Cryptogamic botany / by J. Cardot [and others].

Date:
1910
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Cryptogamic botany / by J. Cardot [and others]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    27/536 page 5
    Mertens ^ found that the Indians ate, both raw and cooked, the lower part of the stipe of a rock weed which he referred to Fucus vesiculosus (probably what in this volume is called F, evanescens ynacrocefhald)^ and which, or some related species, is doubtless what Dr. GrinnelD notes as being eaten fresh. Mertens also mentions that Fucus esculentus {^Alaria sp.), F, saccharinus (^Laminaria saccharina)^ and ^F, edulis' are eaten. Professor Saunders observed, on the Plarriman Expedition, that the Indians make extensive use of one of the red seaweeds, Rhodymenia falmata (the dulse, or dillesk, which is also eaten on the Atlantic coasts, and is said to be used in Kamchatka as the basis of a fermented beverage). He saw them gathering this by the basketful at Orca and in Yakutat Bay, and pack- ing it away, when sun-dried, for the winter, when, as he was given to understand, it is broken up by pounding, moistened with water, and made into a sort of pudding. Mr. M. W. Gorman, who has probably made a more thorough study of the food plants of Alaska Indians than any other person, informs me that another of the Florideae — a laver — Porfhyra ferforata^ is gathered in quantity, washed in fresh water, and pressed into cakes nearly a foot square and about an inch thick, which are dried for future use. Cut into small fragments, these cakes furnish the basis for a decoction used as a remedy for colds and bronchial affections ; they are also sprinkled over food as a con- diment ; and Mr. Gorman adds that before the advent of the white man this was the only source of salt possessed by the natives. It may be this species that Dr. GrinnelH refers to as being dried, pressed into cakes, and used as an ingredient of soups and stews; and which Mr. Coville, on the Harriman Ex- pedition, observed in Reid Inlet, made into purple cakes about a foot long, six inches wide, and an inch and a half thick, which the Indians chewed with evident relish. On Douglas Island Mr. Coville also found that the Indians had dried algae — a form of Fucus evanescens^ from his description — covered with minute fish eggs and called tiyeti. Aside from this occasional 'Linnsea, 4: 46; Hooker’s Bot. Miscellany, 3 : 3. 1829. 2 Harriman Alaska Expedition, i : 139. 1901. ® Harriman Alaska Expedition, I : 139. 1901.
    digitised image 1
    digitised image 2
    digitised image 3