THE HEATH. 93 



resembling those which we found in the wood, 

 and, mixed with them, several other kinds of 

 Lichen, some of which are like those already de- 

 scribed, others very different. Here, for instance, 

 is one which might almost be mistaken for a tat- 

 tered portion of a kid glove.* Its upper surface 

 is of a dull lead-colour, and underneath it is white, 

 and furnished with numerous tendrils, of the same 

 colour, attaching it to the ground. It bears its 

 fructification at the extremity, in largish buff- 

 coloured spots, somewhat resembling the human 

 nail. Close by this, is a grey tangled mass, of 

 copiously branched vegetable substance, which, if 

 we had picked it up on the sea-shore, you would 

 certainly have pronounced to be coral.f It bears 

 its fructification sparingly, on the summit of the 

 stem, in the form of little globes, which eventually 

 split vertically, and suffer the seeds to escape. 

 Here is another little plant, peeping up through 

 the moss and heath, and beautifully contrasting its 

 wiry white stems with the rich green and brown 

 of the surrounding herbage ; this too is a Lichen, 

 though generally called Rein-deer Moss, about 

 which I shall have something to say by-and-by.J 

 Here, on the horizontal surface of the rock, where 

 a thin layer of mould has been deposited, is a 

 cluster of rough mealy little columns, each of 

 which bears either a funnel-shaped cup, edged 

 with the most brilliant crimson, or a small round 

 mass of the same conspicuous colour. Scarcely 

 anything with which I am acquainted either in 

 nature or art, presents, as to colour, so dazzling an 

 appearance as a large mass of these plants when 



* Peltidea canina. f Sparophoron coralloides. 



^ Cladonia rangi/erina. Scyphophorus cocciferus. 



