LICHENS. 5 



on the lake side, this same lichen spreads like a close 

 carpet. 



Useful, too, in commerce, and yielding a dye of no ordi- 

 nary beauty, is the grey-brown orchil, which you may 

 readily distinguish by its rising out of a chalk-like basis to 

 the height of two or three inches. Though frequent in the 

 glen, its favourite localities are the coasts of Guernsey, and 

 the wild sea -cliffs of Tintagel Castle, where King Arthur 

 held his court : it mantles also the rocks of the Canary 

 Islands, with those of the Grecian Archipelago, and, when 

 scarce, has been sold at the enormous price of one thousand 

 pounds per ton. Although the purple dye is somewhat 

 perishable, it imparts an exquisite bloom to other colours. 

 Nor less worthy of remark is another of our small brother- 

 hood, the prickly lichen, clustering in thick tufts, with its 

 interwoven and compressed branches, ending in fine thorns; 

 rare in northern climates, but common to the same localities 

 as the orchil, where a fine red pigment called lake is pre- 

 pared from its steins. 



