66 FOOTNOTES FROM 



gives to^he whole an exquisitely beautiful and romantic 

 appearance. One species, the Lepraria Jolithus, is asso- 

 ciated with many a superstitious legend. Linnseus, in 

 his journal of a tour through (Eland and East Gothland, 

 thus alludes to it : " Everywhere near the road I saw 

 stones covered with a blood-red pigment, which on being 

 rubbed turned into a light yellow, and diffused a smell 

 of violets, whence they have obtained the name of violet 

 stones ; though, indeed, the stone itself has no smell at 

 all, but only the moss with which it is dyed." At 

 Holywell, in North Wales, the stones are covered with 

 this curious lichen, which gives them the appearance of 

 being stained with blood ; and of course the peasantry 

 in the neighbourhood allege, that it is the ineffaceable 

 blood which dropped from St. Winnifred's head, when 

 she suffered martyrdom on that sacred spot. A higher 

 order of lichens (Bceomyces) is furnished, besides this 

 powdery crust, with solid, fleshy, club-shaped fructifica- 

 tion ; while a singularly beautiful genus (Calicium), usu- 

 ally of a very vivid yellow colour, spreading in indefinite 

 patches over oaks and firs, is provided with capsules 

 somewhat like those of the mosses. These capsules, 

 though thickly scattered over the crust, are so minute 

 as to be scarcely distinguishable by the naked eye, but 

 under the microscope they present a truly lovely appear- 

 ance. They are cup or urn-shaped, of a coal-black colour, 

 and supported by a slender stalk about the thickness of 

 a horse-hair. At an early stage they are covered with 

 a very delicate veil, which stretches completely over their 

 mouth; but this soon vanishes, and exposes to view a 

 mass of black or brown seeds, like the ovule in an acorn, 



