Book Description

Excerpt from The Lichen-Flora of Great Britain, Ireland, and the Channel Islands "Think of the beauty which God has spread abroad for our use; its profuseness in desert spots where none can see it; its minuteness, so that much can only be discovered by a microscope; and its extent, embracing all things." - Sewell. "Meek creatures! the first mercy of the earth, veiling with hushed softness its dentless rocks; creatures full of pity covering with strange and tender honour the sacred disgrace of ruin, laying quiet fingers on the trembling stones to teach them rest. No words that I know of will say what these Mosses and Lichens are; none are delicate enough, none perfect enough, none rich enough. They will not be gathered like the flowers, for chaplet or love-token; but of these the wild bird will make its nest, and the wearied child its pillow, and as the earth's first mercy so they are its last gift to us. When all other service is vain from plant and tree, the soft Mosses and grey Lichens take up their watch by the headstone. The woods, the blossoms, the gift-bearing grasses have done their parts for a time, but these do service for ever. Trees for the builder's yard, flowers for the brides chamber, corn for the granary, Mosses and Lichens for the grave." - Ruskin. "All organic life commences with excessively minute structures, which are continually reproduced in inconceivable numbers. On land the Lichens first appear on rocks, and the bark of trees, covering them with coloured spots and bands." - Heer. Seeds, to our eye invisible, will find On the rude rock the bed that fits their kind; There, in the rugged soil they safely dwell, Till showers and snows the subtle atoms swell, And spread th' enduring foliage; then we trace The freckled flower upon the flinty base; These all increase, till in unnoticed years The stony tower as grey with age appears. - Crabbe. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.