USES OF SEA-WEEDS. 4*3 



and are employed by the poorer classes along the shores of the 

 north of Europe ; whilst others are 

 reckoned a luxury by the rich. The 

 Laver of this country, the Carrageen, 

 or Irish Bog Moss (as it is erroneously 

 called), and other edible substances, 

 belong to this group ; and from other 

 species of it, are formed the edible 

 birds'-nests, which are considered so 

 great a delicacy by the Chinese, the 

 best being sold for nearly their weight 

 in gold. These nests are constructed 

 by a bird resembling the Swallow, 



! ui. 12. ALAIUA KSCULKNTA. , . , , .. ~ , . 



which reduces the Sea-weed in its 



stomach to a sort of gelatinous mass, before employing it for 

 this purpose. 



46. But all these uses are comparatively trifling, when the 

 other modes in which the Algse may be made beneficial to Man are 

 considered. The kelp, from which 

 until recently the glass-maker and 

 soap-boiler derived most of the 

 alkali which they required for their 

 manufacture, is nothing but the 

 ashes of Sea- weeds ; which contain 

 a large proportion of this substance, 

 derived from the water in which 

 they grow. Those most employed 

 for this purpose, have been the 

 Fucus vesiculosus and other species 

 of Fuci, the Chorda Jllmn, and 

 several species of Laminaria. Other 

 means of obtaining soda from sea- 

 water have now partly superseded 



* " FIG. 13. Fucus VKSICULOSUS. 



this; but until recently, it was 



almost the only method. The account handed down by tradi- 

 tion, of the mode in which glass was invented, whether it be 

 itself true or false, serves to illustrate the properties of the Sea- 

 weed. It is said that some sailors cast ashore by shipwreck, hav- 



