fl4 CRYPTOGAMIA LICHENES. 



branched, branches cylindrical, tubular, the ultimate ones sub- 

 radiate or drooping HOOK. Scot. ii. Co. Lichen rangiferinus, 

 Lix. Fl Lap. 346. LIGHTF. Scot. 877. WITH. iv. 44, Clado- 

 ma rangiferina, SPRENG. Syst. Veg. iv. 270. DILL. Muse. t. 1ft. 

 f. 29. and 30. 



Hob. Moors, abundant. 



Frond from 1 to 3 inches high, hoary, or greyish-white, 

 roughish, hollow, " much branched from bottom to top, 

 the branches divided and subdivided, and at last terminated 

 with two, three, four, or five, very fine short nodding 

 horns." The branches are commonly perforated in the 

 axils, and the ultimate ones tipped with brown. Their 

 drooping summits are only remarkable when the lichen is 

 in fruit, a state not observed by us in this neighbourhood. 

 A small variety, of a grey colour, is not uncommon on 

 earth-capt dikes in the immediate vicinity. 



This lichen is very common on our moors, which, in some 

 places, are whitened with it, but it grows in the greatest 

 profusion in the Arctic Regions, and especially in Lapland, 

 where it covers, as with a covering of snow, plains hun- 

 dreds of miles in extent. And these, which a stranger or 

 traveller from a happier land might deem dry and barren 

 wastes, are yet the very fertile fields of the Laplanders, 

 " hi sunt Lapponum agri, hsec prata eorum fertilissima, 

 adeo ut felicem se prsedicet possessor proviiicise talis steri- 

 lissimse, atque lichene obsitse." For when the cold of 

 winter has withered up every sort of herbage, and its 

 storms have driven man and beast to the shelter of the 

 valleys and of the woods, this moss becomes the principal 

 aliment of the herds of reindeer, in which consists all the 

 wealth, and on which depends the very existence, of the 

 natives. " Thus things," says LIGHT FOOT, " which are 

 often deemed the most insignificant and contemptible by 

 ignorant men, are, by the good providence of God, made 

 the means of the greatest blessings to his creatures." Ac- 

 cording to LINNAEUS, the Laplanders likewise collect the 

 C. rangiferina with rakes in the rainy season, when it is 

 flexible, and separates readily from the ground, lay it up 

 in heaps, and give it when required to their cows, to which 

 it affords excellent fodder. u At the limits of the arctic 

 circle there is a breed of cows so small as not to be larger 

 than sucking calves. Their milk is almost all cream ; 

 sweet and delicious, and so thick that it draws out in 

 strings. This goodness in milk arises from the plant on 

 which the cows feed, viz. the Lichen rangi/erinus"- 

 BUCKE'S Harmonies of Nature, ii. 149. 



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