184 MALVERN BOTANY. {JunC, 



ment, I took a tuft of Bryum capillare, Linn., from the roof of 

 an outhouse at Malvern Wells, which was abundantly studded 

 with it, together with the black earth collected about its base. 

 The mass altogether weighed six ounces, but when, after re- 

 peated and careful washings, I had extracted all, or nearly all, 

 the black mould that enveloped the roots, the actual residuum of 

 frond essence that remained when again weighed amounted only 

 to half an ounce; thus satisfactorily showing that the Moss, 

 through atmospherical and imbral agency, had formed a soil ex- 

 ceeding its own weight at the very least above ten times ! I had 

 reason to believe too that this had been accomplished within 

 three or four years. By operations on a more extended scale, it 

 is easily conceivable how a bare mass of rock may, in the course 

 of years, be covered with a thick coating of soil sufficient for the 

 nourishment of grasses or any of the phanerogamous families, 

 adapted to the climate and elevation where they may take up a 

 position. The excessive growth alone of such Mosses as Sphag- 

 num palustre, Bryum hornum, Dicranum glaucum, Brymnpalustre, 

 and Hypnum molluscum, scorpioides, cuspidatum, etc., in the 

 course of time entirely fills up bogs, drinks up their water, and 

 conduces to their ultimate establishment as component parts of 

 terra firma, fit for useful cultivation. In this manner, then, have 

 the original bare crags of the Malvern Hills received that rich 

 compost now covering their sides ; and which, combined with 

 the disintegrating touch of Time's mouldering fingers, renders 

 their soil in the present day capable of immediate cultivation 

 even in the steepest places." 



Lichens of the Malvebn Hills. 



But we must not forget the Lichens, for they probably preceded 

 the Mosses in the first efforts of vegetation upon the reef of rocks 

 here, when at length wrested from the dominion of the primseval 

 seas. As some of the Lichens are almost imperishable — those 

 in particular that are glued to the surfaces of granitic rocks — 

 doubtless the age of some of them must be very great, carried 

 back, perhaps, to the origin of the present state of things upon 

 the globe. The Parmelia stygia, that blackens one of the upper 

 rocks of the North Hill, may be older than the Pyramids of 

 Egypt, for it is inseparable from the hard surface of the scar on 

 which it reposes.' A recent writer on cryptogamic plants extends 



