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landers and Irish still use duileasg, and consider it wholesome 

 when eaten fresh. Before tobacco became common, they used to 

 prepare dulse by first washing it in fresh water, then drying it in 

 the sun : it was then rolled up fit for chewing. It was also used 

 medicinally to promote perspiration. Fithreach, dulse. Duileasg 

 staimhe (staimh, Laminaria digitatd). It grows frequently on the 

 stems of that fucus. Duileasg, chloiche — i.e., on the stones, the 

 stone dulse. Duileasg is also given to Laurentia pinnatifida, 

 formerly eaten under the name of pepper dulse. Creantardh 

 •(O'Don) in Donegal. 



Porphyra laciniata — Laver, sloke. Gaelic and Irish : sloucan, 

 slochdan, from sloe, a pool or slake. Slabhcean (in Lewis), 

 slabhagan (Shaw). Lightfoot mentions that "the inhabitants of 

 the Western Islands gather it in the month of March, and after 

 pounding and stewing it with a little water, eat it with pepper, 

 and vinegar, butter ; others stew it with leeks and onions. 



Ulva latissima — Green ulva. Gaelic : glasag, also applied to 

 other edible sea-weeds. In some places in the Western Highlands 

 the names given to laver are also given to this plant. Glasag, 

 from glas, blue, or green. 



Palmella montana (Ag.) — Lightfoot describes, in his "Flora 

 Scotica," a plant which he calls Ulva montana, and gives it the 

 Gaelic name duileasg nam beann — i.e., the mountain dulse. This 

 plant is Gloeocapsa magma (Kutzing). Protococcus magma (Bre- 

 bisson, Alg. Fallais). Sorospora montana (Hassall). Lightfoot 

 was doubtless indebted to Martin (whose " Western Isles " 

 furnished him with many of his useful notes on the uses of plants 

 among the Highlanders) for the information respecting' such a 

 plant. Martin describes it thus : "There is seen about the houses 

 of Bernera, for the space of a mile, a soft substance resembling 

 the sea-plant called slake [meaning here Ulva latissima], and grows 

 very thick among the grass ; the natives say it is the product of a 

 dry hot soil ; it grows likewise on the tops of several hills in the 

 island of Harris." " It abounds in all mountainous regions as a 

 spreading crustaceous thing on damp rocks, usually blackish- 

 looking ; but where it is thin the purplish nucleus shines through, 

 giving it a brighter aspect." — Roy. 



Chondrus crispus — Irish moss, known in the Western High- 

 lands by the Irish name an cairgein, as the chief supply used to 



