absent altogether, and may be seen clothing the old stems of various S. African shrubs and 
trees, but they are very rarely indeed seen on the stems of Proteacee. There seems to be 
something in the bark of these shrubs which is unfavourable to the growth of cryptogamia. It 
cannot be the ¢annin, which abounds in Protea bark ; because we well know that no tree is such 
a favourite with the fairy troops of mosses, lichens and fungi as the Oak, whose bark is notoriously 
rich in tanning properties. The reason has not been given, but the fact is striking enough, that 
large trunks of Proteas and Leucodendrons decay and fall to powder without giving nourishment 
to a single moss or lichen; and even the fungi, those omnivorous vegetables, nearly desert the 
wasting trunks of Protee. One or two kinds of fungi may occasionally be seen on rotting 
stumps, but even these are rare. 
