alaria

[Lat. alarius = winged; from ala a wing.] A genus of sea-weeds belonging to the order Fucaceæ, or Sea-wracks, and the tribe Lamina ridæ. In the cla ification of Mr. Harvey, it is of the sub-cla Melanos per meæ, or Dark-spored Algæ. The only British species, A. esculent a, called by the Scotch Balderlocks, is used for food, after being stripped of its thin part, by the poorer cla es in Ireland, Scotland, Iceland, Denınark, and the Faroe Isles. [BALDERLOCKS.] The Alaria shoot out into the water from their slender yet stiff stems, which are surrounded at their top by a beautiful collar of short and sinuous ribbons, from the centre of which rises a thong-like leaf fifteen or twenty yards long, which, at its commencement, is narrow, then continues an equal size, and at last gradually narrows into a point. ( The World of the Sea, Tandon, translated by Hart.)