280 POPULAR GEOGRAPHY OF PLANTS. 



strikes us when we see it as being very much like Polypo- 

 dium quercifolium. " It sometimes entirely covers a large 

 part of the branch on which it grows with its thick, bright 

 brown, scaly roots ; this beautiful plant, the fronds of which 

 are two and three feet long, the sooner attracts the eye, 

 as its root, leaves, and indeed all the barren fronds, are of 

 a bright yellow colour, contrasting very peculiarly with the 

 reddish-brown roots and the dark green around." 



So inexhaustible are the forms and different manners in 

 which the luxuriant vegetation developes itself, that even on 

 the leaves of the parasitical plants themselves grow other 

 and smaller parasites, " the beauty of which the microscope 

 often first reveals." The leaves of the Orchises we rarely 

 find without little JungermannicR growing upon them ; even 

 Lichens and Perns are overgrown with them, and f ' if any 

 little spot on the bark of the tree is left vacant, Lichens, 

 Mosses, and Jungermannia fasten on it." Often and often 

 as we loiter here a brilliant flower fallen to the ground be- 

 trays us into a vain attempt to ascertain from which of all 

 the tangled mass it fell ; and so the short day wears quickly 

 on, till, in the midst of our speculations, it begins to show 

 sudden symptoms of coming to an end. It is well we had 

 ventured no further into the forest; for even now, as we 



