246 PLANT LIFE. 



little stalk is just sufficient to bring it a little above the 

 level of the mosses and other plants. As flies and 

 other insects habitually hover about, covering the 

 ground like pointers at work, some five or six inches 

 above the soil or just clear of the vegetation, these 

 bright red or brown cups must be conspicuous, and they 

 will alight upon them and so dust their feet with spores. 

 Dead mosses are a favourite situation for the Cladonias; 

 as a rule the mosses must be dry for if they are kept 

 moist other mosses continually develop and the lichen 

 is kept off. Amongst other situations favoured by 

 Cladonias are the following : old walls or dykes in dry, 

 windy places (on the old dead moss between the stones); 

 dry woods ; old pine needles ; wall tops; and, w^hen old 

 woods have been slightly thinned and many old stumps 

 have been left, Cladonias will be found round the base of 

 almost every tree. On the moors they are very common 

 on dry peat, and about the roots of old and struggling 

 heather ; and on highland rocks, they are abundant 

 everywhere. 



There are many species of Cladonia. Some idea of 

 the manner in which they have been sub-divided may be 

 gathered from the fact that, of one British species alone, 

 there are no less than five varieties, four forms, and two 

 sub-species. The absurdity of this sub-division is clear, 

 if one bears in mind the fact that there are not, in all 

 probability, more than six botanists in Great Britain and 

 Ireland, who are capable of naming any jr/^aVj- correctly. 



The stalks or stems of Cladonias are always hollow, 

 so that they have the " cylinder structure," and hence 

 are able to stand erect in spite of the winter storms. 

 C. cervicornis and others have a well-developed ground 

 portion of leaf-like lobes which resembles the Parmelia 

 and Physcia group. 



