ROOTS OF LICHENS, 



35 



tnent, but also as organs of nutrition. From these highly organised forms of Lichens 

 down to the so-called crustaceous Lichens, the vegetative body of which grows in 

 the interior of the dry bark of trees, on dry earth, or even on hard stones, we find 

 a series of transitional forms, ending in cases in which a proper formation of shoot 

 and root are hardly to be spoken oP. 



' The reason why I term all these organs roots, will follow sufficiently from the connection of the 

 text. If the prejudice against descriptive botany, still frequently existing even in scientific 

 circles, is ever to cease, it will be well entirely to get rid of the superfluous nomenclature 

 exemplified by the words Ji/iizoids, Rhizines, &:c. Where would Zoology be if the feet of insects, 

 as well as their eyes and wings, were distinguished by such names ? Yet the mania for inventing 

 names has gone so far of late years, that the root of vascular plants has been termed a thallus, 

 simply because it has no leaves. 



