Parasitical mosses, lichens, and fungi

1104. Parasitical mosses, lichens, and fungi, may be placed in the first subdivision. They are found as often, and in as great perfection on the stumps of rotten trees, and on rotten pales and stakes, as on trees that are yet vegetating ; whence it is also plain that they do not derive their nourishment from the juices of the plants on which they grow, but from their decayed parts, and the atmosphere by which they are surrounded ; the plant to which they cling serving as a basis of support.