INTRODUCTION. XXXI 



believes has not been found to answer well for their 

 purposes. Boiled into a jelly and mixed with milk, 

 he says, it has been more successfully employed in 

 fattening- calves. Porphyra laciniata and vulgaris 

 are sold under the name of laver in England, sloTie 

 or sloTiaun in Scotland and Ireland; it is eaten 

 after being well boiled down to a pulp, to which is 

 added a little lemon-juice or vinegar— thus prepared 

 it forms an agreeable vegetable, with something of 

 the taste of tomato sauce. In China, under the 

 name of Agal-agal, various species of Gracilaria 

 are collected in large quantities, and formed into 

 jellies or mixed with acid fruits. Mr. Adams, in the 

 Natural History account in ^^ Belcher's Narrative," 

 speaks of it being thus used at Seychelles and Mau- 

 ritius, and of its producing a very agreeable food 

 for invalids. "It forms," he writes, " a considera- 

 ])le article of trade with the Chinese, particularly in 

 the northern provinces of Chin-chew, where it is 

 manufactured into a bright, substantial, transparent, 

 yellow jelly, and is sent in boxes of about ten 

 pounds each, to Canton. The gum or paste made 



