Hopkinsville Kentuckian., 1899-05-30
REMARKABLE LIcHENs.
Some Are Used for Dyes Others Are
Food for Many People.

1 llOu Dc q loIlC anu uhOd lC. ~ W as
formerly the basis of hair powders and
perfumes, and it still is used in the
preparation of fine orange dyes. The
prettiest pieces are found ON fir trees,
and wild animals eat it with avidity
The ability to color vividly is the
speciality of famous lichens. The
beautiful Scotch tartans for many
centuries were dyed entirely from diff
ferent lichens, heather twigs and
birch leaves, and no better or more
lasting colors have been obtained from
woods and chemicals. The Scotch
cudbear gives color almost equal to
the famous orchil, and another of the
same family, found on the rocks OF
southern France, impartsthe last bril-
liant finish to French silks of every
shade of rose color and crimson.
The most valuable of the hchen
family, however, is roccella, which is
used to impart an exquisite lilac OF
purple tinge to rich silks. 1t is an al
most colorless lichen, and, when gath
cred in large quantities, has the per-
fume of primroses.
A Florentine family discovered its
virtue, and it was long their secret,
though many believe that it is the
same moss spoken of by Dioscorides
and Theophrastus, and used in their
day for dyeing wool.
AS lichens grown in very hot eli
mates yield the finest color, most Of
those imported by manufacturers
come from India, Ceylon and the arid
rocks of Alden, Socotra and the Cape
de Verde islands.
The Swiss make their favorite do
mestic dye from the beautiful golden
colored ichen found on the shrubs
and on elm trees, and the Swedes
scrape it into the tallow of which they
make. their golden festival candles" J"
But lichens have more important
offices still. To the Icelander, lap
lander and Eskimo the lichen called
Iceland moss is everything that wheat
is to the Caucasian or rice to the Him
doc. 1t contains full 80 per cent. of
starch, and hence its value as food.
The lcelanders use it in powder for
bread, they add it to their soup, they
boil it in milk, they make porridge
of it, they dry it in small pieces for
fodder for their cattle; in fact. it is
SO necessary to their if, in every way
that they acknowledge piously: "a
bountiful Providence sends us bread
out of the very stones"
On the uncultured pastures of Lap
land the deer, which are the sole
wealth of the Laps, browse, and with
out this provision-the snowy tufts
of the lichen known as reindeer moss
the country would be absolutely un-
inhabitable.
!, When the ground is covered with
snow then another lichen, called rock
hair, takes its place. This ichen, in
the vast, dreary pine forests of that
gloomy country, is most peculiar
feature. Its huge, dusky funereal fes-
toons stretch from tree to tree, ex-
haling damp, earthy smell, and Gre
ating perpetual twilight. But it is
life to the reindeer, and the reindeer
is life to man.
In Algeria, Tartary and Persia
there is an edible species of hchen of
apparent supernatural origin. Sud-
denly it falls on the ground like
rain, often to the depth of three inches
or more. It's in small humps like
pea, grayish, irregular, inodorous and
insipid, having at no time any appear
ance of base of support.
In 1929, during a war between Rus
sia and Persia, when large tracts of
country ON the Caspian sea were in
state of famine, they were suddenly
covered by this ichen, which seemed
indeed to fall from Heaven.
The sheep ate it greedily, and the
famished people, instructed by them,
made it into bread. Rains of edible
ichen, well authenticated, occurred
during the siege of Herat, and also as
late as 1916 one fell at wilma.
In the department of medicine
ichens have weird and magical rep
utation. They were also favorites of
the early alchemists, and formed part
and portion of all their sympathetic
ointments and remarkable distilla-
tions. In the making of parchment
and pasteboard they have already
largely usurped the place Of gum
arabic, and are also Of great impor-
tance in the preparation of perfumes