Xlviii INTRODUCTION. 



As articles of human food many of the Algae have, in 

 different countries, been used both as articles of luxury and 

 resources in time of scarcity. Of British species, Alaria 

 esculenta, Rhodymenia palmata, Chondrus crispus, Gigar- 

 tina mamillosa, Laurencia pinnatifida, Irid&a edulis, 

 Porphyra vulgaris and laciniata, and Ulva latissima, have 

 been more or less used. Rhodymenia palmetto,, the dulse 

 of the Lowland Scotch, duilliosg of the Highlanders, and 

 dillisk of the Irish, is still much eaten in many parts of 

 Ireland and Scotland. It is prepared by being washed 

 and dried, and is eaten raw, chewed like tobacco. It has 

 a sweetish taste. That which grows on rocks or mussel- 

 shells, called " shell-dillisk," is preferred, as it is less tough 

 and coarse than what grows on Laminaria. In Norway 

 it is greedily eaten by sheep and goats, which flock to the 

 shore to seek it, whence Gunner once named it Fucus ovi- 

 nus. According to Lightfoot it is used in Skye as a remedy 

 in fevers, to promote perspiration, being boiled and mixed 

 with butter. It is sometimes, but seldom, fried, a mode of 

 cooking which answers better with Iridcea edulis, which is 

 too tough to be eaten raw. Chondrus crispus and Gigar- 

 tina mamillosa, under the name of Irish moss or Carrigeen, 

 were a few years ago in much request, and the collection 

 and preparation of them for market afforded a small revenue 

 to the industrious peasantry of the west coast of Ireland, 

 where these plants grow in great profusion. The price at 

 one time was as high as 2s. Qd. per ft., but the demand has 

 latterly diminished, and the price, of course, fallen consi- 

 derably. The frond was boiled down to a gelatine, strained, 

 and used as a substitute for isinglass in the manufacture of 

 blanc-manges and jellies, and was at one time a fashionable 

 remedy in consumptive cases. As the demand slackened 

 for these purposes, it was tried as a size, and has been 

 shipped to England for the use of the calico-printers, but 



