of our great mother, Nature, only where gigantic proportions arrest his attention, or when the storm of enraged elements makes him aware of his own insignificance. 2. Surely his head was not set on high that he might despise low things! But, te see the beauties with which every corner and crevice is decked, to read the lessons conveyed in Nature's subtlest works, something more than the eye is required. We must be willing and able to listen to every beetle's lowly hum, to greet every flower by the wayside as it looks up to us and to heaven, and to question every stone, every pebble. If we thus look upon the tiny lichens around us, we may here also soon learn that, even in the smallest proportions, "Not a beauty blows, And not an opening blossom breathes in vain." 3. Lichens, of which more than two thousand species have been described by botanists, assume a great variety of forms, and vary from a mere speck and shriveled leaf to a branching leafless plant a foot or more in height. In their most common forms, in which they are generally known as rock moss or tree moss, they are fleshy or leather-like substances growing on rocks, trees, and old buildings, forming broad patches of various colors, some being of a bluish gray, and others of the richest golden yellow; some spread upon the ground-and these have usually a much larger growth; some, again, hang from the branches of venerable trees, which they clothe with a shaggy beard of gray; and others shoot up from the barren heath, gray and deformed, but eventually fashioning themselves into tiny goblets, the borders of which are studded with crimson shields. 4. Perhaps the most beautiful of all, as well as the most common, are the wall lichens, some of which spread out like wrinkled leaflets, while other varieties assume a beautiful circular form, resembling in outline and shape the fairest rose; and of these it has been said, with quaint but truthful words, "Careless of thy neighborhood, Thou dost show thy pleasant face But 'tis good enough for thee." And, in reality, there are but few surfaces long exposed to wind and weather which are not soon protected by the warm cover of these lichens. Our roofs and our fences, the trunk of a tree, and the rock in the moors, the earth-capped dike, and the sterile sea-bank-in fact, all places but sparingly supplied with moisture, yet freely exposed to air and light, are clad in ever-varying colors by these beautiful children of Nature. The far-famed Cathedral of Munster may be truly said to be gilded by these tiny lichens. 5. Hardy plants and long-lived are they. Many of them love to live upon a soil little adapted to retain moisture; and of these it has been said that, "Like the lazaroni3 of Naples, they will not work even to live. Carelessly and listlessly they lie in the bright sunshine, and implore with Stoic påtience, by their miserable appearance, the pity of passing clouds. In these times of want and drought they shrink and shrivel until nothing seems farther from them than life. Pale and rigid, they are the very images of desolation, and crumble under the hand into impalpable dust. Yet no sooner has an early dew or a soft rain-nay, even a faint mist-merely touched their unsightly forms, than they begin drinking in moisture with amusing avidity, and, lo and behold, ere many minutes are passed, they expand and increase, until, as if touched by a magic wand, they have recovered their fresh, joyful color and youthful vigor." 6. In extent of geographical distribution they exceed even the mosses; and they are met with, in one place or other, from the equator to the poles, and from the sea-shoré to the summits of lofty mountains. Humboldt discovered a species of this plant at a height of more than eighteen thousand feet, "the last child of the vegetable kingdom at that unsurpassed elevation, close to the top of Chimborazo ;" and large numbers of small but vigorous lichens are known to spread over the Alps, even close to the eternal snows of Mount Blanc. Rocks sublime To human art a sportive semblance bore, Like moonlit battlements, and towers decayed by time.-CAMPBELL 7. Another writer has beautifully described these hardy plants as crowning the heights of Snowdon, above the region of clouds and storms. Where frowning Snowdon bends his dizzy brow Bright shine the stars, unnumbered, o'er her head, While round the rifted rocks hoarse whirlwinds breathe, 8. But lichens are far from being idle intruders upon the domains of solitude, or mere ornaments woven into the bright carpet that covers our earth. From them many articles of food, even for man, and bright dyes, are obtained: the Iceland moss, a species of lichen, is now much used in medicine, especially in pulmonary affections; humbler animals subsist upon these plants; and the well-known reindeer moss sustains for months the life of a whole race of noble animals, without whom a large portion of our globe would be but a desert, unfit for the abode of man. This may here be referred to as one of the many examples that might be cited of that beautiful adaptation which prevails throughout all animated na ture. 9. Reindeer'! not in fields like ours, Full of grass and bright with flowers, When thou wast at first designed By the great Creative mind', Thou for frozen lands wast meant', Ere the winter's frost was sent'; And in love He sent thee forth To thy home, the frozen north, Bitter lichens for thy use.