98 FIRST FORMS OF VEGETATION. 
veins underneath; and others reticulated above, 
and furnished with little cavities or holes on the 
under-surface. The higher orders of lichens, 
though destitute of anything resembling vascular 
tissue, exhibit considerable complexity of struc- 
ture. Some are shrubby, and tufted, with stem 
and branches, like miniature trees; others bear 
a strong resemblance to the corallines of our 
_sea-shores ; while a third class, “the green-fringed 
cup-moss with the scarlet tip,” as Crabbe calls it, 
is exceedingly graceful, growing in clusters beside 
the black peat-moss or under the heather tuft, 
“ And, Hebe-like, upholding 
Its cups with dewy offerings to the sun.” 
As an illustration of the extraordinary appear- 
ances which lichens occasionally present, I may 
describe the Ofegrapha or written lichen (Fig. 7), 
perhaps the most curious and remarkable member 
of this strange tribe. In her cactuses and orchids 
sportive nature often displays a ludicrous resem- 
blance to insects, birds, animals, and even the 
“human face and form divine ;” but this is one of 
the few instances in which she has condescended 
to imitate in her vegetable productions the written 
language of man. A cryptogam is in this case a 
cryptogram! The crust of this curious autograph 
of nature is a mere white tartareous film of 
indefinite extent, sometimes bounded by a faint 
