FLORA'S I. i:\ICON. 10l> 



CELAND MOSS. Cetraria Mandica. Class 

 24, Cryptooamia. Order: Lkhenes. Lich- 

 ens are valuable for their own uses, as well 

 as being such good settlers in barren ground 

 to make it fit for other residents. One of 

 the most useful lichens is that known by the 

 name of Iceland Moss, which is plentiful 

 with us, though not sufficiently so to supply the shops, now that 

 it has become a fashionable remedy for coughs, consumptions, and 

 the like. Great quantities are sent here from Norway and Ice- 

 land, where, and in Lapland, it is much used as an article of 

 food ; they either eat it boiled in broth or milk, or after the bitter 

 properties are extracted, it is dried and made into bread. 



HEALTH. 



Ah ! what avail the largest gifts of heaven, 

 When drooping health and spirits go amiss 1 

 How tasteless then whatever can be given! 

 Health is the vital principle of bliss, 

 And exercise of health. In proof of this, 

 Behold the wretch who slugs his life away, 

 Soon swallow'd in disease's sad abyss ; 

 While he whom toil has braced, or manly play, 

 Has light as air each limb, each thought as clear as day. 



O who can speak the vigorous joys of health ! 



Unclogg'd the body, unobscured the mind: 



The morning rises gay ; with pleasing stealth, 



The temperate evening falls serene and kind. 



In health the wiser brutes true gladness find. 



See how the younglings frisk along the meads, 



As May comes on and wakes the balmy wind; 



Rampant with life, their joy all joy exceeds : 



Yet what but high-strung health this dancing pleasaunce 



breeds ] 



Thomson. 



10 



