The culture of such algae may prove of economic importance; gelatine, glue and agar-agar would be valuable by-products.
Chemical manures, glue, gelatine, brushes, chocolate and candles are also produced.
Miyoshi then demonstrated that if Botrytis is sown in a lamella of gelatine, and this lamella is superposed on another similar one to which a chemotropic substance is added, the tips of the hyphae at once turn from the former and enter the latter.
For use with wood which is exposed to moisture, as in the case of wooden cisterns, a mixture may be made of 4 parts of linseed oil boiled with litharge, and 8 parts of melted glue; other strong cements for the same purpose are prepared by softening gelatine in cold water and dissolving it by heat in linseed oil, or by mixing glue with one-fourth of its weight of turpentine, or with a little bichromate of potash.
The astringent principle is a peculiar kind of tannic acid, called by chemists quercitannic, which, yielding more stable compounds with gelatine than other forms, gives oak bark its high value to the tanner.