LICHENS IN THE ISLAND OF BUTE. 
81 
A RAMBLE AMONGST LICHENS IN THE ISLAND OF 
BUTE.* 
BY W. H. WILKINSON, 
HON. SEC. OF THE BIRMINGHAM NATURAL HISTORY AND MICROSCOPICAL SOCIETY. 
In this paper your attention is invited to some of the results 
of a ramble amongst the lichens. 
The flowering plants ever offer special attractions, with 
their beautiful forms and brilliant colours ; the ferns have 
won for themselves a place in the garden and the home from 
their graceful fronds and their association with shady woods 
and holiday joys. The mosses, too, have a charm all their 
own, and although but seldom cultivated they, by their 
abundance in decorating every wall and tree and crowding 
over each space of unoccupied land, are familiar to every 
observant eye. The fungi also have received a good share 
of attention at the hands of the students of botany, which 
has yielded a rich harvest of interesting facts to the world at 
large. 
But the lichens are so low down in the scale that they are 
generally overlooked, or meet with but scant attention. Yet 
they have a useful purpose to serve, and form a link without 
which the chain of Nature would not be complete. 
The lichens are separated into two divisions—viz., the 
lower or crustaceous, and the higher, including the foliaceous, 
fruticulose, and filamentous. 
The crustaceous generally grow on rocks and stones, and 
sometimes on trees, moss, &c. Starting from a central point 
they form somewhat circular or oval patches on the rocks, and 
year after year they not only extend outwards but they 
increase in thickness, and thus sometimes they live to a 
great age. 
Description of Plate I. 
View of the Kyles of Bute Hydropathic Establishment, Port 
Bannatyne. 
View of Rothesay Bay. 
The Lichens represented are— 
Usnea barbata on trees. 
Peltigera canina in foreground. 
Cladonia pyxidata, “ The Cup Moss.” 
Cladonia digitata, var. macilenta, scarlet fruited. 
* Transactions of the Birmingham Natural History and Micro¬ 
scopical Society. December 7th, 1880. 
