Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1869-03-12

of Vermont was in ill-health. lie consult
ed very wise physician who advised him
to exercise freely in the woods, and to give
zest TO his bodily exercise, to interest his
mind in plants. Our young shoemaker,
in his daily rambles, began to notice the
Lichens. He had but little help from books
and he observed many things of which the
books seemed ignorant. He was perpleN-
ed he turned eagerly TO this new path OF
knowledge but found no guide. There was
nothing satisfactory in English, but he
heard of volume in Latin by Fries, a
Swedish Lichnologist He knew not a
word OF Latin, but this volume he must
have and read. lie began, at once, on the
Latin Grammar, and was soon able to find
his way, specimen in hand, through the
| pages of Fries. So Latin came TO him
| through Lichens. Works on technology
in German, French, and Italian must be
consulted, and he has gained a knowledge
of these languages. a very fair reckon
ingj restored health, four languages and a
| knowledge of the vegetable kingdom in its
| lower orders which has won him recogni-
| ton as one of the foremost Lichnologists oi
the day. a shoemaker, still, he is above
all, Botanist, and many student, myself
among them, has learned the lore of the
humble weed from his lips.
And this lore is not merely curious. High
questions involving the mode in which tho
divine will has energized in creation, arc
involved in the study Of Lichens.
Questions, too, concerning the former
conditions of the globe, centres of creation,
emigrations, changes of climate, are involv-
ed in the geographical distribution of Ii
chens. Why is it that on the New Hamp-
shire mountains you find the same species
as on the Alps? But these questions are
foreign to our purposes in this paper.
The old grave-yards you have strolled
through them, and you have seen the Lich-
ems growing on the grave-stones. And did
| you ever think how long it takes nature to
bring these humble children of hers into
| fruit? Some species mature sooner, but
some require many years. There is old
| Plymouth of the Pilgrims, and that stone
bears date, 1860. You will find no perfect
Lichen on that. 1t is only hundred years
old. That crumbling stone bears the name
of a Pilgrim. The Lichen you find on that
may be in fruit Two hundred years :
nature has had her time. And if SO many
years to bring into fruit such an humble
plant as the Lichen, how long to ripen such
a costly race as man! While looking on
these slow-fruiting weeds on a tombstone
l have INDUCED the fancy that if some higl
intelligence could look down on the worlC
| I tRHng ln., IL fl,, L..
see tire race of men, as l the Lichen, h,
would say mot in the fruit, more time.
What sermon of patience the patience
of Deity waiting two centuries on the littl,
servant he has appointed to wear the bar
rem rock into soil.
Lichens there are, whose years must b
numbered by thousands. They are on tn,
mountains, on the Temples of Baalbec, OF
the pyramids of Egypt. 1 was talking on,
day with friend who is an enthusiast il
technology. With great warmth he ex
| pressed hope that sometime he would Sc,
the Pyramids of Egypt. 1.-THE Old Worl,
had nothing so attractive to him, and IN
could undertake the journey merely to Sc
the Lichens on the Pyramid of Cheops (!
He thought he would find specimens a. Oh
as the Pyramid. but not old enough to h
in fruit.
On "A New Hampshire mountain / hav
seen poor starveling forms that never frui
They grow up and efIloresce in powder
spume which floats away on the wine
Will not DR.. Bushnell add another to hi
dark things" and call it 1.-THE moral use
| of things in nature, begun and never finish