CRYPTOGAMIA LICHENES. 35 



Cen. rangiferina may even be directly applied to the use of 

 man. Tempted by the beauty of its appearance, Br 

 CLARKE and his companions in travel tasted it. " To our 

 surprise, we found that we might eat of it with as much 

 ease as of the heart of a fine lettuce. It tasted like wheat 

 bran ; but, after swallowing it, there remained in the 

 throat, and upon the palate, a gentle heat, burning as if a 

 small quantity of pepper had been mixed with the lichen. 

 We had no doubt that, if we could have procured oil and 

 vinegar, it would have afforded a grateful salad. Cool- 

 ing and juicy as it was to the palate, it nevertheless warm- 

 ed the stomach when swallowed, and cannot fail of proving 

 a gratifying article of food to man or beast during the dry 

 winters of the frigid zone. Yet neither Laplanders nor 

 Swedes eat of this lichen. Finding it to be so palatable, 

 we persuaded our servants to taste it ; and, after expe- 

 riencing the same effects from it that we had done, they 

 began to eat it voluntarily. Upon this, we asked the 

 peasants why they neglected to make use of so important 

 an article of food, in a land so sterile as that which we were 

 now traversing. They told us, that, when GUSTAVUS the 

 Third succeeded to the throne, an edict was published and 

 sent all over Sweden, recommending the use of this lichen 

 to the peasants in time of dearth ; and they were advised 

 to boil it in milk. Now and then, they said, a few of the 

 indigent poor had made it serve as a substitute for bread ; 

 but being unaccustomed to such food, they generally re- 

 jected it." CLARKE'S Travels, part iii. sect. 1. p. 566. 

 Nor is this to be wondered at, for CLARKE had tried it 

 only in a solid and unprepared state, and was incompetent, 

 therefore, to say what sort of food it might really make ; 

 which, from the account of DILLENIUS, is, in fact, indif- 

 ferent enough. " Aqua quidem decoctus hie muscus nul- 

 lam gela"tinam pnebet, nee substantia ejus imminuitur, 

 siccatus tamen fragilior, quam ante, evadit. Decoctum 

 inspissatum extracti acerbi et austeri parcam quantltatem 

 largitur." 



2. C. uncialis, yellowish-grey, smooth, erect, dichotomously 

 branched, fistular, perforated at the axils ; secondary branches 



short, patent, tipped with brown radiating points HOOK. Scot. 



ii. 64. Lichen uncialis, LIGHTF. Scot. 880. WITH. iv. 46. Eng. 

 Bnt. t. 174. DILL. Muse. t. 16. f. 21-2. 



Hab. On moors, in small csespitose tufts, or straggling 

 amongst the heath, frequent. 



