530 WILD FLOWERS OF 



haps, Evernia prunastri, the name " Death-Moss" has 

 been popularly applied, as denoting that the term of 

 the tree's healthy endurance has arrived when these 

 pallid locks, assimilating to the grey hairs of man, 

 appear upon the bark hence it is said, such timber 

 should fall. Rcvnialina scopulorum often appears very 

 copiously upon maritime rocks, to which its stiff 

 glazed pendent thalli give a most remarkably grizzled 

 aspect, visible from afar. The Ash Eamalina (E. 

 fraxinea), often depends from old ash trees in fronds 

 five or six inches long, these " hoary locks" giving a 

 most picturesque aspect to the weather-beaten vete- 

 rans, pitted and reticulated as they are, and covered 

 with copious apothecia. The weather side of a range 

 of paling is also often made a conspicuous greybeard 

 by the farinaceous, stringy, and other Lichens. The 

 broad-leaved Hamalina (JR.pollinaria), when occurring 

 in profusion, gives a similar tattered appearance to 

 old elm trees and neglected or unused barn doors. 



But there are other families of Lichens that prin- 

 cipally affect the bare ground, moors, and heathy 

 mountains, which, in the absence of other vegetation, 

 thev cover with a white or brown crispy robe. Such 

 is the celebrated Reindeer Lichen 



" The wiry moss that whitens all the hill," * 

 whose intricate tufts adorn the lofty mountains of 

 every part of the world, and which in the winter forms 

 nearly the entire support of those herds of Eeindeer 

 that constitute the sole wealth of the Laplanders. No 

 vegetable, Limosus states, grows throughout Lapland 

 in such abundance as this, especially in woods of scat- 

 tered pines, where for very many miles together the 



* CRABBE. 



