70 t'KYPTOGAMIA LICHENES. 



ii. 58. Lichen pulmonarius, LIGHTF. Scot. 831. WITH. iv. 59. 

 DILL. Musc.t. 29. f. 113. 



flab. On the trunks of moss-grown trees. On the ash, at 

 Lorigformacus, with the preceding. 



Has no tendency to grow, like the scrobiculata, in a circular 

 manner, and readily distinguished from it by the remark- 

 able character of the upper surface, reticulated with large 

 inosculating wrinkles, which form the boundaries of deep 

 intermediate pits. The ancients used it to cure coughs, 

 asthmas, and other disorders of the lungs, probably from 

 some fancied resemblance between it and the marbled co- 

 lour of those organs. 



42. CETRARIA. 



1. C. islandica, vipper surface chestnut-brown, paler beneath. 

 HOOK. Scot. ii. 58. Lichen islandicus, LIN. Fl. Lap. 354. LIGHTF. 

 Scot. 829. WITH. iv. 58. Eng. Bot. t. 1330. Parmelia islandica, 

 SPRENG. Syst. Veg. iv. 280. DILL. Muse. t. 28. f. 111. 



Hab. Upland moors. Lamberton moor, plentiful. 



Frond 2-3 inches high, suberect, plane, irregularly branched 

 and lobed, smooth, and somewhat glossy, pitted, chestnut or 

 yellowish -brown, paler beneath ; margin ciliate, with short 

 spinous processes. The little circular pits are coated, 

 more or less, with a white granular powder. 



A decoction of this lichen has been much recommended in 

 pectoral and consumptive complaints ; and in the northern 

 parts of Europe, it is extensively used as an article of diet. 

 In Iceland, immense quantities are annually gathered, part- 

 ly for exportation to this and other countries, and partly 

 for home consumption. The natives extract the bitter ami 

 purging principles of the lichen by steeping it in water ; 

 then they dry and reduce it to powder, which they eat 

 made into cakes, or boiled with milk. HENDERSON, in his 

 Tour through Iceland, tells us, that a porridge made of it, 

 is, to a foreigner, not only the most wholesome, but the 

 most palatable of all the articles of Icelandic diet. The 

 Saxon Government have published a report, in which they 

 recommend it to be used in making bread in those districts 

 where flour is scarce. " In this report, we are informed, 

 that 6 pounds and 22 loths of lichen meal boiled with four- 

 teen times its quantity of water, and baked in this state 

 with 59lb. of flour, produced 11 H Ib. of good household 



