PLOCARIA CANDIDA. Nees.
Eucheuma spinosa, —? Kyouk puen,.. . BORN. I Ceylon moss, . . ENG. Hai-tsai, lIai-tsau, CHIN. Agar-agar, . .. Matey.
This is abundant on the east coast of the Bay of Bengal. The Chinese name Hai-tsai means sea vegetable, and is applied to all the Alpo used as articles of diet. Agar-agar is also applied by the Malay race to the Gigartina tenax and Sphm rococcus growing on the rocky shores of Malaysia. The Plocaria genus of plants belongs to the alliance Algales, the order Ceramiacere, and -the sub-order Splimrococceoc. One of the species, P. helminthocorton, a native of the Mediterranean, is called Corsican moss, and has a considerable reputation as a vermifuge. Plocaria candida is abundant on the Tenasserim coast, and is valued for invalids. It was first brought to public notice by Dr. O'Shaughnessy as the edible moss of the Eastern Archipelago, and referred by him to the genus Fucus. The fructifications, however, being in small tubercles, the Rev. Mr. Mason considered it as a species of Agardh's genus, which now constitutes a member of the genus Plocaria. It is an allied species with the Ceylon moss (Gigartina lichenoides), first described as Fucus amylaceus by Dr.
O'Shanghneasy, the Plocaria liclienoldes of Mr. also with a species found on the coast of Devonshire in England, P. compress's; likewise with the Corsican moss of the Medi terranean, I'. helminthocorton ; also with the agar-agar, P. tenax, a species used in China as a substitute for glue and gum-arabic, but differs from the Irish moss or Cliondrus erispus, anal is not of the same natural family as the Iceland moss, which, indeed, is a lichen, the Cetraria Islandica. The Tenasserim mow is wholly free from the bitter principle which renders other hid so objectionable. Mr. Mason seems to con sider it identical with the Ceylon mom, for he gives the same account of it as Dr. O'Shaughnessy
gives to that from Ceylon. It contains, he says, a considerable proportion of starch, and was hence named by Dr. O'Shaughnessy the starch fucus, F. amylaceus, but its specific name has been since changed to candida, white, probably from a mistaken idea that the substance Is natur ally white, whereas it becomes so only by bleach ing in the sun; its natural tint is a shade between olive and purple, such as the waives designate red. According to Dr. O'Shaughnessy, 100 parts con tain—Vegetable jelly, 54.5; true starch, wax, a trace, 0.5 ? ; ligneous fibre, gum, sulphate and muriate of soda, sulphate and phosphate of lime, PO; iron, a trace, From the tendency of pectine or vegetable jelly to form insoluble compounds with saline and earthy bases, it is necessary to steep this fucus for a few hours in cold rain-water as the first step in its preparation. This removes a large portion, if not the entire, of the sulphate of soda, leaving all the gelatine and starch. It should next be dried by the sun's rays, and ground to a fine powder. When ground, boiling for 25 minutes or half an hour dissolves all the starch and gelatine. The solution while hot should be passed through muslin or calico, and thus the ligneous fibre is removed; lastly, the strained fluid should be boiled down till a drop placed on a cold surface gelatinizes sufficiently. With milk and sugar, and flavoured with lemon juice or sherry, this substance, when so prepared, would afford the invalid a pleasant article of diet. It may be available in several processes of art and various manufactures.—O'ShosgIntessy; Mamm's Tenasserim.