158 THE SEA-SIDE AND AQUARIUM. 



This Fucus, whose edges are serrated or notched 

 like a saw, is called in Scotland Black-wrack, or 

 Prickly-tang. It is extensively employed on the 

 sea-coast as a manure. " In Norway, it is used as 

 food for cattle, mixed with meal. The Dutch employ 

 it to cover their crabs and lobsters, and keep them 

 alive and moist, preferring it to any other, because it 

 is destitute of that mucus which causes them to fer- 

 ment and putrify." 



There is one other sea-weed that I must not forget 

 to mention, viz., Laminaria digitata. It is variously 

 termed Sea^girdle, Sea-hanger, Tangle, Sea- wand, and 

 Five-fingered Oar- weed. " It is called Laminaria 

 on account of the thin flat plates or laminae of the 

 frond, and digitata or fingered, because the frond is 

 split into segments, like the fingers of a hand." It 

 has a woody stem, measuring sometimes one inch to 

 one and a-half inches in diameter, and from two to 

 six feet in length. Dr Landsborough, in his admir- 

 able " History of Sea- weeds," a book which none of 

 my readers should be without, says : 



" But of what use is this great Algae ? Can it be 

 eaten ? We have never tasted it ; but the young stalks 

 and leaves are eaten along with Dulse; and old Gerard 

 tells us, that when well boiled, and eaten with butter, 

 pepper, and vinegar, it makes good food. Can the 

 woody stems be turned to good account ? To very 

 good account ; though we cannot rank high in the list 

 of useful purposes an amusing one mentioned by Dr 

 Neill, that of making knife handles f A pretty thick 



