102 NOTES. 



Class Crjptogamia. Acrosticum Septentrionale, or Forked 

 Maidenhair. It grows out of the rocks, about Arthur's seat, 

 near Edinburgh. 



Of the Crj'ptogamus plants, the ferns are best understood, they 

 are large and elegant, and like other plants, are frequently culti- 

 vated. Many of the Fungi are souglit after by epicures, and are 

 interesting from their admitting of one grand division into those 

 which are marketable, and those which are poisonous ; they have, 

 therefore, engaged the attention of Botanists. The sea weeds are 

 extremely beautiful, and many are large and of great utility ; 

 they have likewise been well illustrated. The true Mosses, by 

 the delicacy of their foliage, and the singularity and elegance of 

 their fruit, make up, in some degree, for their minuteness, and 

 have excited the admiration and the attention of natural historians. 

 The Lichens, however, have been much neglected ; few, that are 

 the produce of England, are there collected for useful puiposes, 

 by the peasants, and but few naturally display any beauty in 

 their color, or in their appearance ; most of them grow as a mere 

 scurf upon the naked rock. Although some aie edible, yet, in 

 general, their taste has excluded them from our tables ; they 

 have, therefore, been much neglected, and considi^red as generally 

 destitute of those claims to our attention, which render the study 

 of other tribes so engaging to the philosopher. Notwithstanding 

 tliis, some few species have become articles of commerce, from 

 the circumstance that the skill of the chemist has extracted from 

 them the most charming colors of the vegetable kingdom. To a 

 few species, very little known to Botanists in general, we stand 

 indebted for the finest tints with which our most beautiful silks 

 are impregnated by the dyer's art. Of these dyes, Archel, pre- 

 pared from Lichen Rocella ; and Cudbear, which is a preparation 

 of Lichen Tartareus, are the most in use ; although in other 

 countries other species are employed ; and which aflford other 



