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A Short Talk on Lichens. 



[Sess. 



footing with the grains and grasses, &c., of more temperate 

 climates, and by supplying the place of these, it renders 

 habitable vast districts which otherwise would be dreary 

 deserts. Eeindeer obtain it in winter by scraping away the 

 snow. It is collected, dried, and stored for feeding reindeer, 

 sheep, cattle, and pigs. It is also mixed with chopped straw, 

 salted and softened with hot water. When on a journey a 

 reindeer is allowed 4 lb. a-day of this lichen as its food. 

 Eeindeer grow fat on this lichen and yield excellent milk and 

 butter. On the borders of Lapland and Scandinavia frequent 

 disputes have arisen from reindeer straying across the boundary 

 in search of this food, but a sort of understood compromise 

 has been made allowing the Scandinavian reindeer to trespass 

 into Lapland, while the Lapps in return have been permittad 

 access to the Scandinavian fishing-grounds. The same two 

 lichens are sometimes powdered, mixed with flour, and eaten 

 in times of scarcity. They were also formerly used as an 

 ingredient in perfumery from their aptitude to imbibe and 

 retain odours, and in this way their powder was the basis of 

 various scents. In recent years in Russia and Scandinavia 

 an alcoholic spirit — a kind of brandy — has been distilled from 

 these lichens, especially when potatoes were scarce and dear. 

 Our common Cladonia pyxidata was used in the middle ages 

 as a cure for hooping-cough. The Norwegians stuff the chinks 

 in the walls of their houses with lichens and mosses, and they 

 also use them for bedding. Bird-stuffers use Cladiua as an 

 ornamentation to their stuffed specimens. It is also one of 

 the few lichens which have been found in a fossilised state. 



In conclusion, I would say that the two common text-books 

 on Cladonise are Leighton's and Crombie's works on British 

 Lichens, and also that a good many species of the genus 

 Cladonia have been recorded from the Pentlands, though they 

 are not always found in fruit there, and consequently are 

 more difficult of determination. I would strongly advise the 

 members to read some delightful chapters on lichens in general, 

 in the late Dr Hugh Macmillan's ' First Forms of Vegetation,' 

 and also in his ' Holidays on High Lands,' in which is much 

 interesting information conveyed in very attractive language. 



