44 
THE GEELONG NATURALIST. 
valuable chemical, Iodine, extracted by fire in the kelp-kilns of Ireland 
and Scotland. I have watched the consumptive patient sitting on the 
sand at Barwon Heads — the shore being strewn with drying sea-weed, 
and stained with the Iodine which the sun has extracted therefrom, 
whilst the gentle breeze bears the healing fumes to his diseased and 
vra sting lungs. 
Sea -weeds also have their place in the manufacture of glass and of 
soap, of glue and varnish; their value as a manure cannot be over- 
estimated ; a large percentage of the Irish people being dependent on 
the harvest of sea-weed for manure for their potato fields. 
Many of the Sea-weeds are edible; chief among these being the 
Carrageen and Irish Moss {CJiondrus Crispus), largely employed in 
the preparation of jellies and blanc-mange; one of the "ladies' tresses'* 
is esteemed in Scotland as an edible. Another of the same group, the 
Laminaria saccharina or sugar sea-beet is eaten in Ireland and Japan as 
a delicacy. The Laminaria digitata is cried about the streets of 
Edinburgh as "tangle;" others, such as the Dulses and the La vers are 
also valuable. The most interesting, however, of the edible Alga? is 
the Gelidium or birds' nest weed of China and Japan. This weed is 
collected by swallows in the construction of their nests. In China the 
trade in these strange birds' nests forms a very lucrative and important 
item of commerce. Burnett, in his outlines of Botany observes — "It has 
been estimated that 242,400 lbs. of birds' nests, worth in China 
£234,290 and upwards are annually exported from the Indian Archi- 
pelago." 
I mention these items re Sea-weeds in order to show you they are 
deserving of more attention than they usually receive; indeed it is 
probable that the discoveries of the epicure and the chemist as to their 
edible and mercantile value have spurred the botanist to give them 
more careful study, and opened the eyes of the ordinary holiday maker, 
so that he no longer regards them with contempt as lowest in the scale 
of creation and unworthy of any notice. 
Well says M. Tupper: — 
"The sea- wort floating on the waves, or rolled up high along the 
shore, 
Ye counted useless and vile, heaping on it names of contempt, 
Yet hath it gloriously triumphed, and man been humbled in his 
ignorance ; 
For health is in the freshness of its savour, and it cumbereth the 
beach with wealth. 
Comforting the tossings of pain with its violet tinctured essence : 
And by its humbler ashes enriching many proud. 
Be this, then, a lesson to thy soul, that thou reckon nothing 
worthless 
Because thou heedest not its use, nor knowest the virtues thereof. 
And herein, as thou walkest by the sea, shall weeds be a type and 
an earnest 
Of the stored and uncounted riches Iving hid in all the creatures 
of God." 
Probably the study of Alg£e is to a few a passion, partly because 
they are found out of the beaten track of daily life. Living here at 
Geelong, within a few miles of the richest hunting-grounds in Victoria 
for these treasures of the deep, we need not go much out of our way to 
secure them. And just because so few tackle the subject with any- 
