Carrageen

Carrageen, or Irish Moss, Chondrus crispus, a common edible sea-weed, collected in large quantities on the coasts of Sligo, Massachusetts, and Hamburg. It contains much mucilage, but its nutritive value is doubtful, and its sea taste militates against it as a substitute for isinglass. It was introduced as a remedy in pulmonary complaints; but is used either as a cattle-food, for thickening colours in calico-printing, for sizing cotton and paper, or, in America, for fining beer. It has a fan-shaped, repeatedly-forked frond, greenish or dull purple in colour.