

 only bread. Another of the same genus is used in Chili; and 

 Mijlitta australis, the Australian " native bread," is largely used by 

 the natives of Australia. Other closely-allied species are also used 

 in China both as food and medicine. 



Many of the algae are eaten. Alavia esculenta, bladder, or 

 perhaps, more correctly, balder-locks, which Berkley considers the 

 best of all esculent algse when eaten raw, is employed for food in 

 Scotland, Ireland, Iceland, and other northern countries. Carra- 

 geen, or Irish moss, is, or ought to be, derived from Ghondrus 

 crispus. It may interest the ladies to know that bandoline, used 

 for stiffening the hair, is commonly prepared from carrageen. 

 Durvillea utilis is much used for food by the poorer inhabitants of 

 the western coast of South America. The fuci, especially vesicu- 

 losus, the bladder wrack, is employed in feeding horses and cattle 

 in winter in certain Scottish islands. Gelidium correum, a British 

 seaweed, is a favourite article of food in Japan. The gracillarias 

 are similarly utilized in many parts. The young shoots of lamin- 

 aria are eaten in Scotland under the name of tangle. lihoderrenia 

 palmata (dulse) and laurantia pinnah fida (pepper dulse) and 

 ulva riphyra are also used with us, but more, perhaps, as 

 a relish than as food. Many other alga3 are eaten all over the 

 world. The edible birds' nests, s(» highly valued as food in China 



