alone.  The nut abounds in fecula.  In China the kernel is used as an article of food, being roasted or boiled like the potato.  The seeds of various species of Nelumbium, natives of the East Indies, Jamaica, and the United States, also form articles of food.  The fruit of N. speciosum is supposed to be the Egyptian bean of Pythagoras.  The petioles and peduncles contain numerous spiral vessels, which have been used for wicks of candles.  The fruit of Willughbeia edulis, a native of the East, as its name implies, is eatable.  The kernel of the mango can be reduced to an excellent flour for making bread.

Not only from the Lichen tribe, but also from the Algae, fungi, mosses and ferns man derives nutriment and valuable products.  Some of the cryptogamic plants form considerable articles of commerce, particularly as food plants, affording gelatinous and amylaceous matter, and being useful in medicine and the arts.

Nostoe eduli is used in China as food; Gelidium corneum enters into the formation of the edible swallows’ nests of the Japanese islands.  Agar-agar moss is shipped from Singapore to the extent of 13,000 tons a-year.  Irish moss, Iceland moss, Ceylon moss, and some others, are also of some importance.  Iodine and kelp are prepared to a considerable extent from sea weeds; one species (Fucus tenax) furnishes large supplies of glue to the Canton market, and the orchilla weed is of great importance to the dyer.  It is principally as food that I have to speak of them in this section.

In some of the islands off the Scotch coasts, sea-wrack (Fucus vesiculosus) forms the chief support of horses and cattle in the winter months. F. serratus is similarly employed in Norway.

The Laminaria saccharina is interesting from the fact of its containing sugar.  It is highly esteemed in Japan, where it is extensively used as an article of diet, being first washed in cold water and then boiled in milk or broth.

CARRAGEEN, or IRISH ROCK MOSS, Sphaeroccus (Chondus) crispus, abounds on the Western Coast of Ireland, round the Orkneys, Hebrides, Scilly Islands, &c.  It is purplish white, and nearly transparent, and is largely imported to feed cattle and pigs in Yorkshire.  It is also used for dressing the warp of webs in the loom, and mixing with the pulp for sizing paper in the vat.  It swells up like tragacanth in water; and, by long decoction, affords a considerable quantity of a light, nutritious, but nauseous jelly.  It is sometimes sold as pearl moss, and is employed in the place of gelatine or isinglass for preparing blanc-manges, jellies, &c.  It fetches about L7 the ton.