CORALLINES. 107 



name Agar-Agar, is largely consumed in China, both 

 as an article of food, and as yielding a very strong 

 glue. The jelly prepared from it is certainly superior to 

 that yielded by our Ckondrm. A Swan River species 

 (Gigartina speciosa, Sond.) affords a gelatine of perhaps 

 equal value. Both these might be obtained in abun- 

 dance, should a demand for them arise. These few in- 

 stances, selected out of a multitude, show that the Algae 

 are not undeserving the notice of the economist, espe- 

 cially in a country where the constant increase of popu- 

 lation renders desirable every effort to increase the sup- 

 ply of food. That the vast stores of Carrigeen which 

 our coasts afford, have been wholly neglected during 

 the recent famine, is the result partly of ignorance, 

 and partly of the invariable companion of ignorance, 

 prejudice. 



The only other Rhodosperms which I shall notice are 

 the very curious tribe of Corallinece, the jointed Coral- 

 lines of Linnreus, plants which have been regarded, al- 

 most universally since the time of Ellis, as members of 

 the animal kingdom. This tribe is most numerous in 

 species as we approach the tropics, and the British ex- 

 amples are not many ; but one of them, Corallina offici- 

 nalis, is so common on all our coasts, that it must have 

 attracted the notice of every one who has paid any atten- 

 tion to marine productions, and it will serve as a type of 

 the family. It will at once be seen that this plant differs 

 from other sea-weeds in being of a calcareous nature, 

 effervescing when thrown into an acid solution and in 

 this respect it resembles a true coral. It neither produces 

 Polypes, however, nor exhibits any animal character, 



