General Natural History Vol. 2 - A History of Plants

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. Tbe Hi.flory if P L A N T S. 4-• Collema compref[um. Flatted Collema. This is a fpecies extremely different ~rom .all the ~ormer in it's configuration: ~t con~ fiO:s of a number of branches, or ramificatiOns, anfing from one common b.afe. th~fe grow in all direCtions, and ufually form, upon the whole, a figure .approachmg to Cir­cular. They are of the fame gelatinous and tender fubftance wtth the reft of the plants of this fpecies; and, near the bafe, where they fiand clofe, they cohere and run together fo as to form a confufed, gelatinous mafs, of the breadth of an inch, or more, and nearly of the third of an inch in !hicknefs. From the. edges ~f this the branches run to half an inch, or thereabout, m length, and are vanoufly di­varicated and thick, but flatti{h; The colour of the whole is green, an? it's fu~ftance that of a iliff jelly. It grows to pofl:s and old boards, under water~ 10 fal~ dJtches .. I have met with it in Canvy Hland in Effex abundan.tly. T he botamcal wnters have fome of them defcribed this, but under the odd genencal names of a focus, a conferva~ and a tremella. The late Dr Manningham, who feems to have been the fi rft that difcovered it with us, called it Conferva gelatinofa, damre cornua .reprrefenta~s; and, under that name, it ftands in Ray's Synopfis of Briti01 Plants. Vatllat:t calls 1t Focus fontanus, pinguis, corniculatus, viridis; and Dillenius retains Dr Maniungham's name, only that he changes the generical term from Conferva to Tremella. 5. Co/lema jinuofa Jug ax. Sinuous, Jugacious Collema. This is the leaft permanent of all the (pedes of this genus: it decays alma~ as quickly as the aquatic kinds, when expofed to the air, and is feldom half an hour m the fame £\:ate. It is a mere gelatinous fubfiance, variouOy divided into a kind of lobes, of an irregular figure, an, inch or two in length, and near as much in breadth, and ?ften above half an inch in thicknefs : thefe lie irregularly over one another, and conft1tute, as it were, one mafs of jelly, the furface of which is varioufiy finuated. The lobes are a fort of very thick membranes, of a tender and foft texture, and !hake like a mafs of fize, or thick jelly, on the fiighteft touch. Their colour is at firfi a deep dark green, and afterwards yellowifh. When dried, they become thin membranes, tranf­parent, and fcarce thicker than leaf-gold. It grows on the furface of the earth, though it is fcarce poffible to diftinguiili any roots by which it adheres to it, and is common in rainy feafons, in fpring and autumn, in meadows and in garden-walks. It grows very quick in the wet, but, as foon as the rain is over, the fun and wind prefently dry it up. If it's growth be traced from the earliefi vifible period, it is found, at firfi, in fmall globules, eight, ten, or more in a clu!l:er : thefe are as big as great pin's-heads, and, by degrees, increafe in fize, and each furniilies one of the lobes already mention ed, which adhere one to another, fome more firmly, others more fiightly, and fo form the whole plant. Scarce any of the botanical writers have omitted the mention of this plant; nor have the chemifl:s been lefs fond of it : the vulgar well know it too, and are apt to believe it fomewhat preternatural; our corr.mon people fuppofe that it is the meteor which they know by the name of a falling ftar, dropped on the ground. T he Swedes, Lin­nreus tells us, take it for a fragment of a cloud, tumbled down by fome accident. Paracelfus gave it the whimfical name of Noftoch, which it has retained with many people fince. Micheli efiabliilies it into a genus, and calls it Linkia: Mentzel makes it a Lichen, and Vaillant calls it Mufcus fugax, membranaceus, pinguis. Ray, in his Sy­nopfis, calls it Ulva terrefl:ris, pinguis, et fugax : Linn::eus, Byffus gelatinofa, fug:~x, ter­refi: ris, though not very properly according to his own generical charaCters. Dillenius, in his Catalogus Giffenfis, calli it a Lichenoides, but, in his Hi!l:ory of the Moifes, he makes it a Tremella. The other fpecies of Collema are, I. A fine-branched Sea-Collema. z. T he builiy, larger Sea-Collema. 