TOL. L.l l-HILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. '253 



old walls not uncommon. It was formerly in great credit as a pectoral : but is 

 now quite in disrepute. 



The common branched coralline-moss* is one of the most useful plants of all 

 the tribe of lichens. It is pretty frequent with us on our heaths, forests, and 

 mountains. The northern regions afford it in abundance ; and there it is pe- 

 culiarly and singularly useful. It is indeed the very support and foundation of 

 all the Lapland economy, and without which the inhabitants could not sustain 

 their rein-deer in the winter time. Linneus tells us-(- that Lapland affords no ve- 

 getables in such plenty as this, and other of the lichens. Plains of several miles 

 extent are totally covered over with it, as if with snow ; and where no other plant 

 will even take root, this will thrive and be luxuriant. These dreary and incle- 

 ment wastes, these terrae damnatae, as a foreigner would readily call them; these 

 are the Lapland fields and fertile pastures. On this lichen the rein-deer, those 

 sources of all their wealth, feed in the winter time, when it is in its most flourish- 

 ing condition, and no other vegetable is to be had ; with this too they will even 

 become fat. The riches of the Laplanders consist in their number of these 

 cattle : they are cloathed with their skins, fed with her flesh, and from their 

 milk they make both butter and cheese. Nature, by the inclemency of their 

 seasons, has almost denied them the cultivation of their earth : they neither sow 

 nor reap ; but live a perpetual migratory life, tending their flocks of rein-deer, 

 on which their whole care is centred and employed. The milk of the rein-deer 

 is very remarkably fat and rich : it tastes indeed like cow's milk, with which 

 some butter, and a small quantity of fat or suet, has been intimately united. 

 Dr.Haller;|: suspects that this richness of the milk is owing to the animal's feeding 

 on this moss. Most of the plants of this family are of an astringent quality, 

 which indeed they manifest to the taste. This astringency of their food will 

 doubtless contribute much to that effect. The reindeer are not the only ani- 

 mals that will feed on the coralline moss. The Novaccolae § gather vast quan- 

 tities of it to fodder their oxen with in the winter. They take the opportunity 

 of raking it together in the rainy seasons when it is tough ; for in dry weather it 

 easily crumbles into powder. This they moisten with a little water in the winter 

 season when they use it, and find it excellent fodder. 



Another of the most remarkable and useful plants of this division is the 



* Coralloides raontanum fruticuli specie ubique candicans Hist. Muse. p. 107. Lichen rangiferi- 

 nusLin, Sp. PI. 1153- Muscus corallinus. Tab. Ger. em. — Orig. 



t Flor. Lappon. p. 332.— Orig. 



: Eoum. Stirp. Helv- p. 69. N° 38.— Orig. 



§ The Novaccolae are a people originally sprung from the Finlanders : they fixed themselves, ia 

 Lapland not long since, and traffic with the old inhabitants. — Orig. 



