226 LICHENS. 



And again, when portraying patriarchal hunters, he 

 calls them 



" Less aged 

 Than the hoary trees and rocks 

 Around them." 



Lifting a fallen branch from the ground we proceeded 

 to examine the crop of lichen that it bore. There were 

 scales of the orange Parmelia, patches of the Fringed and 

 Dwarf Borrera, scars of writing lichen and Lecidea, but 

 overshadowing all these, and absorbing the chief atten- 

 tion, were forked branches of whitish grey, covered with 

 powdery warts, and bearing shields, with ochre-coloured 

 disks and borders the same colour as the frond. This was 

 the Hoary Evernia (E. prunastri, Plate XVI., Jig. 1), 

 one of the commonest of branched frondose lichens. It 

 was growing here in tufts, by hundreds, on each aged 

 tree, and we have found it as abundantly in Yorkshire, 

 Herefordshire, and Kent. This lichen has a remarkable 

 property of retaining odours, and was formerly much 

 used in the preparation of perfume powder. Evelyn 

 says, " Of the very moss of the oak, that which is white 

 composes the choicest cypress powder, which is esteemed 

 good for the head ; but impostors commonly vend other 

 mosses under that name." 



The Eamalina group derives its name from a word 

 signifying dead branch, probably in allusion to the 

 decaying branches on which the members of this family 

 grow. These are, like the Evernia, shrubby lichens, 

 covered with powdery warts, and cottony within. The 

 Ash Eamalina is the most frequently found member of 



