BOTANY Pensax the dark green fronds of Marchantia polymorpha, Conocephalus conicus and Chiloscyphus polyanthos are abundant ; and on the marly banks and in the more humid recesses of the woods a rich growth of the pretty Lepidozia reptans, Scapania nemorosa, Nardia scalaris, Plagiochila asplenioides and other woodland species. Other woods, such as those near Redditch, where the soil is retentive and the surroundings more favourable, yield such hepatics as Diplophyllum albicans, Kantia trichomanes, Lophocolea cuspidata, its congener L. bidentata, Jungermannia crenulata ; and on the tree roots Lophocolea heterophylla is often to be found. The softer soils of the culti- vated lands are little favoured by these plants, except when lying fallow ; but in such fields near Churchill and Clent the stellate fronds of Riccia glauca and the barren fronds of Lunularia cruciata are abundant. But the richest hunting-grounds for these plants are the Malvern Hills and the adjacent common lands. The rills, the bare rocks, the heath lands, and fine holly woods afford a home for several of the more local species, and here are found Scapania resupinata, S. irrigua, Saccogynia viticulosa, Fossombronia pusilla, the tree-loving Frullania Tamarisci, F. dila- tata, Lejeunea serpyllifolia, Radula complanata, Blepharozia ciliaris, the horn-bearing Anthoceros punctatus, and the singular and rare Targionia hypophylla. LICHENS {Lichenes) These are a large and well-known class of plants, usually abundant where the air is pure and uncontaminated by the smoke and poisonous gases of towns and other industrial centres. They are found in all regions, tropic or arctic, and at all elevations, from sea-level to the snow-line of the highest alps ; they can endure every degree of cold, and revive after the drying heat of even tropical climates ; and their length of existence as individuals is almost indefinite. Formerly they were considered to be a distinct class of plants inter- mediate between the algae and the fungi. But the researches of some of our more learned botanists, as Schwendener and others, have proved them to be in reality fungi, allied to the Ascomycetes, parasitical on certain of the Algas — Protococcus, Chroococcus, Nostoc — and some of the Confervaceas. Some are crustaceous as in Cladonia, others foliaceous as in Parmelia, and others fruticose as in Usnea barbata. In the neigh- bourhood of large towns, or where the atmosphere is charged with smoke, they are rarely found, or only in an abnormal state, forming dust-like or filamentous patches on walls or trees, etc., and known by the older botanists by the pseudo-generic name Lepraria. In the north-eastern portion of the county lichens are rarely found, save in the abnormal state referred to above, but at Hartlebury Common there are still in existence the remains of a lichen flora, such as C/adonia rangiferina, C.f areata, C. uncialis and Urceolaria scruposa ; and at Bewd- ley Lecidea dispansa has been found. The Clent Hills have not been fully worked, and do not appear to have any special species. The Lickey Hills, which lie a little south of this, have within recent times 67
