LICHENES. 



By OTTO VERNOX DARBISHIRE. 

 (1 Plate.) 



INCLUDING the material brought back by the British National Antarctic Expedition, 

 there seem at the present moment to be recorded for the Antarctic continent, and a few 

 islands off its coast, about eighty-eight lichens. In the Arctic regions a well-developed 

 lichen-flora extends well to the north of 80 N. Lat. We might expect, therefore, to find 

 lichens on the Antarctic continent in the same latitudes. As far as this particular 

 group of plants is concerned, we have not yet reached the same latitudes south as 

 north, and the furthest-south lichens are recorded from about 78 8. Lat. The southern 

 lichens are found in small quantities only, and not in the abundance to which we are 

 accustomed in the case of the Arctic regions. The real Antarctic lichens have a double 

 interest. Their presence shows under what adverse conditions plant-life is possible. 

 It is also interesting and important to observe that the species met with on the 

 Antarctic continent do not belong to any new type of genus. There are of course 

 several new species, but they all belong to already known genera, or genera which have 

 representatives in warmer climes. In a paper on the Lichens of the South Orkneys I 

 made some comparison between the- Antarctic lichens and arctic and alpine lichens of 

 Europe, but in that instance I included the lichens enumerated by Sir J. Hooker in his 

 " Flora Antarctica." Only few of his plants came actually from the Antarctic continent. 

 The time is not yet come to compare only the latter with the European species. We 

 must wait till more plants have been collected. Not till then shall we be able to 

 make suggestions regarding the origin of the lichen-flora of the Antarctic continent. 

 I must mention that of the eighty-eight lichens recorded, thirty-eight species are new, 

 and confined to the Antarctic south of 60. But we may expect many additions to 

 the Antarctic lichen-flora during the next few years. 



The lichen-material brought back by the British National Expedition includes 

 twentyTfive species. But some of the plants were indeterminable, and in connection 

 with these I would like to make a few remarks about the collection of lichens. 

 Lichens should not be preserved in spirit, until after they have been named. It is 

 next to impossible to determine even the larger lichens from such material, as their 

 colour has been removed by the alcohol. After collection they should be dried by 

 exposure, and then packed in soft paper tightly to prevent rubbing. A label should 

 of course be placed inside. Very few botanists are lichenologists, but on the other 



