156 BRAMBLES AND BAY LEAVES. 



We will enumerate a few of the uses of our common field plants, 

 commencing with the most humble mosses and lichens, those curious 

 plants which adhere to the bark of trees and the surfaces of rocks and 

 stones. 



The majority of these plants are in perfection during the depth of 

 winter. Early in th.e year, during frosty weather, the collector will 

 have no trouble in finding the crab's-eye lichen, Lecanora perella. It 

 is very frequent on exposed rocks and stones, and forms conspicuous 

 circular patches of a dirty white colour, which, adhere closely to the 

 rocky surfaces on which it grows. This lichen is much used as a 

 crimson or purple dye in France. The cudbear of commerce is a 

 lichen {Tartareus) ; it is very similar in form to the crab's-eye lichen, 

 but differs from it in colour, being brownish in hue. Large quantities 

 of this lichen are obtained in some parts of Scotland. The peasants 

 frequently earn fourteen shillings a week by collecting it; it is 

 scraped from the surface of the rocks with an iron hoop. Large 

 quantities are sold in the Glasgow market, where it is used for dye- 

 ing wool purple. The colouring matter, called Archil, is obtained 

 from different lichens ; the most esteemed is that termed lichenroccellay 

 and which is found very abundantly in the Canary Islands, and at 

 Cape Verde. The Variolaria dealbata also furnishes a product of a 

 similar nature, but inferior in character ; it is found upon the rocks 

 around Auvergne, and in the Pyrenees. Archil is frequently men- 

 tioned by Pliny. When Rome was in the height of her pride and 

 strength it was much used ; but after the extinction of the Roman 

 Empire, the employment of it as a dye fell into disuse, but it was 

 again brought into notice at the commencement of the fourteenth 

 century, by a Florentine of German origin, named Frederigo. For a 

 century subsequently, Italy alone supplied the world with this sub- 

 stance, and thence it was procured chiefly on the coasts and islands of 

 the Mediterranean. In 1402 the Canary Islands were discovered, 

 and this lichen was then obtained from thence, and afterwards from 

 Cape Verde. On the coasts of Sweden, Scotland, Ireland, and Wales, 

 the lichen roccella has been used from time immemorial for dyeing 

 fabrics red. The lichens are closely allied to the mosses and the 

 fungi. The fir club -moss, Licopodium selago, is much used in the 

 Isle of Skye to fix the colour in dyeing instead of alum, on account 

 of its stringent properties. Another species, the common club-moss, 

 L. clmatm, which is very abundant in some parts of England, and 



