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POPULAR HISTORY OF LICHENS. 



remnant of the Celtic race, which is fast disappearing from 

 our shores to spend its energies in foreign climes. Under 

 various vernacular names species of the same genera have 

 for ages been employed by the peasantry of this and other 

 countries, to yield pigments wherewith they dyed their yarn 

 and home-spun fabrics. In Scotland, not many years ago, 

 particularly in certain districts, almost every farm and cotter- 

 house had its tank or barrel of " graith," or putrid urine 

 (the form of ammoniacal liquid employed), and its " lit-pig," 

 wherein the mistress of the household macerated some fami- 

 liar "crottle" (the Scotch vernacular term for the dye-lichens 

 in general), such as Lecanora tartar ea or Parmelia saxa- 

 tilis, and prepared therefrom a reddish or purplish dye. The 

 commercial designation of the dye-lichens depends upon the 

 thallus being erect or pendulous and cylindrical or shrubby 

 on the one hand, and flat, crustaceous, or foliaceous on the 

 other; species having a thallus of the former character 

 being termed " weeds," as the Boccellcz ; and of the latter 

 " mosses," as the Lecanoras and Parmelias. The " weeds" 

 chiefly used in the preparation of orchill, the RocceUte, are 

 popularly called " Orchella weeds," and are somewhat spe- 

 cifically arranged in commerce according to their geographical 

 sources, as "Angola, Lima, Cape, or Canary Orchella weeds." 



