MOSSES AND LICHENS OF THE PACIFIC COAST. 65 



The "gray-green, streaming moss" of the poet, on the other hand, 

 loves the lowlands, and comes down to the very level of the sea. 

 It abounds on the venerable pines of Pacific Grove, especially on those 

 trees near the ocean, which are most thoroughly bathed by the life- 

 giving sea fogs. Unlike the Evernia of the mountains, the lichen 

 of the coast, Kamalina reticulata, grows in long, slender threads, often 

 joined so as to make webs and nets, and reaching sometimes two or 

 three feet from the supporting bough. Its color is gray-green indeed. 

 When dry, it is somewhat brittle, but when dampened by the fogs it 

 is limp and flexible. Having but little strength, it is not fitted for high 

 altitudes, where it would be destroyed by the winter snows; but in 

 the solemn woods by the seaside, where the climate is always mild and 

 usually moist, it grows to perfection. I can imagine no combination 

 more harmonious than an aged pine, all hung with festoons of this 

 somber lichen, standing in the forest near the famous Moss Beach 

 at Pacific Grove, while the soft, misty breeze comes creeping up from 

 the ocean, touching the thousand strings of the pine-needle harp; 

 and added to this mournful music conies the distant roar of the 

 waves, as they break on the long stretch of sand. Age, solemnity, and 

 quiet melancholy are bodied forth to eye and ear alike. 



High up on the- slopes of Mount Shasta, another hanging lichen 

 may be found, depending from the branches of the stately firs. But 

 this is black in color, and is strong and hairy in texture. In fact, 

 when I first found a tangled skein that had fallen to the ground, I 

 suspected that it consisted of a mass of hairs that had been torn from 

 the tail of a passing horse. But subsequent investigation showed that 

 it was a plant, growing upon trees, and that it sometimes was com- 

 mingled with the Evernia, already described. 



But lichens do not usually assume the form of threads or nets or 

 stiff branches. A far more common form is to be found growing on 

 fences, on the bark of trees, and even upon rocks. It is the leafy 

 form, not with plain, smooth leaves, like those of a laurel or an oak, 

 but wrinkled and frilled forms, like those of the milliner's art. Par- 

 melia is the pretty name for a vast number of specimens to be found 

 upon our coast, as well as in other parts of the world. The lichen 

 loves moist air, for the very good reason that it has active life and 

 can grow only while in the moistened condition. When dry, its life is 

 suspended, and it sleeps. If the sleep is not too protracted or too 

 profound, it rouses to new life again when visited by rain or fog. 

 Hence we frequently find the foliose lichens growing more abundantly 

 on the west side of a board fence or on the west side of a tree; in 

 short, upon the side which is most likely to receive the fog as it drifts 

 in from the Pacific. 



