INTRODUCTION. 



17 



By confining ourselves to the description of typical or 

 common species, and by means of introductory chapters 

 devoted to the consideration of their external characters, 

 internal structure, uses, distribution, and classification, we 

 hope to be enabled to lay before the general reader, or the 

 young student of Nature, a comparatively complete, though 

 concise, view or account of the principal features of their 

 natural history. Experience of the difficulty of procuring 

 information upon, or access to lichenological literature has 

 induced us to append, in foot-notes to the several chapters, 

 references to the works most worthy of consultation for 

 fuller details than are hereinafter contained. The addition 

 of these references may, we trust, serve to render the Work 

 not unacceptable to the more advanced student of botany or 

 natural history, as a familiar introduction to the study of 

 native Lichens ; and may enable those who are desirous of 

 dipping more deeply into the study of Lichenology than 

 they can do in the pages of a popular treatise, to prosecute 

 the subject according to their time or inclinations. 



" Not a plant, a leaf, a flower but contains 

 A folio volume. We may read, and read, 

 And read again, and still find something new, — 

 Something to please, — something to instruct, — 

 Even in the noisome weed." 



C 



