EXPLORATORY NOTICES FOE PEBKUAftY. 



The JungermannicB should still be attended to on 

 the hills and among the woods, and lichenizing will 

 also employ the cryptogamic botanist advantageously. 

 The Crabs-eye and Tartareous Lichens appear in full 

 fructification on rocks and precipices, and sometimes 

 a wall of sandstone will exhibit a wide and beautiful 

 array of the singular Beomyces rufus, like a host of 

 petrified brown nails ; while the trunks of trees in- 

 habited by the Spiloma gregarium are splendidly deco- 

 rated with patches of crimson sporules. Many an old 

 barn door too is painted with green, white, or golden 

 yellow, by the Lepraria flava and other Lichens. On 

 old oaks, rugged with furrowed bark, as well on 

 decayed paling, crops of several species of Calicium 

 appear like crowded black sprigs stuck into the wood. 



Various genera of MOSSES now decorate " the 

 solitary place," lovely in their urn or cup-like fructi- 

 fication, especially the Grimmice and Gymnostomi, 

 while the very minute Pliascum almost eludes the eye 

 to find it. Yet the Phascum cuspldatum with its 

 brown polished theca without fringe or opening, may 

 be now found, if sought for, in almost any shrubbery. 

 In similar spots the Dicranum taxifoliuin is distin- 

 guishable by its broad sharp-cut leaves, and the Hypni 

 and Tortuloe, the latter with their singular twisted 

 peristomes, are abundant every where. In woods the 



