CALIFORNIA PLANTS IN THEIR HOMES 



ruin. There are men who spend their lives studying these 

 fungi under the microscope. Often they are able to find 

 out how to destroy them, and then millions of dollars are 

 saved. 



Lichens do not deserve to be classed with vagabond 

 plants, as we shall see. You will usually have to look in 

 moist places for lichens. It is said that Indians find their 

 way through forests by means of the denser growth of 

 lichens and mosses on the north sides of trees. Lichen 

 No. i, Fig. 1 8, grows in long gray festoons from trees 

 along our coasts, and a very ancient, weird appearance it 

 gives them. No. 2 is a dainty -little lichen that clothes 

 shaded banks of crumbling rock; in fact, the lichens are 

 constantly crumbling this gravel into finer soil, because the 

 white threads that fasten them to the rocks can actually 

 dissolve the rock and pry fragments apart. No. 4 is very 

 abundant on weather-beaten pines in the mountains; the 

 color of the lichen is a soft, greenish yellow and its cups 

 are a rich brown. No. 3 is one of the many lichens that 

 form crusts on rocks or old wood. No. 5 is a dead twig on 

 which several lichen colonies have found a home. It is not 

 rare for dead trees, great rocks, old fences, walls, buildings, 

 etc., to become really beautiful because of a covering of 

 lichens with their graceful outlines and beautiful tints. 

 The coloring matter of some lichens is used for dyes. 



Lichens grow the world over. They have been found 

 on the highest mountain tops ever reached by man ; they 

 grow in hot countries on rocks that are so heated in the 

 dry season that you could not bear your hands on them; 

 they also thrive in arctic regions. The so-called reindeer 

 moss is really a kind of lichen, and this lichen makes life 

 possible, not only to the reindeer, but also to the people 

 that depend on the reindeer for their living. 



Make a collection of lichens, and find out all you can 

 about them . As you pull them off from whatever they are 



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