DULSE, Rhodomenia palmata, a sea-weed, one of the ceramiacere (q.v.), growing on rocks in the sea, and used as food by the poor on the coasts of Scotland, Ireland, and other northern countries, and of the Grecian archipelago, occasionally also as a luxury by some of the wealthier classes who have acquired a taste for it. It has a purple, leathery, or somewhat membranous, veinless, sessile frond, irregularly cut, with repeat edly forked segments, which are either entire at the edges, or furnished with lateral leaflets, the spores distributed in cloud-like spots over the whole frond. Its smell some what resembles that of violets. It is eaten raw or roasted, and with vinegar. In Ice land, it is sometimes boiled in milk. It is an important plant to the Icelanders, and after being washed and dried, is stored in casks, to be eaten with fish. In Kamtchatka, a fermented liquor is made from it. It is extremely common on all parts of the British
coasts. Sheep are fond of it, and seek it eagerly at low water.—The cry "Dulse and tangle" was once common in Edinburgh.—The name D. is also given in the s.w. of England to another sea-weed, iridcea edulfs, also one of the ceramiacece, which has an undivided, obovate or wedge-shaped, flat, expanded frond, very succulent, tapering to a short stalk, and of a dull purple color. It is occasionaly employed as food both in the s.w. of England and in Scotland, and is either eaten raw or pinched between hot irons.—PEPPER PULSE, Laurentia pinnatifide, another of the ceramiacece, has a com pressed cartilaginous frond, twice or thrice pinnatifid. It has a pungent taste, and is used as a condiment when other sea-weeds are eaten.