AGAR-AGAR

s. The Malay name of a kind of sea-weed ( Spherococcus lichenoïdes ). It is succulent when boiled to a jelly; and is used by the Chinese with birdsnest ( q.v. ) in soup. They also employ it as a glue, and apply it to silk and paper intended to be transparent. It grows on the shores of the Malay Islands, and is much exported to China.—(See Crawfurd, Dict. Ind. Arch. , and Milburn , ii. 304).