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plant as by far the best genus for food among
the lichens.
xi. Cetraria Islándica. This is that species
of moss best known as the Lichen Islandicus.
xii. Fucus ¡Fihnatus. This, the Sol of the Icelanders,
is the most frequently prepared and
eaten of any of the genus. Dr. Hooker says :
■ “ On the Scotch coasts it is eaten raw by
the natives, and in the county of Caithness, in
particular, I have seen a number of women
and children gathering it from the rocks, and
making a meal of it, devouring it with avidity.”
He has enumerated in his list upwards of
forty species, almost ail of them common to
Scotland and other parts of Oreat Britain,
a great number of which are esculent and
nutritive.
Besides these, the Icelanders are in no want
of indigenous plants useful for domestic,
pastoral, and medicinal purposes.
xiii. Eriophoriim polysfachion. Of the pappus
of this plant (the cotton grass) the natives make
wicks for their lamps.
xiv. Holcus odoratus. Said to be used by the
Icelanders to perfume their apartments and
their clothes.
X V . Arenaria peploides. This is steeped in
sour whey, where it ferments; tlien the liquid
is strained off, and fresh water added to the
beverage, which is said to o ^ taste like olive oil.
— Voyage en Islande.
xvi. Dryas octopetala. A plant everywhere
common, of the dried leaves of which the inhabitants
make a sort of tea.
xvii. Thymus serpyllum. An infusion of the
leaves is often used to give an aromatic flavour
to the sour whey.
xviii. Achillea millefolium. The Icelandic appellation
Vall-humull (field-hops) seems to
imply that this plant has been used instead of
hops in th a t island, as it is still in some
parts of Sweden. At present the natives
only make an ointment of its leaves with
blitter, which they apply to cutaneous and
other external sores.
xix. Zostera marina. This plant the cattle
eat, and the natives gather and dry it for their
beds.
X X . Lycopodium Alpinum and armotinum are
used abundantly in dyeing woollen cloths of a
light yellow colour, by merely boiling the
cloth in water, and mixing with it some leaves
of the Vaccinium uliginosum. A dark yellow,
it appears from Olafsen and Povelsen, is given
to cloth by the lichen Islandicus, and a deep
brown by the leaves of the arbutus uva ursi.
xxi. Gyropthora cylindrica. Used in times of
scarcit}' as food, but more frequently for dyeing
woollen 01 a brownish-green colour.
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