132 



Birtles. 



goddesses who once cast away their robes awhile on 

 Ida, disclosing every exquisite line and ivory curve. The 

 walls in the road by Birtles church are profusely dyed 

 and encrusted with golden lichens, which, like the birches, 

 show that nature has festivals for every season. They 

 are of the species called Parme'lia parieti'na, very com- 

 mon upon the branches of old hawthorns, and upon pal- 

 ings, &c., but never so rich in colour as when embossing 

 the surface of a rock or wall. There are very many other 



FIG. 22. 

 Parmelia pulventlenta (on a piece of bark.) 



kinds of these singular plants, white, yellow, brown, 

 black, and gray, constituting, when in such habitats as this 

 at Birtles, the "time-stains" of the artist, and generally 

 crowded with pretty seed-cups that scarcely rise above 

 the surface. 



On the right-hand side of the Macclesfield road, 

 where we turn up to go to Birtles, is Henbury Park, a 



