tism, bruised limbs and sprains. In Britain it has been recorded from Corn-
wall,^60 Somerset,^61 Essex,^62 Cumbria^63 and Angus.^64 It was boiled into an oily
lotion and rubbed in or simply placed hot against the skin or, more simply
still, put in a bath of hot sea-water. The relaxing effect has been valued in
Yor kshire fishing villages especially as a cure for bow legs in small children;
the fresh fronds and sliced vesicles together with equal parts of water and gin
or rum were placed in a corked bottle for a week and then applied as a rub.^65
Another unusual use for the plant was encountered by Martin Martin in 1695
in Jura in the Inner Hebrides: steam from the boiled plant was inhaled to
cure a stitch after a fever.^66
Irish records of the standard use as an embrocation are known from as
many and as scattered coastal counties as in Britain. As it was this kind of
seaweed specifically that was valued in Londonderry^67 for ‘weak feet’ and in
Leitrim^68 for sore or sweaty ones, it was presumably the unnamed one too
that has been prized for easing swollen legs in Galway.^69 A less orthodox prac-
tice recorded from Donegal has been to suck the mucilage out of the vesicles
and swallow it to cure a sore throat.^70 In official medicine the mucilage was
also applied to throats—but externally, as a poultice for glandular swellings.
Pelvetia canaliculata (Linnaeus) Decaisne & Thuret
channelled wrack
Atlantic coasts of Europe
Carefully distinguished in Gaelic as feamain chìrein, Pelvetia canaliculata was
held to contain more potash than any other local seaweed and consequently
was much used in the Highlands and Western Isles for poulticing and other
medical purposes.^71 Boiled in sea-water and bandaged on hot, it was partic-
ularly used for easing rheumaticky knees.^72
In Ireland’s Aran Islands, besides being employed as a general prophy-
lactic, this species also served to worm children.^73
Laminaria digitata (Hudson) Lamouroux
Laminaria hyperborea (Gunnerus) Foslei
tangle
colder northern Atlantic, Arctic
Laminaria digitata and L. hyperborea are very similar and unlikely to have
been distinguished for folk medicine purposes. The records traced are exclu-
sively from the Scottish Western Isles. Martin Martin in 1695 found tangle
valued there as a cure for loss of appetite, boiled with butter^74 ; in South Uist
Bryophytes, Lichens, Algae and Fungi 47