102 HUMBLE FAMILIES IN GRAY. 



which they are sprinkled, and to which they are 

 attached. Many of them are of various shades of 

 brown. Some are as black as jet, or bright white, 

 while others are red, scarlet or pink. Their 

 beauty is only skin deep, but if our eyes were 

 microscopic, we could see that the colored skin or 

 rind is composed of numerous tiny filaments, slen- 

 der at their bases and somewhat swollen and club- 

 shaped at their summits, and within the mass of 

 these erect threads are embedded certain small 

 membranous cells or bags which contain the 

 spores, not yet mature. What is the purpose of 

 this special coloring of the apothecia ? Is it to 

 advertise themselves, as the flowers do to the 

 bees 1 Perhaps these insects gather the meal-like 

 substance for their bread, which many of the 

 lichens yield abundantly, though one can not con- 

 ceive how the plants in return are benefited 

 thereby. The winged busy-bodies are sharply 

 questioned, as they buzz here and there about the 

 stumps and ledges in the early sunny Spring days, 

 but they give no satisfactory answer; however, 

 one is inclined to believe they, like the caribou 

 and reindeer of the north, or the Nature-loving 

 rambler, sometimes go to a lichening when other 

 food is scarce. 



These simple mats or expansions of starch cells, 

 seen almost everywhere on the ledges, or the pale 

 sulphur or ash-colored species on the earth, hav- 



