GENERA AND SfEClES. 101 



horns to browse on the lichen. It is also frequently 

 collected, like hay, as fodder for cattle during winter 

 and for the reindeer on journeys. Parry, in the nar- 

 rative of his fourth voyage, mentions his officers col- 

 lecting supplies of this lichen as provender for the 

 reindeer, which he used in the capacity of horses ; he 

 adds, ' It required a great deal of picking * to separ- 

 ate it from the moss, among which it usually grows. 

 The daily quantity of cleaned 'reindeer moss' — as 

 it is popularly denominated — necessary for each ani- 

 mal on a journey is four pounds ; but, he remarks, it 

 can easily remain for five or six days without food. 

 To prepare it as fodder for cattle, in some northern 

 countries, hot water is poured over it ; it is then 

 mixed with straw, and a little salt sprinkled over the 

 mixture. Cattle so fed are said to produce delicious 

 milk and butter, while their flesh becomes fat and 

 sweet. Bucke, in his ' Harmonies of Nature,' speaks 

 of small cows, by feeding on this lichen, whose milk 

 becomes wholly cream. The stag, deer, roebuck and 

 other wild animals also feed on it abundantly during 

 winter. But it is not only serviceable as food to the 

 lower animals, — man himself is frequently compelled 

 to use it in times of scarcity. It is sometimes pow- 

 dered, mixed with flour and baked into bread ; or it 

 is boiled in milk or broth. Clarke, in his ' Travels,' 

 mentions having eaten it, and even speaks of it in a 

 commendatory way. It is sold by the London herbal- 

 ists for the purposes of the bird-stuffer. In a pulver- 

 ized state it at one time formed a frecjueut ingredient 

 in hair-powders and perfumes." — Lindsay. 