-MARY HOWITT. 10. All lichens are amply endowed with starch; and with this not only most of the cells are filled, but even the walls themselves are mainly composed of it. A leathern-like lichen grows largely in the limestone mountains of Northern Asia, and serves, in times of famine at least, as food for the roving Tartars. In the polar regions of Europe similar lichens are carefully soaked and boiled down to free them of their original bitterness, and then cooked with milk, or baked into bread. Scanty lichens of this kind, which had to be dug out from under sheltering loads of snow, were, not for days, but for whole months, the sole food of the unfortunate navigator Franklin and his companions. 1 LI-CHEN (usually pronounced li’-kën). 2 TI-NY or TIN'-Y. 3 LAZ-A-RŌ'-NI, a class of beggars and idlers. 14 DROUGHT (drowt), the same meaning as drouth. LES. XXVI-FUNGI, OR FUNGOUS PLANTS. (THALLOGENS.) 1. Aga'ricus pro'cerus, Giant ag'aric, xxi. 9, w. and br., 6 in., gardens. 2. Aga'ricus pru'nulus, French mushroom, xxi. 9, white, 1 in., woods. 3. Aga'ricus bulbo'sus, RadIsh-scented mushroom, xxi. 9, br., 4 in., among grass. 4. Agaricus squarro'sus, Squarrose ag'aric, xxi. 9, rusty-iron color, 2 in., roots of trees. 5. Aga'ricus flav'idus, Yellow ag'aric (eatable), xxi. 9, pale yellow, 2 in., trunks of trees. 6. Aga'ricus te'ner, Brittle gal'era, xxi. 9, y. and br., 4 in., grassy places. 7. Aga'ricus campes'tris, Common mushroom, xxi. 9, whitish, pink below, 3 in., cultivated in gardens. 8. Polypo'rus gigante'us, Beech-tree toadstool, xxi. 9, pale brown, 20 in., on beech-trees. 9. Tuber ciba'rium, Common truffle, xxi. 9, brown, 14 in., under ground. 10. Phallus cani'nus, Scentless morel, xxi. 9, pk., 4 in. 11. Asco'phora muce'do, a common mould, xxi. 9, è in. 1. UNDER the name Fungi1 botanists comprehend not only the various races of mushrooms, toad-stools, and similar productións, but a large number of microscopic plants forming the appearances called mouldiness, mildew, smut, rust on the straw of grains, dry rot in wood, and blight in corn. Many of them are mischievous parasitical plants, found wherever there is decaying vegetation; and they sometimes grow upon animals, and even upon the hand and in the lungs of man. 2. They often spring up and develop with remarkable rapidity; and it has been said that fungous vegetation has been found on iron which but a few hours before had been red hot in the forge. Their mode of fructification is doubtless similar to that already described for ferns and other cryptogamia, except that the whole plant is a mass of reproductive matter; and so minute are the germs or seeds of parasitic fungi as to defy the power of the microscope; and hence it is thought that they circulate in the sap of vegetables and in the blood of animals. When dried masses of them are set free they resemble thin smoke, as in the powder of puff-balls; and so light are they that it is difficult to conceive a place from which they can be excluded. 3. The variety of forms and tints of this curious family of plants is most numerous. Some of them, called the bolēti, exhibit, when broken, a remarkable change of color, the white or yellowish tint becoming instantly of a vivid blue. Some are nearly fluid, while others are like paper, leather, or cork. There is a kind which vegetates in dark mines far from the light of day, and which is remarkable for its phosphorescent properties. In the coal-mines near Dresden these plants are described as giving those places the air of an enchanted castle: the roof, walls, and pillars are entirely covered with them, and their beautiful light is almost dazzling to the eye. 4. In size, too, the fungi vary from minute specks to masses several feet in circumference. The most wonderful thing about mushrooms is the rapidity of their growth and of their propagation. Puff-balls have grown six inches in diameter in a single night. Notwithstanding the soft and cellular structure of the plant, they have grown in glass vessels until they have broken them; and even heavy stones have been raised by numerous fungi growing under them. 5. Unlike other plants, fungi absorb oxygen from the air, and exhale carbonic acid. Many mushrooms are very poisonous, while others are esteemed valuable as articles of food. A curious fungous plant, called the truffle, grows entirely under ground. It is highly esteemed in Europe as an article of food, but it has never been successfully cultivated. It grows in Virginia and North Carolina, where it is known as Indian bread or Indian loaf, but more generally by the name of Tuckahoe. Tuckahoe, when fresh, has an acrid taste, but becomes edible3 when dry. Tinder or spunk is a kind of mushroom of the genus Agaric. Various kinds of fungi, besides our common puff-ball, have been used to stop bleeding, and also for many medicinal purposes. The poet Delille has told us in verse of "The potent agaric, to wounds applied, That stops the gushing of the sanguine tide; 6. A fungus of remarkable intoxicating properties, similar in appearance to our mushroom, grows in Siberia. After eat |