A MARCH RAMBLE. 91 



The emerald Bryum on moist, shady banks 



Unfolds its rosettes, and here, too, in close ranks, 



The troops of Dicranuui are tilting their lances, 



And the Liliput fruit of Bartramia dances 



In each passing breeze ; all these tiny green spheres 



Are caskets of moss-seed — mere dust it appears, 



But all vital with life — but as yet it is hid 



By a cunningly fitted, and bossed little lid ; 



While above this a veil, too transparent to hide, 



Rests lightly, as over the head of a bride. 



But in quaintness of structure, the lichens outvie 



All else that in nature rejoices the eye — 



All sober in color, but varied in form, 



From the Graphis, whose tracings the tree-trunks adorn. 



As with Arabic writing or outlines of maps, 



To the ugly rock-tripe that on yonder cliff flaps. 



From old branches the pendent gray Usnea sways, 



While upon them the graceful Parmelia displays 



It parterres with curved path, which the pixies might tread, 



And gay little seed-beds, brown, orange, and red. 



And here, on this knoll, which the wind has swept clean, 



The Cladonia's whimsical structures are seen. 



One resembles a balconied minaret tall. 



Or a ruined old castle just ready to fall; 



And another seems most, with its flame-colored tip. 



Like a beacon-fire such as the old Normans lit. 



And those that like delicate corals appear 



Are the favorite food of the Arctic reindeer. 



But the daylight is fading, the sunbeams slant low. 



And fainter and fainter the long shadows grow. 



Beneath the horizon the sun sinks from view. 



And let us, with him, to the scene bid adieu. 



And leave buried in shade through the sombre night hours 



The murmuring forest and all it embowers. 



Allen H. Curtiss in Bulletin of the Torrey Botanical Club for March, 1875. 

 Liberty, Bedford County, Va. 



One possessed of a love for plant life finds a field for its exercise 

 in the most unpromising places. Who but such a one, for instance, 

 would think of going botanizing on the bank notes and small coin in 

 his purse ? Yet students of the lower forms of plants have found 

 vegetation, namely species of algae and bacteria, on even clean cur- 

 rency. 



