Abstract: A survey of the descriptions of economic marine algae appearing in Chinese herbals and coastal districts records of about the first century to the nineteenth century revealed that the hundreds of items belived to be descriptions of economic marine algae belong to 59 names. These when botanically analyzed represent 21 species belonging to 16 genera among which are 4 species of green algae belonging to 3 genera, 6 species of brown algae belonging to 5 genera, 1 species of blue-green algae belonging to 1 genus, and 10 species of red algae belonging to 7 genera; besides, there are 4 groups of names which according to the descriptions available, can be referred to genera only, being not specifically identificable. Of these algae, 7 kinds (6 species and 1 identified to genus only) serve as medicine, similar number of species serve for food and with one single exception, the rest (8 species and 2 genera) serve for both medicine and food. The botanical names and the official Chinese names, together with their synonyms as appear in the old Chinese literature were listed.