THE PAGE OF NATURE. 61 



CHAPTER II. 

 LICHENS. 



"Search out the wisdom of nature: there is depth in all her 

 doings. She hath, on a mighty scale, a general use for all things ; 

 yet hath she specially for each its microscopic purpose." MARTIN 

 F. TOPPER. 



To most minds the title of this chapter may suggest 

 no idea of importance. Flowers they love, for they are 

 linked with childhood's recollections of sunshine and 

 mirth, and mingle with the hallowed memories of the 

 dead, and of the scenes amid which they are laid. Ferns 

 they admire as they cluster in the forest shade, grace- 

 fully bend down to see their own forms in the mossy 

 spring, or wave from some wild inaccessible crag their 

 delicate fronds in the breeze of summer; and mosses 

 they consider beautiful, as they repose their languid 

 limbs, in the sultry noonday, on the woodland banks 

 wreathed in dreamy-looking shadows, to which these 

 tiny plants lend their all of softness and beauty. But 

 the lowly lichens they pass by with indifference, regard- 

 ing them only as inorganic discolorations and weather- 

 stains on the trees and rocks where they repose. And 

 yet they too are interesting, both as regards their history 

 and their uses; as interesting as many plants which 



