LICHENS. 9 



intermingling hues, the places to which we are assigned, 

 grow lichens of all forms and hues. The crisp-incrusted, 

 with smooth stems confined like sea-weeds to the rocks, 

 constitute the beginning of vegetation even on blocks of 

 lava. Scarcely has some fiery convulsion hurled forth huge 

 masses of lava, to cool amid scorched vineyards, or to carry 

 desolation wherever they extend, than that same lichen 

 takes root among the cracks, and grows not unfrequently 

 to the height of nearly four inches, on which, in Iceland, 

 reindeer often pasture. 



Thus spake small voices from off the time-worn rock, 

 concerning latent qualities and uses, which few perchance 

 have noted ; and one who heard with fancy's ear would 

 carry on the subject, telling of mountain ranges where 

 lichens linger on the verge of eternal snow, respecting also 

 that gradation of vegetable life, which proceeds in regular 

 series from vines and flowers to the boundary line of vege- 

 tation verging on regions of perpetual ice. 



