316 The Oryptogamia. [July, 



Burface of the fronds. Gray also speaks of these, after this manner : 

 " Mosses rank among the smallest of plants ; they seldom exceed the 

 hight of a few inches, and many are so minute that they would wholly 

 escape our observation, if they did not grow in patches. Several species 

 indeed, are scarcely visible to the naked eye ; and yet they have stem, 

 leaves, fruit, and other organs, as the largest plants of the family." 



There are some other families belonging to this class, but only one 

 that it is worth our while to mention, and it is the Chara ; a kind of 

 plant that grows submersed in stagnant waters. They have a slender, 

 jointed limb, destitute of leaves, furnished, however with whorled 

 branches, jointed in the same manner as the stem. These are worthy 

 of attention, only for the delicacy of their structure, and, sometimes, for 

 the beauty of their colors. 



Next the Thallogens. These plants become interesting, indeed, from 

 no small reasons. They are the very beginning of vitalized existence. As 

 the -animal kingdom approximates, in its inferior tribes, to the vegeta- 

 ble kingdom, so the latter, in its lower genera, verges close upon inani- 

 mate bodies: that is, so far as the functions of life are concerned, for 

 here we find the very lowest ranks of organized bodies. Yet many are 

 very serviceable to man. Some are edible, and in truth make some of 

 our most delicate dishes, as we will find when we proceed to examine 

 some of the species. Those masses of medullary substance, which grow 

 upon the trunks of trees, are a comparatively useless species of the 

 family, Lichens. There is a plant of this family, however, that is very 

 useful to the Laplanders, for there the reindeer subsists upon this spe- 

 cies — the ccnomyce — for several months in the year. Some species are 

 used for dyeing cloths, and produce very brilliant colors. There are 

 more than two thousand species of lichens known ; they grow in the 

 most arid places, and furnish most of the vegetation to the inhabitants 

 of the polar regions. We will leave these, to notice a more interesting 

 family of the thallogens, viz : the Fungi, or mushrooms. There are a 

 great many varieties of mushrooms, often diifering, in a very slight 

 degree from each other ; nevertheless, it is very important to be well 

 acquainted with these difi"erences, when we wish to make use of them, 

 as those fond of rarities sometimes use them quite extensively for food, 

 and as the greater portion are extremely poisonous. Thus, we may judge 

 of some by their color, of others by their smell ; for instance, those of a 

 bright red color, or of a disagreeable odor, should invariably be rejected. 

 The truffles are a species of mushrooms never appearing on the surface 

 of the soil. In size they vary about as the potato, but they are not so 

 easily obtained as those giving no signs of their existence above the 



