414 DE. LAUDEH LINDSAY OX THE 



St. Paul," says Commander Mayne, "gave us this (food), which 

 they (the Indians) call ^AYheela' (or ' "Whyelkine '), with milk 

 But two or three mouthfuls were all we cared to take"*. 



■ 



Other lichens are used as food by the same Indians, sometimes in 

 addition to, but more generally in the absence of, the salmoii, 

 Tenison, bear, and wild sheep, — the berries and the mosses, which 

 form their usual and staple food. 



It would appear that in IN'orth European countries, wherever 

 the inhabitants still weave home-grown w ool into cloth-stuffs, the 

 use of lichens as dye-agents of the wool or yarn also still exists. 

 In Paro, for instance, Lecanora tartarea is still largely used for 

 dyeing the home-made woollen cloth called " wadmar'f, whereof 

 the Paroese fashion their jackets, trousers, and petticoats. During 

 my own visit to Faro in 18G0, I found abundant evidence of the 

 collection of this and apparently also the allied species, L.parelh, 

 with their sterile and isidioid or variolarioid conditions, for eco- 

 nomical purposes, inasmuch as all the boulders and rocks about 

 Thorshavn bore the marks of a periodical careful scraping of the 

 lichens in question. My friend Mr. Symington % mentions that 

 the inhabitants of Tair Isle, thirty miles south-west of the Shet- 

 land groiip, use lichens (he does not say what species) for dyeing 

 tlie wool of which they make their vestments. Similar use is 

 probably still made of various lichens, especially Lecanora tartarea 

 and Parmelia saxatilis, in the more remote parts of the Scottish 

 highlands and islands, and even of Wales §. Prof Blytt informed 

 me that X. tartarea and L. ventosa are still collected in the Ber- 

 genstift of Norway for export to Erance (for the orchil-manu- 

 facture). There is probably some error as to the latter lichen, 

 which has never, so far as I am aware, been employed as a dye- 

 agent, and which neither contains nor yields orchil. 



In continuation of a series of experiments conducted between 

 1850 and 1852 11, 1 have examined certain of the Icelandic, Faroesc, 

 and JN'orwegian lichens which in these or other countries yield 



* ' Four Years in British Columbia and Yancouver Island,' by Commander 

 E. C. Mayne, R.J«., F.R.G.S., (London, 1862) p. 122. 



t On the authority of Sysselman MiiUer in 1854. Vide ' Cruise of the yacht 

 Maria among the Fiiro Islands in the Summer of 1854,' (London, 1855) p- ^■ 



I Sketches of Faro and Iceland, 1862, p. 8. 



" On the authority of Mr. Pamplini of London, the weU-tnown .botanical 

 bookseller. 



II 



'hil< 



Edinburgh 



