224 



POPULAR HISTORY OF LICHENS. 



peculiar form, v&x.frigida, having a loose granulose thallus, 

 grows on decayed moss, grass, or heather, on some of the 

 Highland mountains. (E. B. 1879.) In the latter, as well 

 as in the similar muscicolous form of L. pallescens, the 

 thallus sends out papillae, or spinuliferous branches. 



The thecse of L. tartarea are large, but indistinct and uni- 

 spored ; the spores, in appearance, resemble those of the pre- 

 ceding species, but are larger. This species yields a beauti- 

 ful orchill, and, under the name of "Swedish" or "Tartare- 

 ous Moss," is largely imported from Norway and Sweden by 

 the London orchill-maker. Isidioid varieties or forms, in 

 which the thalline tubercles are hypertrophied, appear to be 

 richest in colorific matter. Prom this Lichen Cudbear was 

 at one time largely manufactured in Scotland, and Litmus in 

 Holland. When Cudbear-making flourished in Glasgow and 

 Leith, the "Cudbear Lichen," so-called, was largely collected 

 in the western Highlands and islands by the poor peasantry, 

 who were thus able to earn in 1807, according to Hooker, 

 fourteen shillings a week. In Derbyshire and the rocky 

 parts of Cumberland and Westmoreland it w r as also at one time 

 collected by the peasantry, probably for the London market ; 

 they sold it to the manufacturer at a penny a pound, and 

 were able usually to gather twenty to thirty pounds a day. 



