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chained down to the rocks on which they grow that they were called by Linnaeus 

 Vernaculi, or bond-slaves, as being unable to escape ; and as they are indestructible, 

 with whatever reverence a forest tree two thousand years old may be looked upon 

 it might be possible to find lichens twice as ancient where the surface of the rock 

 has not been degraded by imbral influence, or shattered by the hammer of the 

 geologist or the blast of the lime burner. 



Some lichens especially affect granitic rocks, as Urceolaria cinerea, Lecidia 

 atrata, sulphurea and glaucoma, Lacanora coccinea and tartarea, Parmelia 

 omphalodes and stygia, and especially Umbilicaria pustulata, plentiful on the 

 harder Malvern syenite, and giving the rocks a carbonic aspect, as if covered with 

 soot, or half burnt wdth fire. 



Then there are others only to be found on limestone or calcareous stones, 

 such as Endocarpon miniatum, rare here, but plentiful on Backbury Hill near 

 Hereford, Endocarpon Hedwigii, Urceolaria calcarea, Lecidea immersa, pruinosa, 

 rupestris, kc, and particularly Squamaria crassa, Collema nigrum, sinuatum, and 

 other CoUemas. 



Now I feel inclined to make the suggestion from these lichens being thus 

 imprisoned, as it were, from the very beginning of the present geologic period, 

 on their respecti\e rocks, that they really have arisen first, or been created first, 

 if you prefer the expression, on the phytological stage of life ; since whatever 

 time was engrossed by creative power, there must have been an order of detail. 

 Now in the present day, we may notice anywhere, if a castlo or abbey falls to 

 ruin, or an old limestone wall is left to mature, the coloured yellow, grey, and 

 black lichened washes of old time first appear to harmonise the walls and lay on 

 a ground tint ; then come the fleshy and thalloid warty lichens ; mosses and 

 ferns follow, while wall-flowers and ottier plants rise in succession, till shrubs and 

 trees shadow the walls with their denser foliage, as they do now the broken arches 

 of Netley .\bbey and Tintern, till they become bushy as wild cliffs themselves. 

 So Byron says of the walls of Rome and the palaces of the Flavian Emperors: — 



" The trees that grow along the broken arches 

 Wav'd dark in the calm moonlight, and the stars 

 Shone 'midst the rents of ruin — 

 Some Cypresses along the time-worn breach 

 Appear'd to skirt the horizon, but they stood 

 Within a bow-shot, where the Caesars dwelt 

 Now dwell the tuneless birds of night midst groves. 

 That spring through ruin'd battlements 

 And twine their roots with the imperial hearths." 



In like manner, then, I feel inclined to suppose, seeing how nature now acts, 

 that on the emergence of the older strata, lichens, and cryptogamic tribes preceded 

 in the order of advancing vegetation the flowering plants and forest trees ; but in 

 throwing out this hint as a probability, I altogether deny that transmutation 

 theory, that considers it possible a palm or a forest tree could be developed from 



