80 



POPULAR HISTORY OF LICHENS. 



settle on lava, coral islands, and on the bare rocks of moun- 

 tains ; and when we consider that our earth must have at 

 one time presented a similarly naked surface, it is not im- 

 probable to conceive that, without a soil prepared, as we have 

 described, by crustaceous Lichens, there could have arisen 

 no higher vegetation, — that without vegetation herbivorous 

 and carnivorous animals could not have existed, and that as 

 a necessary and correlative result, man himself could never 

 have appeared, or must speedily have become extinct. The 

 variously tinted crusts which soften and adorn our cliffs and 

 rocks or the venerable ruins of ancient castles and abbeys, 

 and the shaggy beard of grey which clothes the monarchs 

 of our forests, are evidences that the Lichens are no insig- 

 nificant elements in the picturesque. Linnaeus denominated 

 the mosses Servi — handmaids of Nature : we think the 

 reader will agree with us in considering that the Lichens 

 have a superior claim to the appellation. 



The use of certain Lichens 2^ food for man and the lower 

 animals depends on their containing amylaceous and gummy 

 matters ; in addition, some species contain minute quantities 

 of peculiar saccharine principles. The amylaceous matters 

 consist of two substances, allied in composition, viz. Lichenin, 

 or Lichen-starch, — peculiar to the Lichens; and Inuline, 