3· The filici-form Land Collema. 4· The black, tough, Tree­Collema, called by the vulgar Witches-Butter: and, 5· The bladdery Collema. The Collema finuofa fugax, or Nofl.och, is the only fpecies of this genus that was ever thought of for medicinal purpofes. 1 t is recommended by fame, as an external remedy for ulcers; and fome have given it internally, as an anodyne. The chemifls are T!Je· Hijlory of P L A N T S. are fond of a !'l~tion, that a fpirit may be drawn from it fit for the radical folution of ~o~d; but this IS ab?ut as probable a; their other imaginations. Chemically analyfed, 1t .I~ found to contam a great qu~n tlty of phlegm, an effential oil, a volatile, urinous fp~nt and fait, and a fmall quantity of a fixed alkaline fait. Thefe are principles con­tamed, more or lefs, m almoft all vegetables, but, in general, the Moffes of this kind afford more of them than what .are called the more perfeCt plants; and may be fup­pofed, therefore, to poffefs many VIrtues, were they to be examined more at large than has yet been done. The comm.on pt:ople in Leicefter{hire give this internally in fe­vers, and, as they pretend, wtth. gteat fuccefs ; but it is not only in the mouths of the vulg~r. that the good effeCts owmg merely to the efforts of nature are attributed to medtcmes. M 0 s E s. Clafs the Third. .such as conftjl of firm a11d fomewhat rigid Jlalks. Genus the Firjl. USNEA. U SN E A is a genus of Moffes, confifting of mere filaments only, but thefe of a . tou.gh a~d fir~? texture, and exhibiting on their furfaces fome appearance of a fruCtificatiOn~ m a kmd of fcutellre, or orbicular bodies, growing from fevcral parts of them, fome~Imes from the fides, fometimes from the extremities. The fpecies of l!f~ea de[cnbed by authors ~re no lefs than fixt.een, to which we are to add three very dtftmtt kmds, which have hitherto efcaped not1ce. We {hall defcribe two or three of the more fingular Ufi1ere at large, after which the names will be fufficient ·to diflinguilh the refi of them. Mic~eli has gone f~ far as to defcribe the fruCt ification of the plants of this and the fu~ceedmg genera parttcularly. He tells us that thefe fcutellre are the parts which con­tam t.he male. flowers, and that the female flowers, and the feeds which fucceed them, are difperfed m the manner ~fa fine powder on other parts of the plants, fometimes on other plants of the fame fpec1es. Some obfervations of out own however have led us thou&h we greatly ~onour Micheli, not to pay quite fo much :efpeet to 'thefe his dif~ coven~s .as . t~ eft~bhfl1 ge~era from them, as Linnreus has done: in objeCts fo minute there IS mfimte difficulty m the way of a perfeCt explication. .1 . Ufnea villqfa implicata. The tuf ted, tangled Ufnea. This is th~ large fl: and mo!l: confpicuous of all the Ufnere: it hangs in great tufts from. the bod1e~ of old trees, and it's extremities have fo much the appearance of hairs, that It has obtamed the general name of a hairy, or bearded, tree Mofs. It grows from a firm bafe, affixed to the bark of fome old tree, and uenerally rifes · ftom it with a lingle ficm. T his i~ about the thicknefs of a commo~ packthread, and, from it's bottom to the extremity almofi, fends off a vaft number of lateral branches; thefe fend each .a nm:nber of others off, and thefe are again the parents of others, which, at lafi, ~e rmmate 1~ long and fiender filaments, fcarce thicker than horfe-hairs: thefe furround­mg the mam fialk every way, and all fending their ramifications ftrait downward the whole has th.e appe~ranc~ of a great tuft of long hai r ; and the feveral branches, in 'tl:ieir' way down, mtanglmg wJth one a~1other, give it a firangely complicated' appearahce. Thefe filaments, as well as the mam ftalks, are fomewhat rigid and very tough . they confi fi of a foft bark, and a harder internal fubfiance. The ~hole plant is of ~ pale afl1 colour, or grey. At the ~xtrem ities of the filaments, and fometimes on other parts of the ~I an~, there grow orbtcular fcutellce ; thefe are of a fixth of an inch, or there­about, 111 dtameter, and are fo lightly hollowed, that they appear.almofl: flat: they are of a pale grey on the upper fide, and brownifl1 below, and have a fort of hair like radii about them.