AGAR-AGAR SEA- WEED FROM WESTERN AUSTRALIA. 75 



NOTE on AGAR-AGAR SEAWEED from WESTERN 

 AUSTRALIA. 



By J. Burton Oleland, m.d., cii.m. 



[Read before the Royal Society of N. S. Wales, June 4, 1913.] 



Dr. J. B. Oleland exhibited an agar-agar seaweed 

 (Gigastina disticlia, Sonder), kindly forwarded to him from 

 Western Australia by Inspector Abjornsson of the Fisheries 

 Department there. Mr. Abjornsson referred to it as being 

 useful as a demulcent drink. It is apparently closely related 

 to Irish Moss (Chondrus crispus). From some of this sea- 

 weed nutrient media have been prepared, and solid and 

 sloped tubes of the product were exhibited. The proportions 

 used were those taken for the preparation of ordinary agar- 

 agar media as used in bacteriological laboratories. The 

 tubes showed a remarkably clear product, one almost as 

 transparent as gelatine, and this condition had been obtained 

 without the addition of white of egg for clearing. Appar- 

 ently a little more of the seaweed is required than of agar- 

 agar, as two tubes inoculated with streptococci and colon 

 bacilli and incubated, had 'slipped' a little and shown an 

 undue amount of water of condensation. Ordinary organ- 

 isms grew well on the substratum. As a large amount of 

 agar is used in laboratories in Australia and, domestically, 

 it is very useful for making table jellies in warm weather, 

 the occurrence of this plant in Western Australia may be 

 of some economic importance. 



