THE PRINCIPLES OF BOTANY. 
549 
this Lichen, like the others, does not contain any muscle-making 
or flesh-forming matter, and they had no milk by which this 
might have been added, this must have been the real cause 
of the inconvenience, as no active medicinal principle has 
really been discovered in Lichens, and consequently though 
their feeding value is confessedly low, yet in so far as is 
known, every species is perfectly innocuous, or at least no 
poison has been found among them. 
The Cladonicc rungiferina (Rein-deer Moss) forms the prin- 
cipal winter food of the herds of rein-deer in Lapland ; and 
lately it has become a moot question whether the Lapland 
Moss, Iceland Moss, and others of the family, might not be 
profitably employed as cattle food ; and from some experi- 
ments with the latter in feeding calves — first steeped to re- 
move the bitter extractive, and then boiled to a jelly in skim 
milk — we are disposed to recommend further trials. In the 
field one looks upon the abundance of lichens on the branches 
of trees as an evidence of damp. A hoary lichenoid orchard 
usually bears sweeter fruit, as, if the trees be attacked by 
Lichens, they are prematurely aged, and the fruit is smaller, 
though of sweeter quality. 
Fruit-trees much covered with Lichens, is usually an evi- 
dence of want of drainage. 
Now, although it is stated that Lichens are not parasitic, 
but merely epiphytic, it is not quite proven that they do not 
feed at least partially on some growing trees ; at least one 
thing is certain, namely, that the trees on which they im- 
pinge in any quantity are never perfectly healthy. 
Mr. Lees says that some of the hoary Lichens give such a 
spectral aspect to the branches they clothe, as if Nature had 
robed them with a permanent hoar frost. To some of these, 
more particularly, perhaps, Evernia prunaster, he says the 
name of “ Death-moss” has been popularly applied, as de- 
noting that the term of the tree’s healthy endurance has 
arrived, when these pallid locks, assimilating to the grey hairs 
of man, appear. 
Thus, then, Lichens have a botanical, commercial, agrarian, 
and even poetical aspect, either of which might render them 
interesting objects of study. Indeed, these “ Time-stains,” 
as Lichens have not inaptly been termed, are replete with 
interest in whatever aspect they are viewed. 
XLIII. 
37 
