844 
THE PRINCIPLES OF BOTANY. 
Table of the Comioosition and Proportion of Ash of 
Fiicus Vesiculosus of different loealities. 
]\Ioutli 
of the 
Clyde. 
Mouth 
of the 
Mersey. 
North 
Sea. 
Den¬ 
mark. 
Green¬ 
land. 
Mean. 
Potash 
15-23 
17-68 
9-03 
17-86 
11-96 
Soda 
11-16 
15-10 
5-78 
7-78 
21-43 
12-25 
Lime 
8-15 
16-77 
4-71 
21-65 
3-31 
10‘92 
Magnesia 
7-16 
15-19 
6-89 
10-96 
7-44 
9-53 
Chloride of Sodium . 
25-10 
9-89 
35-38 
3-53 
25-93 
19-82 
Iodide of Sodium 
0-37 
— 
0-13 
— 
— 
0-25 
Phosphate of Iron and Phos- 
i 
2-99 
5-44 
9-67 
10-09 
5-64 
phate of Lime 
J 
Oxide of Iron 
• 
0-33 
4-42 
— 
— 
— 
0-95 
Sulphuric Acid 
• 
28-16 
30-94 
23-71 
26-34 
13-94 
24-62 
Silica 
• 
1-35 
7-69 
0-28 
11-04 
4-06 
Percentage of Ash (calcu¬ 
lated dry) 
} 
100- 
100- 
100- 
100- 
100- 
16-39 
13-22 
20-56 
16-22 
16-60 
These tables show us distinctly how some sea-weeds have 
come to be used as dietetic medicines, while others are em¬ 
ployed for the production of some of our most important 
remedial agents and highly interesting chemical principles. 
Returning to the carrageen moss, it has been much 
employed as food, especially in periods of famine; but it will 
at once be seen that it is altogether deficient in muscle¬ 
making matter. Pereira says of it— 
Carrageen moss is nutritive; its mucilaginous matter acts 
as an element of respiration, while its inorganic constituents 
(phosphate of lime, potash, salts, &c.) may also serve some 
useful purpose in the animal economy. It is generally re¬ 
garded as being readily digestible. Medicinally it is emol¬ 
lient and demulcent.”* 
It has been employed in the form of mucilage decoction 
in milk called lae analeptieum, and in jellies, in all of which 
it may be flavoured with lemon, orange, or spices; it has been 
recommended in pectoral diseases. 
A decoction of carrageen moss has been recommended in 
the feeding of calves, and it may be as useful as linseed in 
supplying to skim-milk, where butter is an object, the 
respiratory elements reemoved in the fat of milk. 
The Ceylon moss, Ploearia Candida, imported from the 
* The Chinese birds’ nest, a great delicacy, is constructed by swallows 
from sea-weed, probably, among others, from a species of Chondrus. 
