CHAPTER VI 



THE STRANGE STORY OF THE LICHENS 



Many people with a fair general knowledge of 

 plant life discover fresh worlds to conquer in 

 the study of the flowerless vegetation. What 

 is this grey substance spreading over the bark 

 of an old tree, very similar — yet not quite the 

 same — to a growth which was noticed the 

 other day on a wall ? It is probable that most 

 of us have a hazy idea that it is a lichen of some 

 sort or another, yet it appears to be almost 

 incredible that such a dead-looking object can 

 really be a living and growing plant. It goes 

 without saying that the life story of such sin- 

 gular organisms must be interesting, and, in- 

 deed, in many ways the tale of the lichens is 

 one of the most romantic in the whole book 

 of Nature. These singular grey growths, con- 

 cerning which the botanist of two generations 

 ago devised a special branch of botanical study, 

 are not, as was then thought, individual plants 

 at all. Although, for the sake of convenience, 



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