Ivi INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER. 



Should it appear to the Honourable Court of Directors as 

 deserving tlieir consideration to obtain from St. Helena the true 

 Archill, and it be not found in any of the lichens already 

 gathered, if an accurate description of it, with a specimen of the 

 plant from Canary or the Cape de Verd, together with instruc- 

 tions and tests for experiments could be sent out, it might at once 

 be determined whether it is to be found on this island. 



I cannot offer any calculation of the quantity which may at 

 present be procured of any of the lichens ; certainly many tons of 

 each, particularly of No. 1. and 2. No. 5. appears to be in the 

 least abundance." Si. Helena, 10th July, 1809. 



Lieutenant Phillips, of the artillery, also procured five samples 

 from the windward rocks of High Knoll. — " The whole," says 

 he, " are so very brittle and <lry, that in gathering and bringing 

 " them, they were almost reduced to a powder, excepting one 

 " sort, which grows in places more sheltered than the others." 

 After minutely examining them, he inferred that sample No. 1. 

 was in the first stage ; No. 2. in the second ; and No. 3. in the 

 third ; and that No. 4. and 5. were of two distinct sorts : conse- 

 quently High Knoll appears to produce only three different 

 species. They are all to be found in great abundance, except- 

 ing No. 2. 



That sort which corresponded, as far as I could judge, with the 

 description given of the true Archill moss, was reduced to a fine 

 powder, and moistened with strong lime water, urine, and alka- 

 line salt. It soon gave out a pale red : after remaining a few 

 days it became of a deeper tint : and the liquid squeezed from 

 those ingredients exactly resembled the finest coloured red wines. 



This experiment, made without any skill on my part, when 

 added to the observations of Captain Barnes and Lieutenant 

 Phillips, and to the information communicated in the official 

 letter from the Court of Directors, in 1743, aflford a positive 



