LICHENS. 235 



So deep in their vermillion dye. 

 Ah me, what lovely tints are these, 

 Of olive, green, and scarlet bright! 

 In spikes, in branches, and in stars, 

 Green, red, and partly white % ''' 



But freer, fuller, handsomer than any yet described 

 was the Daisy-like cup lichen (S. bellidoflorus) which we 

 found near Ballahulish. A forest of podetia arose like 

 flower stems, feathered from the foot with scale-like 

 fronds, the cups were surrounded with double and treble 

 radiating lines of foot-stalks, upon each of which a pink 

 receptacle was situated; the heads reminded me more of 

 hen and chicken daisies than of anything else. And the 

 morning sun shining on the dew-bespangled lichen, and 

 on the grey rocks around it, and the blue waters of the 

 Loch, added tenfold to its charm, and impressed us with 

 an idea that no lichen beauty can equal that of our daisy 

 friend of Ballahulish. Can Mrs. Hemans have been 

 there too! 



11 Oh green is the turf where my brothers play, 

 Through the long bright hours of the summer day ; 

 They find the red-cup moss where they climb, 

 And they chase the bee o'er the scented thyme." 



The Elegant cup moss (S. gracilis) grew by the Junction 

 Boad near Hawkhurst, and on Starvegoose also. It is 'a 

 tall slender species, brownish [in hue, and the podetia 

 sometimes forked. 



The Pycnothelia group has only one British representa- 

 tive, and it is so minute as to be little more than a crusta- 



