Preston Villumsen

"Dost thou not see the little plants, the little birds, the ants, the spiders, the bees working together to put in order their several parts of the universe? And art thou unwilling to do the work of a human being, and dost thou not make haste to do that which is according to thy nature?"

-Marcus Aurelius 167 A.C.E
The Meditations, Book V

"I could not help laughing at this odd little man; for it was not the beautiful blossoms, such as you delight to paint, that drew forth these exclamations, but the queer little plants which he had rummaged for at the roots of old trees, among the moss and long grass. He sat upon a decayed trunk, which lay on our path, I do believe for a long hour, making an oration over some greyish things, spotted with red, that grew upon it, which looked more like mould than plants, declaring himself repaid for all the trouble and expense he had been at, if it were only to obtain a sight of them. I gathered him a beautiful blossom of the lady's slipper, but he pushed it back when I presented it to him, saying 'Yes, yes; 'tis very fine. I have seen that often before; but these lichens are splendid.' ...I never pursued a deer with such earnestness as he continued his hunt for what he called 'specimens'."

-Susanna Ann Moodie, c. early 1800s

Early Description of a Lichenologist
The Vanishing Lichens [Book]

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