164 SEA- WEEDS. 



it seems, as it waves hither and thither in the 

 waters, or when we gather it thence, as it clings 

 around our fingers, as if their smallest movement 

 would rend it. Nor is it less beautiful when care- 

 fully preserved on paper ; it often becomes of the 

 most delicate amethyst tint, rivalling the pride of 

 the marine botanist, the red Delesseria, in rich- 

 ness of hue. Any one may recognise this plant 

 by a familiar description ; and from spring to 

 autumn it is a common sea-weed of most of our 

 rocky shores. Its thin leaves grow together in 

 numbers ; they are from three to eight inches 

 long, very narrow just at the base, but widening 

 immediately, and deeply and irregularly cut and 

 waved, besides being very often torn into holes by 

 coming in contact with some rough object, or by 

 being eaten by shell-fish. The smooth glossy 

 plants of this genus received their name from the 

 Greek term for a purple colour, and all the species 

 are, more or less, of this tint when in a perfect 

 state, though when old they become tinged with 

 green, and when very young they are sometimes 

 of an olive hue, but still of the same transparent 

 substance. 



A very useful plant is this purple laver, good 

 enough in flavour to be esteemed by the epicure 

 a delicious dish, and valued often by the poor as 

 a vegetable delicacy. It is more eaten in Scot- 

 land than in England, and on the coasts of the 

 Western Islands, where it is abundant, large 

 quantities are gathered for food. The Highlanders 

 call it sloke kale, and also by the appropriate 

 name of purple-green. They pound it and stew 

 it in water into a kind of marine sauce ; it is after- 

 wards made into a dish with pepper, with vine- 



