200 



POPULAR HISTORY OF LICHENS. 



ceous, but rarely on magnesian, rocks, and is always collected 

 in August or autumn, because at this period richest in co- 

 louring matter. The Norwegian and Swedish peasantry use 

 it to dye their home-made garments, sometimes adding Par- 

 melia parietina, or alder-bark. In Scandinavia it appears 

 always to have been reckoned most honourable for the inha- 

 bitants to weave their own cloths, — to make and dye their 

 own vestments. The primitive customs of our own ances- 

 tors in this respect have been almost completely dissipated 

 by the introduction of steam, and the progress, hand in 

 hand, of science and art. This Lichen was once used in 

 medicine as an astringent; by the ancients it appears to 

 have enjoyed a celebrity as a sovereign remedy for epilepsy 

 and the plague ; and even Hippocrates is said to have pre- 

 scribed it in the diseases of women. 



The variety omplialocles yields readily to boiling water a 

 deep brown, and, on ammoniacal maceration, a reddish- 

 brown colouring matter, which has also been much used by 

 the peasantry of various countries of northern Europe in the 

 dyeing of woollen fabrics. It is the " Alaforel-laf " of the 

 Swedish and Norwegian peasant, the " black crottle " of the 

 Scotch Highlander, and the " kenkerig" of the Welsh moun- 

 taineer. In Ireland it was prepared for use as a dye by 



