34 
INTRODUCTION. 
IV. 
finest of which sell for their weight in gold, and enter into the composition of the 
most luxurious Chinese dishes, were constructed of the semi-decomposed branches 
of some Alga of one or other of the above named genera ; but it has since been 
ascertained that these nests consist of an animal substance, which is supposed to be 
disgorged by the swallows that build them. 
Nearly all the cartilaginous kinds of Rhodospermeae will boil down to an edible 
jelly. One kind is preferred to another, not from being more wholesome, but from 
yielding a stronger and more tasteless gelatine. The latter quality is essential ; for 
though the skill of the cook can readily impart an agreable flavour to a tasteless 
substance, it is more difficult to overcome the smack of an unsavoury one. And 
the main quality which gives a disrelish to most of our Algae -jellies and blanc- 
manges, is a certain bitterish and sub-saline taste which can rarely be altogether 
removed. 
Very few Algae have been found agreeably tasted when cooked, though Dlllisk 
and others are pleasantly sweet when eaten raw. Many which, when moistened 
after having been dried, exhale a strong perfume of violets, are altogether disap- 
pointing to the palate. 
Perhaps, after all, the most valuable as articles of food are the varieties of Por - 
phyra vulgaris and P. laciniata , which in winter are collected on the rocky shores 
of Europe, and by boiling for many hours are reduced to a dark brown, semi-fluid 
mass, which is brought to table under the name of marine sauce , slolce, slouk, or 
sloucawn. It is eaten with lemon juice or vinegar, and its flavour is liked by most 
persons who can overcome the disgust caused by its very unpleasant aspect. At 
some of the British establishments for preserving fresh vegetables, it is put up in 
hermetically sealed cases for exportation and use at sea, or for use at seasons when 
it cannot be obtained from the rocks. It is collected only in winter, at which 
season the membranous fronds, which are found in a less perfect state in summer, 
are in full growth. Both species of Porphyra grow abundantly on the rocky shores 
of North America. They not only furnish an agreeable vegetable sauce, but are 
regarded as antiscorbutic, and said to be useful in glandular swellings, perhaps from 
the minute quantity of iodine which they contain. 
As articles of food for man, other seaweeds might be mentioned, but I admit that 
none among them furnish us directly with valuable esculents ; though many less 
nauseous than the hunter’s “ Tripe cle Roche” are sufficiently nourishing to prolong 
existence to the shipwrecked seaman ; and others, like the Porpliyrce just men- 
tioned, are useful condiments to counteract the effects of continued subsistence on 
salt-junk. 
But if not directly edible , there are many ways in which they indirectly supply 
the table. As winter provender for cattle, some are in high esteem on the northern 
shores of Europe. In Norway and Scotland the herds regularly visit the shores, on 
the recess of the tide, to feed on Fucus vesicidosus and F. serratus , which are 
both also collected and boiled by the Norwegian and Lapland peasants, and when 
mixed with coarse meal given to pigs, horses, and cattle. These Fuci are both 
grateful and nourishing to the animals, which become very partial to such food. 
Yet, perhaps, they are only the resources of half-fed beasts, and would possibly be 
