6 



POPULAR HISTORY OF LICHEN'S. 



that throughout the family, both in structure and product^ 

 there are many analogies which bind them closely to the 

 Phanerogamia, we cannot fail to increase our surprise that 

 a curiosity has not been sooner awakened to become fami- 

 liar with the natural history of plants which strew the path 

 of man wherever he roams over the wide world, — which con- 

 stitute the most universally diffused type of terrestrial vegeta- 

 tion. Whether we look upon the Lichens from a scientific 

 or utilitarian point of view ; whether we regard the univer- 

 sality of their geographical range, — their beautiful structural 

 adaptations to the position which they occupy in the scale 

 of vegetation, to the part they play in the economy of Na- 

 ture as the pioneers of vegetable life, — the numerous links 

 in structure and composition which connect them with the 

 Phanerogamic^,- — the importance of their products in our 

 arts and manufactures, — their celebrity in the past history 

 of British and continental medicine, — their connection with 

 the history of Arctic enterprise, — the abundance of nutritive 

 species in the countries and under the conditions of season 

 and climate where they are most required for the sustenance 

 of man and the lower animals,— and the curious combina- 

 tion which they present of essential simplicity of structure 

 with infinite variety of form 3 we think we have a sufficient 



