INTRODUCTION. xlix 



I believe it was not found to answer well for their purposes, 

 It has been more successfully employed in fattening calves, 

 for which purpose it is boiled to a jelly and mixed with 

 milk. Porphyra vulgaris and laciniata are perhaps, after 

 all, the most valuable of our edible species, being prepared 

 by boiling for several hours till they are reduced to a pulpy 

 substance, which is brought to table under the name of 

 marine sauce, sloke or slouk. 



But of all those used for food, Gracilaria lichenoides, an 

 East Indian species resembling our G. compressa, which, if 

 as abundant, would be equally valuable, deserves the first 

 rank. This, under the name of "Ceylon moss" is much 

 used in the East as a nutritive article of food, and for 

 giving consistence to other dishes. It is of a very gelati- 

 nous nature, and when boiled down is almost wholly con- 

 vertible into jelly, which is of a purer nature than that 

 obtained from our Chondri. Large quantities are annually 

 sold. The famous edible nests of China, the finest of which 

 sell for their weight in gold, were supposed to be constructed 

 from some species of Gracilaria or Gigartina ; but it is now 

 ascertained that the gelatine they consist of is an animal 

 substance, and, it is believed, is disgorged by the swallows 

 that build the nests, though so greedily swallowed by the 

 Chinese. Sarcophycus potatorum, one of the Fucaceae, is 

 said to be used as food by the natives of Australia, and La- 

 billardiere " observed the natives of the woods round Van 

 Dieman's Land use portions of its great leaves folded into 

 the form of a pouch, for the purpose of keeping fresh 

 water." Similar uses are assigned to Durvill&a utilis and 

 other plants of the family, as applied by the people of the 

 coast of Chili. 



Some species have been applied in medicine. The mucus 

 of Fucus vesiculosus, and other species, has been recom- 

 mended, by Dr. Russell, in diseases of the glands, for which 



d 



