SEA- WEEDS. 161 



to fashionable tables, being stewed and seasoned 

 with lemon-juice, which lessens its saltish flavour 

 and sea- weed scent ; nor is this dish unpleasant, 

 after a short trial, to most palates. We suspect 

 it to have been originally contrived with a medical 

 intention, for the benefit of scrofulous patients: 

 how numerous, alas ! in the gay circles of the 

 opulent and great." This plant is not, however, 

 the true laver. 



Tender and delicate as is the frond of the broad 

 green laver, the species termed the Lettuce Laver 

 ( Ulva lactuca) is still more so. This is a smaller 

 plant, and a less common one, though found on 

 rocks, stones, and corallines, during May and 

 June, on many parts of our coast. It is rarely 

 six inches long, while the former species varies 

 from that length even to eighteen inches. It is 

 also lacerated, more or less, and at length irregu- 

 larly cleft down to the base, and the jagged and 

 cut appearance which it presents, somewhat similar 

 to endive, originated its name of lettuce laver, 

 though the broad green laver is really more like 

 a lettuce leaf. None of the Ulvse are more beau- 

 tiful when displayed on paper than this species. 



The species called ribbon-green Laver (Ulva 

 Linza] has a long narrow frond like a slender 

 leaf, about an inch, or an inch and a half in width, 

 which is beautifully curled and waved. It be- 

 comes paler as it grows older, unless growing on 

 a spot well shaded from sunshine; but the dried 

 specimen long retains its grass-like tint. 



Of the same clear green colour as the Ulvae, 

 are the Enteromorphae, some of which, with their 

 long slender grass-green leaves, wave about like 

 so many shreds of bright ribbons, filling the clear 



