6 
and proceed on their course of development as if they had received 
no check. Even the fragments of a plant we may have crushed to 
pieces are living, and, blown by the wind, may reach some sheltered 
corner, where they will set about slowly to build up new plants. 
Westmorland weather, we all know, is humid, almost to a proverb, 
and it is not often that in this county we shall be deterred from 
collecting because of drought. All seasons are equally favourable 
to the lichen-gatherer, who may almost be said to have no winter. 
Of course, plants cannot be searched for with any prospect of 
success when everything is covered with snow, but /Aat being 
absent, we shall obtain quite as satisfactory specimens in December 
or January as we can in June or July. In this the lichenologist 
has a great advantage over the student of flowering plants. He 
must seek each in its season, whereas Lichens seem to know no 
season, and they are as perfectly developed, and as fit for 
examination, in the midst of winter as they are at any other time 
of the year. 
The appliances we must take with us are neither numerous nor 
very cumbersome, though, if our excursion be fortunate, we shall 
find the weight of our “plunder” rather heavy as we return. We 
shall need a hammer—such a one as geologists use is the best— 
for many of the plants we seek are so closely fixed to the rocks and 
stones over which they spread that to detach them is impossible, 
and we shall have to take a chip off the stone in order to secure 
our specimen. For the same reason, we must also have with us a 
stout sharp knife to remove pieces of bark when we wish to collect 
plants growing upon trees. The other requisites are a lens of 
moderate magnifying power, some paper—old newspapers serve the 
purpose—to wrap our specimens in as they are procured (so that 
they may not be injured by rubbing against each other on our 
journey home), and a bag or collecting case in which to carry them. 
Living as we do in the country, surrounded on all sides by rocky 
mountains and moors, we shall not have to go many steps before 
we meet with examples of the plants we are about to study: neither 
for a first essay is it of much importance which way we turn. 
Around Ambleside are many places where a rich harvest of Lichens 
