THE HEATH. 95 



native soil, it would probably continue to vegetate 

 as if it had never been removed. 



But it is time that I should tell you in what way 

 these humble plants serve as instruments in the 

 hand of Providence for converting rocky districts 

 into fertile pastures and woodlands. Their sub- 

 stance is composed entirely of an assemblage of 

 minute cells, which have the power of absorbing 

 moisture, either from the direct application of 

 water to the plant or from the atmosphere, and 

 this power they possess in a high degree and ex- 

 ercise very readily. Examine the side of a rock 

 against which the rain has been beating, and you 

 will find every moss and lichen fresh and flourish- 

 ing. Immediately that the water touched them, 

 they supped in, as it were, as much as they could 

 hold, and distributed it throughout their whole 

 extent; just as a piece of sugar will distribute 

 fluid throughout all its substance, although one 

 extremity only be immersed. Go round to the 

 other side of the rock, which has been sheltered 

 from the wet, and you will find them all to be so 

 dry, that, when you attempt to pluck them, they 

 will break, or even crumble in your hand. Dip 

 any one of them in water, and it will immediately 

 recover its elasticity ; straightening its branches, or 

 expanding its leaves under your very eye. Or 

 you may choose one of the driest, which to all 

 appearance is dead, and place it in a close case 

 among other plants, and, although the latter be 

 not actually wet, it will absorb so much of the 

 moisture which evaporates from them, as to 

 recover in a very short time its most vigorous con- 

 dition. 



Possessing this facility of taking in nourish- 



