A sea-wrack or dried kelp, Laminaria digitata [Fucusdigitatus], from Archibald Menzies’ album

In 1778, Hope sent Archibald Menzies, who would become a naval surgeon and botanical collector, on a botanical tour through the Highlands and Hebrides. Together with Lightfoot’s description of kelp, the specimen Menzies collected provides an early indication of the emerging kelping economy. Throughout the 18th and early 19th century seaweed was gathered for use as a fertilizer, and increasingly as an important component, once dried, in various chemical processes such as soap, glass making and linen bleaching.