345 el ae 
ART. IV.—On the Economical Uses of the Marine Algw, or Sed 
Weeds. By R. K. Grevinie, LL.D. F.L.S. F.R.S.E. &c.* 
Man, who has been humorously defined to be a cocking animal, 
not content with the tribute of fish rendered to him by the Ocean, 
converts many of her vegetable productions into articles of diet. 
Rhodomenia palmata, the dulse of the Scots, dillesk of the Ivish, 
and saccharine Fucus of the Icelanders, is consumed in consider- 
able quantities throughout the maritime countries of the north of 
furope, and in the Grecian Archipelago ; Iridwa edulis is still ec+ 
casionally used both in Scotland and the south-west of England. 
Porphyra laciniata and vulgaris is stewed, and .brought to our 
tables as a luxury, under the name of Laver: and even the Ulva 
latissima or Green Laver is not slighted in the absence of the Por- 
phyre. Enteromorpha compressa, a common species on our shores, 
is regarded, according to Gaudichaud, as an esculent by the Sand- 
wich Islanders. Laurentia pinnatifida, distinguished for its pun- 
gency, and the young stalks and fronds of Laminaria digitata— 
the former called Pepper-dulse, the latter Tangle—were often 
eaten in Scotland, and even now, though rarely, the old cry, “ Buy 
dulse and tangle,’ may be heard in the streets of Edinburgh. 
When stripped of the thin part, the beautiful Alaria esculenta 
forms a part of the simple fare of the poorer classes in Ireland, 
Scotland, Iceland, Denmark, and the Faroe Islands. 
To go farther from home, we find the large Laminaria potato- 
rum of Australia, furnishing the aborigines with a proportion of 
their “ instruments, vessels and food.” On the authority of Bory 
de St. Vincent, the Durvillea utilis, and other LAMINARIE®, con- 
stitute an equally important resource to the poor on the west coast 
of South America.+ In Asia, several species of Gelsdiwm are made 
use of to render more palatable the hot and biting condiments of 
the east. Some undetermined species of this genus also furnish 
the materials of which the celebrated edible Swallows’ nests are 
composed. It is remarked by Lamouroux, that three species of 
Swallow construct edible nests, two of whichbuild at a distance from 
the sea-coast, and use the sea-weed only as a cement for other mat- 
ters. The nests of the third are consequently most esteemed, and 
sold for nearly their weight in gold. Gracilaria lchenoides is 
highly valued for food in Ceylon and other parts of the east, and 
bears a great resemblance to Gracilaria compressa, a species re- 
eently discovered on the British shores, and which seems to be 
* Read before the Wernerian Nat. Hist. Soc. Jan. 9. 1830. and forming part 
of the Introduction to the Alge Britannice. 
+ A marine production, Dr. Gillies informs me, is also commonly eaten in 
South America by the Roman Catholics during Lent, under the supposition that 
it is a sea-weed ; but, from the specimens brought home by that gentleman, it is 
clearly of an animal nature, belonging to. some genus not far from Alcyonidiwm. 
VOL. I. 2x 
