18G2.] MALVERN BOTANY. 185 



the date of living Lichens to a far remoter period. He says — 

 *' The geographical Lichen, which often spreads over the whole 

 rocky summit of a mountain in one continuous patch, many 

 separate individuals being absorbed in one, must date from fabu- 

 lous periods. I have gathered it in this form on the mountain 

 of Schiehallion, on smooth quartz rocks, which exhibit here and 

 there the glossy polish and deep striae or flutiugs peculiar to 

 glaciated surfaces, as distinct and unchanged by atmospheric 

 disintegration, as though the glacier which had left these unmis- 

 takable traces behind it had only yesterday passed over them. 

 And if these ice- marks can be accepted as an indication of the 

 age of the Lichen — the first and sole organic covering of the 

 rock, be it remembered — then in all probability it was in exist- 

 ence during the last great changes of the globe, which preceded 

 the creation of the human race." I am not, however, disposed to 

 extend the growth of the Lichen into " fabulous periods," as we 

 do not know when it actually began to grow, nor can in general 

 the individual Lichen be considered as a continuous living or- 

 ganism, like an Oak-tree or a Yew. Such species, indeed, as 

 Lecidea geographica, Urceolarin cinerea, Lecidea atrata, Leca- 

 nora glaucoma, and Isidium corallinum, when once bound to a 

 rock, live on it for ever, unless forcibly abraded ; but the great 

 majority of Lichens wither and crumble into powder with time 

 like other vegetation, but in so doing they fulfil their appointed 

 lot as servitors of Nature, and assist by their own decomposition 

 to form a layer of soil, which, mixed with the broken debris of 

 rocks, forms a humus at their bases, and is even swept onward l)y 

 winds to help to fertilize the valleys below. 



Including those that grow upon trees, the number of Malvern 

 Lichens has been put down at 254 ; and when to this is added 

 145 Mosses, 28 Jungermanniee, besides a numerous minute 

 tribe of Algcs, and the Fungi, it is not to be wondered at that 

 the Cryptogams considerably exceed the flow^ering plants in 

 number within the Malvern district. As however the Lichens 

 are a very slow-growing race, while the Mosses have a rapid 

 and luxuriant extension, unless burnt up by fervid heat, and 

 portions of them die and wither away every year, uniting with 

 the black soil they may be said to have manufactured, it must 

 be evident that they do more in the creation of mould than the 

 Lichens, and this has been their work on the Malvern Hills. 



N,S. VOL. VI. 2 B 



