COLLECTED DURING THE ENGLISH POLAR EXPEDITION. 319 



examined with a powerful lens, that not only the larger lichens, 

 for the sake of which the specimen has been taken, should be de- 

 termined, but the very smallest fragments of others, accidentally 

 joined with them, might not escape attention. Having for many 

 years occupied myself with arctic lichens, I have been enabled to 

 ascertain the existence of several species in those arctic regions 

 from an examination of one or two fruits of what could not be 

 called a " specimen." Nevertheless all the species enumerated 

 below are certainly, where nothing else is expressly announced, 

 in my opinion quite correctly determined, even where the mate- 

 rial has been so little that nothing has remained after the mi- 

 croscopical examination. 



As soon as I began to look over these collections of lichens, I 

 could not but observe that the higher fruticolous and foliaecoua 

 species, which persons who are not lichenologists by profession 

 are wont to observe and gather, were represented here only by 

 very few and undeveloped specimens. Though this may seem 

 easily to be accounted for by the severe climate prevailing in these 

 regions, it appeared to me a little strange, when I considered that 

 the musk-oxen existing there must derive most of their suste- 

 nance from the lichens ; it being only for a short period of the 

 year that they get any worth mentioning from the poor phanero- 



gamic vegetation. 



Pfi 



should be quite wanting, seemed remarkable for the same reason. 

 However, Capt. Feilden, in a letter to Prof. Oliver, has explained 

 this circumstance : " Will you kindly inform Prof. Fries," says he, 

 " that Ovibos moschatus, as far as my experience goes in Grinnell 

 Land, does not feed on lichens ; the stomachs of all these animals 



W 



(Hyp 



T) 



Nevertheless the more developed species were not totally 

 missing ; Gyrophorce especially have been brought home in as good 

 a state as they occur on the rocks of Scandinavia. As for the lowe r 

 erustaceous species, I have not been able to find any difference in 

 their development worth remarking from that which the same 

 species attain in much more southerly regions. There is a cir- 

 cumstance particularly remarkable connected with the appearance 

 of the lichens, that Capt. Feilden has pointed out, respecting 

 ^hich I take the liberty to cite his own words : — * The lichen- 

 growth, curiously enough, increased in size of species with increase 

 in altitude. On the shore-line we met with only the smaller rcd^ 



LINK. JOTIIiN. — BOTANY, VOL. XVII. 2 C 



