HISTORICAL SURVEY OF LICHENOLOGICAL WORK IN THE ANTARCTIC S 



sequently classified by Vainio (1903). Twenty-eight of these species and one Uchen parasite proved to 

 be new to science, together with several varieties and forms. 



The ' Southern Cross' Expedition of 1898- 1900, led by Borchgrevink, carried out scientific work in 

 South Victoria Land, and a few lichens were collected in what was then known as Geikie Land, not far 

 from Cape Adare. The official scientific report of this expedition was published by the British Museum, 

 and in it four species of lichen, all previously known, were recorded by Blackman (1902). This material 

 is preserved in the British Museum herbarium. Other lichen material collected by the same expedition 

 was submitted to Prof. Th. M. Fries, who also enumerated four species (1902), with one new form of 

 Lecanora chrysoleuca. This material is presumably in Th. Fries's herbarium at Uppsala. 



In the year 1901 three independent expeditions left for the Antarctic: {a) the British National 

 Antarctic Expedition; {b) the Swedish South Polar Expedition; and (c) the German South Polar 

 Expedition. 



The British National Antarctic Expedition of 1901-4 brought back a collection of lichens from the 

 region around the McMurdo Sound in South Victoria Land, partly from near the winter station of the 

 ' Discovery' and partly from altitudes of 500-1600 m. on Mt Terror and in the West Mountains at the 

 head of the Ferrar Glacier. In this collection Darbishire (1910) identified twenty-four species of which 

 five were new to science. The material is preserved in the box collection of the British Museum. 



The Swedish South Polar Expedition of 190 1-3 reached the South Shetlands in 1902, and lichens 

 were collected by the eminent botanist and phytogeographer Carl Skottsberg both there and along the 

 Gerlache Strait and the eastern side of the Trinity Peninsula. Unfortunately, much of the scientific 

 material was lost when the 'Antarctic' was crushed in the ice in 1903, but a number of specimens, 

 including lichens, were preserved, in conditions of great hardship and difficulty, throughout the en- 

 forced sojourn of the party on Paulet Island until they were relieved the following season. The lichens 

 were deah with by Darbishire (1912). Species from south of 60° lat. numbered forty-six (plus one 

 lichen-parasite), of which nine were new to science. This collection, apart from a few duplicate 

 specimens in the Kew Herbarium, is at the Naturhistoriska Riksmuseet in Stockholm. Some of 

 Darbishire's new species have been redescribed by Zahlbruckner (1917) and Magnusson (1929). 



The German South Polar Expedition of 1901-3 visited Kaiser Wilhelm II Land in what is now the 

 Australian Antarctic Territory. Three lichens were taken from the Gaussberg, and were subsequently 

 identified by Zahlbruckner (1906), who found one of them to be the type of a new variety. They were 

 preserved at Berlin-Dahlem. 



Simultaneously with the Swedish and German Expeditions, the Scottish National Antarctic Expe- 

 dition of 1902-4 was working at the South Orkneys, and several lichens were brought back from there 

 to be named by Darbishire, who recorded eleven species, one of which, a fruticulose Placoditim, was 

 considered to be new atthe time (Darbishire, 1905), but subsequently found to be identical with Vainio's 

 P. regale (Darbishire, 1912a). I have not succeeded in discovering the whereabouts of this collection, 

 but Prof. R. N. Rudmose Brown kindly sent to the British Museum a few previously overlooked 

 unnamed specimens gathered by this expedition, of which he was a member. 



In 1903 Dr Charcot took the field with the first French Antarctic Expedition. This returned in 1905, 

 after wintering at Booth (Wandel) Island in the Kaiser Wilhelm II Archipelago. A small collection of 

 lichens was made and submitted to the Abbe Hue for identification. Of the sixteen species present 

 four (and a lichen-parasite) were considered to be new (Hue, 1908). I saw some of the type material at 

 the Museum d'Histoire Naturelle, Paris, in 1936. 



At least one lichen was collected in the South Orkneys by a visitor named Edgar Szumla in 1904. 

 This information is derived from the recent publication by Frey (1936) of a new variety of Umbilicaria 

 Dillenii based 'on this collector's material from there, and present in the Berlin Museum. 



