LICHENS. 73 



land and sub-alpine situations, on moist rocks in the 

 neighbourhood of waterfalls or rivers, or is frequently 

 covered by water. Dr. Lindsay found it by the side 

 of the Tay, on boulders frequently covered by th2 

 river when flooded, and on the craggy southern face 

 of Kinnoul Hill near Perth. When under water it 

 has a deep olive colour. It sometimes attains a 

 diameter of several inches 



Dualism. 



We cannot exclude hypotheses from a general pur- 

 view of the "curiosities," if not the "romance" of 

 lower vegetable life ; indeed, two or three instances 

 are present to our minds in which hypotheses, popular 

 for a time, because novel or strange, might be re- 

 garded as unqualified romance, which a future gene- 

 ration will contemplate as fairy tales. One hypothesis 

 of this kind created some excitement twenty-five 

 years ago, but has at length almost subsided into 

 oblivion. Our record of this hallucination will be 

 brief. The high priest Schwendener thus expressed 

 his dream : " As the result of my researches, all these 

 growths (lichens) are not simple plants, not indi- 

 viduals, in the ordinary sense of the word ; they are 

 rather colonies, which consist of hundreds and thou- 

 sands of individuals, of which, however, one alone 

 plays the master, whilst the rest in perpetual captivity 

 prepare the nutriment for themselves and their master. 

 This master is a fungus of the class Ascomycetes, a 

 parasite which is accustomed to live upon others' 

 work ; its slaves are green alga^, which it has sought 

 out, or indeed caught hold of, and compelled into 



