LICHENS. ^"J 



and the most unblushing- falsehoods circulated, in con- 

 nection with anything of unusual occurrence, the 

 European residents here were not inclined to listen 

 credulously to the accounts of this * wonderful fall 

 of bread from heaven.' The report, however, instead 

 of being soon forgotten, gained daily more ground, 

 specimens of the substance were brought hither, and 

 travellers from Byazid bore testimony to the fact of 

 several showers of these lichens having taken place. 

 Findinsf that there was some foundation for this 

 phenomenon, I thought that the matter was deserving 

 of investigation. I therefore applied to Dr. Heinig, 

 the sanitary physician at Byazid (the only European 

 residing there), to furnish me with information, which 

 I elicited by means of a series of questions, of which 

 the following is the result : — 



, "About the i8th or 20th of April last, at a period 

 when there had been, for a whole fortnight, very 

 rainy weather, with strong winds from the S.E. and 

 E.S.E., the attention of the shepherds and villagers 

 frequenting the country near Byazid was attracted 

 by the sudden appearance, in several localities, of a 

 species of lichen, scattered in considerable quantities 

 over certain tracts, measuring from five to ten miles 

 each in circumference. Dr. Heinig describes two of 

 these spots as follows : One is situated three miles 

 east of Byazid, behind a range of rocky mountains, 

 stretching from the north, gradually towards the 

 south-east. The other is five miles to the south of 

 Byazid, near a similar range of rocks, running in the 

 above-named direction. 



" It is remarkable that no one had before observed 



