OF THE 
No list of the Lichens of Lancaster county has, to the best 
of my knowledge, yet been published. 
The following is only a preliminary list of the specimens 
collected and analyzed as time and opportunity permitted dur- 
ing the years commencing in 1884 and ending in 1893. To 
these I expect to add others hereafter. 
The Lichens, on account of their seeming insignificance, 
have not received the attention given to larger plants. 
The student cannot fail to find these humble plants both 
interesting and beautiful, and they form an important part of 
the economy of nature. Classed among the Cryptogamous 
plants, they form what may be termed the advance guard of 
the great repairing army of vegetation. They fill the waste 
places, cover the barren rocks, and dying leave their crum- 
bling remains to feed the mosses that follow them. 
An English botanist thus writes of these : “ I'he Lichens, 
though generally looked upon as unworthy of notice, are of 
great consequence in the economy of nature. The crustaceous 
kinds fix upon the barest rocks, and are nourished by such 
slender supplies as air and the rains afford them. When these 
die they are converted into a very fine earth, in which the 
tiled Lichens find nourishment, and on their decaying and fall- 
ing to dust, various mosses, as the Bryum Hypnum, etc., 
occupy their place. Insignificant, therefore, as these tribes 
may appear, they prove that means, small and simple, may 
accomplish the greatest ends. Lichens and mosses (especially 
in the colder latitudes) thus constitute the very matrix of 
vegetation ; by successive deposits, stratum super stratum, 
providing beds capable of sustaining the seeds of more perfect 
plants (conveyed by various fortuitous circumstances) till 
verdure and flowers succeed to sterility, and are themselves 
not unfrequently crowned by the lofty pine or the knotted oak.” 
Amelia F. Eby. 
Lancaster, January 29, 1894. 
