THE PAGE OF NATURE. 141 



It grows among dense cushions of the beautiful apple 

 and other mosses, to which it affords a fine contrast by 

 its velvety tufts of a deep orange colour, which are ren- 

 dered especially brilliant by the stray sunbeams that 

 chance to reach their growing-place. In similar locali- 

 ties, and particularly on the micaceous rocks on the 

 Highland mountains, may often be observed its Ethiopian 

 relative, the black rock byssus (Chroolepus ebeneus), form- 

 ing a thin, black, velvety patch of indefinite extent, 

 composed of fine, branched, black hairs, closely matted 

 together, and sometimes sprinkled over with black pow- 

 der. Few would suspect its vegetable character ; indeed, 

 it bears a greater resemblance to a piece of black felt 

 scraped from a hat than to any plant. Both*these plants 

 are supposed to be peculiar states of certain lichens, their 

 reproductive bodies being very similar. What a con- 

 vincing proof do these heterogeneous productions, grow- 

 ing as they do on the most unlikely substances, and in 

 the most unfavourable situations, afford us that the ten- 

 dency to vegetate is a power restless, perpetual, and 

 universal ! 



The extraordinary phenomenon of red snow has long 

 been familiarly known to scientific men in this and other 

 countries, and has naturally enough excited the greatest 

 interest. This singular colour in a substance with which 

 we are accustomed to associate ideas of spotless purity 

 and radiant whiteness, has been ascertained to result 

 from an immense aggregation of minute plants belonging 

 to the family now under consideration. They form the 

 species called Protococcus nivalis (Fig. 20), in allusion 

 to the extreme primitiveness of its organization, and the 



