16 



POPULAR HISTORY OF LICHENS. 



dividual ; while it becomes one of comparative ease to a 

 multitude of observers, working towards a common end 

 under different conditions of climate and country. In no 

 section of botany therefore are the labours of individual col- 

 lectors or investigators, on however small a scale, more likely 

 to contribute to a higher status of the science, or a more ac- 

 curate knowledge of the natural history of the plants compos- 

 ing it, than in that of Lichenology. The paucity of labourers 

 in this field, — the deficiency of corroborated and multiplied 

 observations common to all countries and climes, have been 

 one great cause of the obscurity which has hitherto enveloped 

 the subject of Lichenology. Should this little Work induce 

 any labourers to enter either upon the comparatively cir- 

 cumscribed, but also comparatively unworked, though pro- 

 mising, field of Lichenology, or the broader and more at- 

 tractive region of general Natural History, its purpose will 

 have been fully answered. 



Within the limits of a popular treatise we feel it impos- 

 sible to do justice to a subject of such novelty and extent 

 as the Natural History of British Lichens. We can only 

 enumerate the general characters of the more common and 

 better known species, which beginners in the study of Li- 

 chenology are most likely to meet in their country rambles. 



