94 ^ - USES OF SEA-WEED. 



to descend from the mountains to the sea-side to feed upon 

 this plant. Linnasus tells us, that the inhabitants of Goth- 

 land boil this plant in water, and mix it with meal to feed 

 their pigs; arid in Scania they cover their cottages with it, 

 and use it for fuel. In Jura and some other Hebrides, they 

 dry their cheeses without salt, by covering them with the 

 ashes of this plant.* 



MRS. F. 



Fucus serratus is used for most of the same purposes, and 

 also for manure; and in the Isle of Thanet, the farmers care- 

 fully collect the sea-weed, which, after a gale of wind, is 

 sometimes thrown upon the shore. It is carted through 

 sloping passages cut in the cliff; and it sometimes comes in 

 quantities amounting to many thousands of loads, which the 

 succeeding tide often sweeps entirely away, if not expedi- 

 tiously gathered up. You know also that iodine, which has 

 been so successfully used iu curing goitres, is derived from 

 the marine Algas; and we are informed that in South Ame- 

 rica, the stem of a Fucus had been successfully applied to 

 the same purpose, long before iodine was employed in Eu- 

 rope. 



ESTHER. 



Then there is the sea- weed which the companions of Co- 

 lumbus were so alarmed in finding in such quantities. 



MRS. c. 



That is Fucus natans, which covers the sea in the vicinity 

 of the Cape Verd Islands, and the floating masses of which 

 are so abundant, in the seas of warmer climates, as to impede 

 the progress of the vessels. 



ESTHER. 

 Are not the Fuci generally, called wrack. 



MRS. F. 



Yes; the term which is derived from their French denomi- 

 * Hooker, in vol. v. of English Flora. 



