

410 DB. LAUDER LTXDSAT OS THE 



22. Pertusaria glomerata^ Ach. 



23. Taricellaria onicrosticticaj JNTyl. 



24. Lecidea Diapensice^ Th. Fr. 



25. i. alpestriSy Smrf. 



26. Z. steiiotera, Njl. 



27. i. asswiilata, ^yl. 



28. Z. aglc^a^ Smrf. 



r 



29. X. areolata, Schaer. 



30. i. xantliococcttj Smrf. 

 While the deyclopment of our commerce, the multiplication 



and improvement of our manufiictures, the facilitation of means 

 of travel and transport consequent on the applications of steam, 

 and the superior -wealth and education of our people have com- 

 bined almost entirely to put an end, in this country, to the use of 

 lichens as food, in medicine, or the domestic arts, Lichens con- 

 tinue to be, in northern and arctic regions of both the old and 

 new world, of immense importance, 'not only as fodder to animals 

 on which man in great measure subsists, but as food, under excep- 

 tional (and sometimes, alas ! normal) conditions, to man himself 

 Not only did I meet mth evidence of their economical applications 

 at the present day, in the course of my own excursions, but I have 

 recorded in my note-books numerous instances and proofs cited 

 from tlie most recent works of northern travel., A few of these 

 notanda I append as furnishing interesting illustrations of the [ 



economical applications of lichens as food, in medicine, or the arts, 

 at the present day. 



Economically regarded, perhaps the most important of all the 

 northern lichens is Cladonia rangiferina, Hffm., the so-called 

 "EeindeerMoss." It frequently overspreads large tracts of sterile 

 country in northern and arctic Europe and America, constituting 

 sometimes the sole terrestrial vegetation. As such it is the main 

 support in Lapland and Esquimo-land * of the reindeer, one of the 

 chief articles of food of the inhabitants. In some parts of N'orway 

 this lichen is also regularly used as a winter fodder for cattle. 

 About the end of September it is scraped into heaps by means of 

 large iron rakes, and the position of these heaps is marked by 



sufficiently 



Inthef 



same country it is commonly iised as a stuffing-material in the con- 

 struction of the usual log houses : it is inserted between the logs or 

 beams forming the waUs, intermixed or not with Spliagna or^imilar 





* Kccent Voyages of Hall, 18G1. 



