COLLECTED DUB-ING THE ENGLISH POLAE EXPEDITION. 347 



■ 



determining where they were collected. As for the phaneroga- 

 mous plants, Prof, A. J. Malmgren has already shown* that 9 

 species at the most are found on the western coast of Smith Sound; 

 and no one of these was found to the north of Cape Isabella, 

 situated a little beyond 78° north lat. It may be supposed that 

 this is the case with the lichens also ; and consequently it is more 

 than probable that Dr. Hayes had not brought any lichen from a 

 latitude more northerly than that of the Seven Islands. 



By the intrepid polar traveller Julius Payer, lichens were 

 first with certainty ascertained to occur in more northerly 



regions. 



(82 



northernmost point of the recently discovered Kaiser-Franz- 

 Joseph Land reached by him, the scanty vegetation consists of 

 only lichens, among which he names Getraria nivalis, Gyrophora 



P 



The other 



species which he cites J as growing in that newly discovered 

 country were probably found in the most southern parts, between 

 80° and 81° N. lat. 



Whether any lichens were brought home by the American 

 'Polaris' Expedition under Ch. P. Hall, I do not know. At 

 least I have not succeeded in finding any information in the reports 

 on the results of this expedition which have hitherto been pub- 

 lished. 



Thus but three species of lichens are mentioned in published 

 works hitherto as certainly found to the north of 81° north lat. ! 



It is natural that under these circumstances I should gladly 

 and with gratitude have accepted the offer made by Sir Joseph 

 Hooker that the lichens which had been brought from the northern- 

 most parts of the American arctic archipelago by the English Polar 

 expedition under the command of Capt. Sir G. S. Nares (1875-76) 

 should be examined and determined by me. The plants, it is true, 

 cannot by brilliant colours or luxuriant forms prove attractive to 



e public ; but they are of great interest to the botanist, and the 

 importance that attaches to them as belonging to the flora that ap- 

 proaches tipqt.a Q + 4- ^ +1^* *»*%»tii r*r>l* m not their least claim to notice. 



th 



* Botan. Notiz. 1865, p. 169. 



t Die usterr.-ung. Nordpol-Expedition, p. 337. 



t L. c. pp. 273, 274. These are only Usnea sulphurea, Alector 

 chvlyheiformis, Parmelia lanafa, Gyrophora anthracina, Sporastatia 

 and Emilia stigmatea (?). 



