Rev. W, A. Leighton on the Lichens of Spitzbergen. 439 



LIII. — Notul(E Lichenologica. No. XVIII. 

 By the Rev. W. A. Leighton, B.A., F.L.S. 



Dr. Th. M. Fries has, in his latest published work, 'Lichenes 

 Spitsbergenses,' 4to, 1867, furnished us with a comprehensive 

 enumeration and description of all the Lichens detected in those 

 northern regions up to the present time. In the preface he 

 describes the country as consisting of lofty mountains rising 

 immediately from the shores of the icy sea, having their sum- 

 mits clothed with eternal ice and snow, no woods or grassy 

 meadows decorating their precipitous sides. The marine beaches 

 and very bases of the mountains alone present any vegetation. 

 Of flowering plants ninety-five species have been gathered, of 

 which the Saxifragse constitute a tenth part. (See Malmgren in 

 Vet. Ak. Forhandl. 1862, pp. 229-268.) These inhospitable 

 regions, however, appear to have afforded in ages long past 

 herbs and trees, as is evident from their vestiges preserved in 

 the rocks, and whose determination Heer has attempted in Vet. 

 Ak. Forhandl. 1866, n. 6. 



Wahlenberg says, " Lichenes ultimam vegetationem in ultima 

 terra constituunt." Accordingly these comparatively lower or- 

 ganisms have not been overlooked by the voyagers and natu- 

 ralists who have explored these coasts. Solauder (in Phipps's 

 Voyage towards the North Pole, 1774) mentions eleven species 

 of lichens. Rob. Brown (in Scoresby's Arctic Regions, 1820) 

 enumerates nineteen species. Sir W. J. Hooker (in Parry's 

 North Pole, 1828) names twenty-three species, with localities. 



In 1827, B. M. Keilhau collected in Beeren Island, Stans 

 Foreland, and around Sydcap, thirty-two lichens, which Chr. 

 Sommerfelt described in Mag. Naturvid. And. Rsekke 1st B. 

 2nd H. pp. 232-252 (1833), and the specimens of which are 

 preserved in Sommerfelt's Herb, in the Bot. Mus. of Christiania. 



In 1838-39 Vahl, attached to Gaimard's French Expedition, 

 collected in Bel Sound and Magdalena Bay sixty-three species 

 of lichens, besides certain varieties now regarded as species, 

 which A. E. Lindblom described in Bot. Not. 1839-40, pp. 153- 

 158. 



Since then, in 1857-1861 and 1864, A. E. Nordenskiold, 

 K. Chydenius, and A. J. Malmgren have, in three successive 

 explorations, collected a large amount of lichens, which form 

 the basis of the present work. 



The explorations have been limited chiefly to the northern 

 and western shores, the southern and eastern ones having been 

 scarcely searched. 



There are no species entirely peculiar to the Spitzbergen 

 islands, the lichens being similar to those of northern Scandi- 



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