e rocks about the eastern islands that are covered by the
tide. It is much used for making a kind of jelly, which is highly
esteemed both by Europeans and natives for the delicacy of its flavor.
The first quality is worth about 30s. the picul (133 lbs.). An
inferior kind is collected on the submerged banks in the neighbourhood
of Macassar (Celebes), by the Bajow Laut, or Sea Gipsies. It is also
collected on the rocks about the settlement of Singapore, for export
to China, where it is much used as a size for stiffening silks and for
making jellies. It constitutes the bulk of the cargoes of the Chinese
junks on their return voyage. The quantity shipped from Singapore is
about 10,000 piculs (12,500 tons) annually.

ICELAND MOSS (_Cetraria islandica_) combines valuable alimentary and
medicinal properties. It is imported in bags and barrels from Hamburg
and Gothenburg, and is said to be the produce of Norway and Iceland.
The quantity consumed varies; in 1836, 20,599 lbs. paid duty; in 1840,
6,462 lbs. In Carniola, swine, oxen, and horses, are fattened on it.
Boiled in water or milk, and flavored to the palate with sugar, wine,
and aromatics, it forms a very agreeable diet for invalids.

CEYLON MOSS (_Gracelaria_, or _Gigartina, lichenoides_), a small and
delicate fucus, is well known for the amylaceous property it
possesses, and the large proportion of true starch it furnishes. The
fronds are filiform; the filaments much branched, and of a light
purple color. It grows abundantly in the large lake or back-water
which extends between Putlam and Calpentyr, Ceylon. It is collected by
the natives principally during the south-west monsoon, when it becomes
separated by the agitation of the water. The moss is spread on mats
and dried in the sun for two or three days. It is then washed several
times in fresh water, and again exposed to the sun, which bleaches it,
after which it is collected in heaps for exportation.

Professor O'Shaughnessy has given the best analysis of this moss,
which he described under the name of _Fucus amylaceus_; 100 grains
weight yielded the following proportions:--

Vegetable jelly 54.50
True starch 15.00
Ligneous fibre 18.00
Sulphate and muriate of soda 6.50
Gum 4.00
Sulphate and phosphate of lime 1.00
-----
Total 99.00
With a trac