" Think of the beauty which God has spread abroad for our use ; its 

 profuseness in desert spots where none can see it ; its minuteness, so that 

 much can only be discovered by a microscope ; and its extent, embracing 

 all things." — Sewell. 



" Meek creatures ! the first mercy of the earth, veiling with hushed 

 softness its dentless rocks; creatures full of pity covering with strange and 

 tender honour the sacred disgrace of ruin, laying quiet fingers on the 

 trembling stones to teach them rest. No words that I know of will say 

 what these Mosses and Lichens are ; none are delicate enough, none perfect 

 enough, none rich enough. They will not be gathered like the flowers, for 

 chaplet or love-token; but of these the wild bird will make its nest, and 

 the wearied child its pillow, and as the earth's first mercy so they are its 

 last gift to us. When all other service is vain from plant and tree, the soft 

 Mosses and grey Lichens take up their watch by the headstone. The woods, 

 the blossoms, the gift-bearing grasses have done their parts for a time, but 

 these do service for ever. Trees for the builder's yard, flowers for the 

 bride's chamber, corn for the granary, Mosses and Lichens for the grave." — 

 Ruskin. 



' ' All organic life commences with excessively minute structures, which are 

 continually reproduced in inconceivable numbers. On land the Lichens first 

 appear on rocks, and the bark of trees, covering them with coloured spots 

 and bands. — Seer. 



Seeds, to our eye invisible, will find 



On the rude rock the bed that fits their kind ; 



There, in the rugged soil they safely dwell, 



Till showers and snows the subtle atoms swell, 



And spread th' enduring foliage ; then we trace 



The freckled flower upon the flinty base ; 



These all increase, till in unnoticed years 



The stony tower as grey with age appears.— Crabbe. 



