Popular Field Botany, Containing a Familiar and Technical Description of the Plants Most Common to the Various Localities of the British Isles, Adapte - Softcover

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This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated.1852 Excerpt: ... CHAPTER XII. DECEMBEE. A Brief mention of Lichens, Funguses, and Seaweeds, will form the last part of this branch of Natural History. The reader must refer to works devoted to this portion of the subject, when more information is required. Lichenes. Lichens. The characters of the order are as follows:--Aerial plants (not deriving nourishment from the soil); leaves and stem combined, and spreading either horizontally in the form of a lobed irregular plate, or rising. erect, with irregular branches, having discs or shields which produce the seeds. Lichens are very valuable in preparing the ground for more important vegetables; they retain much moisture, and even on the bare rock, upon which they are often fixed, will enable a few seeds of grass and other small plants to grow. These wither, and in their turn afford nourishment to larger kinds, and thus a soil is formed by degrees on these otherwise barren spots. They themselves require no other sustenance than the moisture of the atmosphere; so that the root fixes them to the rock, but is of no further use. They grow almost everywhere, on stone and wood, as well as in the soil. Some few are eatable, as the Cladonia rangiferina, or Reindeer Moss, as it is erroneously called, which not only forms the food of the useful animal from which it derives its name, but is used in this country medicinally. It has white stems, looking like wire, and forming a mass, which is seen on heaths amongst the green Moss. Others are used by the dyer. Various species form the weather-stains on old walls, and many beautiful kinds grow on rocks and stones. One found on the latter substance, of a green and yellow colour, is the Opegrapha saxatilis, or Map Lichen, as it resembles the marks used in delineating geographical plans. These k...

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