INVERTEBRA.TA, CRYPTOGAMIA, MICROSCOPY, ETC. 137 



made with great care and skill, and are arranged in four series. The 

 first consists entii'ely of parasites belonging to the families Uredinese, 

 UstilaginciB, and Peronosporefe ; the second of representatives of the 

 most interesting families of the Ascomycetes ; the third of Mucorini 

 and other conidial fungi ; the fourth of Bacteria, all well coloured in 

 order to be more easily recognized, and of a few yeast-fungi. Von 

 Thiimen urges microscopists and mycologists to send commissions 

 for the series already executed to Dr. Zimmermann, in order that he 

 may be encouraged to continue and extend his labours. 



Lichenes. 



Lichens collected during the English Polar Expedition of 1875- 



76.* — Professor T. M. Fries, of Upsala, has examined these lichens, 

 and in a paper rejiorting the result he says that in Dr. Hayes's 

 Arctic journey lichens were probably not brought away from a more 

 northerly position than 78° N. lat. ; but Mr. J. Payer in the German 

 expedition with certainty obtained specimens at Cape Fligely, 82° 5' 

 N. lat. With the exception of these last, but three specimens of lichens 

 have hitherto been published as found beyond 81° N. lat. Thus con- 

 siderable interest is attached to those obtained under Captain Sir G. 

 Nares, by Captain Fielden of the ' Alert,' and Mr. Hart of the ' Dis- 

 covery.' As these vessels wintered, in different quarters, the localities 

 where the lichens were obtained are more numerous, thus adding to 

 their value as indicative of vegetable life in the frozen regions. 

 Mr. Hart obtained his at thirteen stations, Discovery Harbour, 81° 42' 

 N. lat., being the most northern. Captaiu Fielden records twelve 

 stations, Westward Ho Valley, 82° 41' N. lat. being the limit, whilst 

 Lieutenant Aldrich gathered Gyrophora cylindrica (3 on the shore of 

 the " Pal^ocrystic Sea," the northernmost spot trodden by man, viz. 

 Cape Columbia, 83° 6' 30" N. lat. 



Professor Fries notes that the higher fruticulose and foliaceous 

 lichens are feebly represented, doubtless owing to the severe climate ; 

 but this absence is apparently at variance with the presence of nmsk 

 oxen ; added to which the reindeer moss is absent. This anomalous cir- 

 cumstance of the presence of large ruminants and deficiency of their 

 usual lichen food. Captain Fielden explains by stating that the musk ox 

 in Grinnell Land does not feed oti lichens, but on mosses and grasses. 

 The same officer has also pointed out that the lichen growth, curiously 

 enough, increased in size of si)ecics with increase of altitude. Pro- 

 fessor Fries concludes that " without the least credit being given to 

 an open polar sea (existing no doubt only in fancy) lichen vegetation 

 may exist at the very pole, if there is land or only rocks free from 

 snow and ice for only a short period of the year." 



The list includes 102 species, and they are mostly such as are 

 already known from the Arctic regions, although there are some which 

 were previously known only from mucli more southern regions. Seven 

 species are, however, entirely new, viz. Parmiiia separata, Caloplaca 

 cclata, Lecidea defijyerfa, L. nllinia, Mlcroglena sordidula, Verrucaria 

 phcFothelena, and Microfhclia melanostigma. 



* Mourn. Linn. Soc. (Rot.),' xvii. (1879) p. .31fi. 



