34 ON THE BLEACHED WOOD 
curately as I was able the effects of weather on exposed timber in this 
climate. The result of these observations is now submitted to the 
publie, as unhappily the interest connected with it is by no means 
extinct, and the botanical matter in connection with it is not without a 
certain degree of value. 
Everything, indeed, connected with Sir J. Franklin's expedition is of 
such deep and universal interest, and the remotest chance of obtaining 
any information so eagerly seized, that the occurrence of a few black 
specks on two pieces of drift-wood has assumed an importance appa- 
rently incommensurate with the subject. It was obviously necessary to 
do something more than to give a generic and specific name to the 
minute vegetation existing amongst the bleached fibres, and it was 
therefore rather mortifying to deliver in an opinion on a matter of 
some importance, without an opportunity of examining the matter 
properly*. I was much rejoiced therefore when, by the kindness of . 
Sir John Richardson, I had an opportunity of examining the whole of 
the piece of Elm and the fragment of White Spruce picked up by Cap- 
tain Penny ; and with the help of other materials entrusted to me, and 
what I have had myself occasion to collect, I have at least been able 
to ascertain the real character of the Cryptogams on the two pieces of 
wood in question, and indeed, as regards one, I have found the very 
species on planks recently exposed in this country. ; 
The circumstances of climate are so totally different, and the long 
winter so unfavourable even to partial decomposition, that it is quite 
impossible to form any judgement, from what takes place in England, of 
the probable effects of the extreme changes incident to such high lati- 
tudes. It may not however be uninteresting to make a few remarks 
on the bleaching of wood as it takes place here. My observations have 
necessarily been confined to my own immediate neighbourhood, and 
relate merely to the kinds of wood in common use for fences, such as 
Oak, Ash, Maple, Lombardy Poplar, Elm, and Sallow. Foreign Deal 
is not used at all for the purpose, and I have had one opportunity only 
of examining boards furnished by Larch and some other Conifer, cer- 
* On a hasty examination I had stated that the production of the Elm plank ex- 
hibited a structure intermediate between that of Lichens and Fungi, in which report 
Mr. Churchill Babington exactly agreed with me; but better opportunities of exami- 
nation and comparison show that the perithecia are extremely thin, with a thinner 
base, and not at all different from those of other allied Fungi, so that all doubt as to 
affinity is removed, : 
EIN PVT! em SNC MESES NER 
EST a HR RTI S SORTEN 
