232 THE LABRADOR PENINSULA. ni.\p. xiv. 



very palatable when flavoured with lemon or wine. The 

 tripe de roche grows very abundantly in most parts of 

 Labrador, and may yet become economically valuable as 

 the source of a brown dye, for which it is largely 

 employed by the peasantry of Northern Europe. Spring- 

 ing on the edges ' of tufts of caribou moss, the red cup 

 lichen (Cladonia gracilw) is extremely common ; some- 

 times it gives to the surface of the rock a vermilion hue 

 for a considerable space round the tufts, under whose 

 shelter it seems to flourish. 



The vast distribution of lichens in the Labrador Penin- 

 sula, from the mournful beard moss which hangs from the 

 branches of dying spruce to the ever-beautiful caribou 

 moss, will possibly give some importance to those rugged 

 wastes, more especially as the applications of lichens to the 

 arts are daily becoming more numerous ; and it is both 

 singular and most interesting that the probability has 

 been shown, on good grounds, that a lichen, the Lecanora 

 esculenta of Pallas, was the manna of the Bible.* 



One of the characteristics of this beautiful class of plants 

 is their duration in general. They grow with exceeding 

 slowness, but retain their general form and vitality for 

 very many years. They are truly ' time-stains,' and well 

 do they deserve that harmonious name. They survive 

 the most intense cold, and live during long summer 

 droughts in tropical climates. From the polar zones to 

 the equator, under all conditions of heat and cold, on 

 the most unyielding and barren rocks, on the living and 

 on the dead, wherever there is light, lichens grow. 



* ' What to Observe in Canadian Lichens.' By G. "W. Lauder Lindsay, 

 M.I).,F.L.S. (Annals of the Botanical Society of Cnnarla.') 



