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POPULAR HISTORY OF LICHENS. 



of one or two feet ; their apothecia however are not very 

 frequently met with, and from their small size and having 

 a similar colour to the thallus they are apt to be over- 

 looked. In mountain and moorland regions they occur 

 not unfrequently on rocks, as on the Cheviots and Gram- 

 pians, but they are always in such circumstances inferior in 

 size, and more rigid. The variety hicolor is peculiar- to 

 alpine rocks ; it occurs in various parts of our Highlands, 

 as in the neighbourhoods of Loch Tay and Braemar, but is 

 seldom found in fructification. C.juhata has a wide geo- 

 graphical range, extending as far north as Ross's Islet and 

 and Little Table Island in the Arctic regions. Its thecae 

 are small, narrowly oboval, eight-spored ; its spores are 

 minute, ellipsoid-oval or roundish, colourless, double-walled. 

 It would appear to possess a certain amount of nutrient 

 properties, being frequently eaten in winter by the Lapland 

 reindeer as a substitute for the Cladonia rangiferina : to 

 enable these useful animals to feed on it with less difficulty, 

 the Laplanders cut down the firs on which it grows. It is 

 said also to be capable of yielding a red dye ; we have not 

 found it to exhibit any colorific properties, but we have 

 frequently noticed the paper in old herbariums stained red 

 or orange by various Cornicularias, especially some North 



