[ 6 S2 3 
XCI. An Hi fl orica l Memoir . concerning a 
Genus of Plants called Lichen, by Mi- 
cheli, Haller, and Linnaeus ; and compre- 
hended by Dillenius under the Terms Ufnea, 
Coralloides, and Lichenoides : Tending 
principally to illuftrate their fever al Ufes. 
Communicated by Wm, Watfon, M. D . 
F. R. S . 
— Natura nihil frujlra creaverit. pojleros tamen tot in- 
dentures utilitates ex Mufcis auguror , quot ex reliquis de- 
get abilibus. 
Cui bono? Amfen. Acad. IIL p. 241. 
Read Apr. 27 & / g \ H E whole clafs of modes were 
May 4 ’ 1 758 ‘ taken but very little notice of by 
the revivers of botany in the dxteenth century : they 
indeed took fome pains to diftinguidi the particular 
fpecies that the ancients had mentioned, but difre- 
garded almoft all the reft. Modern botanifts how- 
ever fuppofe, that they were but little fuccefsful in 
general in their application of the ancient names to 
plants : nor is a failure in fuch attempts to be won- 
dered at, conddering the too great concifenefs, and 
frequent obfeurity, of their deferiptions. In the clafs 
of moffes, as in many others, the accounts tranf- 
mitted to us are little more than a feene of uncer- 
tainty and confudon. 
It is to the moderns we are indebted for the dif- 
covery of the far greater number of the plants of this 
clafs. 
