232 LICHENS. 



which our hands are filled, and for which this Lapland 

 moss is but a very wretched substitute \ Surely our 

 teeming harvests and prolific flocks should rouse us to 

 thanks, fervent and grateful as those of the Laplanders, 

 and proportioned to our greater blessings ! 



The Rein-deer moss makes a matted carpet beneath 

 the ling on moors. Its branches interlace, aud often grow 

 to the height of eight or ten inches, where the heath has 

 been long undisturbed. Crabbe calls it most aptly : — 



" The wiry moss that whitens all the hill." 



Another species of Cladonia is common enough upon 

 our heaths and moors, the Forked lichen (C. furcata, 

 Plate XVI., fig. 10). It has a brownish, instead of a 

 greenish hue, and its branches are simple, or only once 

 forked. It grew at Starvegoose, on the heights near 

 Palperro, and on the hills of Oban. 



We now come to the charming group of Cup lichens, 

 or, as they are more generally called, Cup mosses. These 

 lichens have scale-like fronds, growing close to the stone 

 or earth ; a stem rises from these which bears a cup, the 

 stems being called podetta. The cup in its turn supports 

 the apothecise, generally around its margin. 



The Common Cup moss (Scyphophorus pyxidatus, 

 Plate XV L, fig. 10) is familiar to all who observe 

 natural objects at all. I remember the delight evinced 

 by a town-bred lady to whom I introduced the plant in 

 Penyard Wood, Herefordshire. She had already filled 

 her hands with flowering Broom, and Bitter-vetch, and 

 Wood Anemones, but she poised the cluster of Cup moss 



