IX. 



HUMBLE FAMILIES IN GRAY. 



The hillside yonder, studded with boles and the 

 rugged outcrops of pudding-stone which are dap- 

 pled with various lichen, now freshened and made 

 alive with color by the melting snows, presents a 

 most beautiful view to the rambler. As he draws 

 near and studies the picture in detail he finds 

 none but the commonest kinds of these curious 

 plants with their margins variously lobed and sin- 

 uated, fringed with fine hairs or entire, according 

 to the species. Some are thickly beset with 

 little dish-shaped apothecia, which are the recep- 

 tacles for the spores or seeds, while other speci- 

 mens, it may be of the same species, are entirely 

 free from them, but frequently covered with a 

 dense mass of minute warts or powdery cells, 

 the contents of which, as well as the true spores, 

 possess the power, it is said, of making new 

 plants, when the winds carry the fine grains to 

 suitable places for their germination. Here is 

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