LICHEN ISLANDICUS. 737 



^k-aHoc^tns. 



LICHENES. 



LICHEN ISLANDICUS. 



Iceland Moss ; F. Lichen ou Mousse d^ Islands ; G. Isldndisches Moos. 



Botanical Origin — Cetraria islandica Acharius.^ — It is abundant 

 in high northern latitudes, as Greenland, Spitzbergen, Siberia, Scandi- 

 navia and Iceland, where it grows even in the plains. It is found in 

 the mountainous parts of Great Britain, France, Italy, and Spain, in 

 Switzerland (in elevations of nearly 10,000 feet), and in the Southern 

 Danubian countries. It also occurs in North America and in the 

 Antarctic regions. 



History — In the North of Europe, this lichen has long been used 

 under the general name of Mosi, Mossa or Mus,^ as an article of food. 

 It is the Musciis crispce Lactuccp similis of Valerius Cordus,^ and was 

 also mentioned by Ole Borrich, of Copenhagen (1671), who called it 

 Muscus catharticus, under the notion that in early spring it possesses 

 purgative properties.* The pharmaceutical tariff of the same city, of 

 the year 1672, likewise quotes Muscus caihaHicus islandicus.^ Its 

 medicinal employment in pulmonary disorders was favourably spoken 

 of by Hjarne in 1683,® but it is only since 1757 that it has come into 

 general use as a medicine, chiefly on the recommendation of Linnaeus 

 and Scopoli. 



Description" — The plant consists of an erect, foliaceous, branching 

 thallus, about 4 inches high, curled, channelled or rolled into tubes, 

 terminating in spreading truncate, flattened lobes, the edges of which 

 are fringed with short thick prominences. The thallus is smooth, grey, 

 or of a light olive-brown ; the under surface is paler and irregularly 

 beset with depressed white spots. The apothecia (fruits), which are not 

 very common, appear at the apices of the thallus, as rounded boss-like 

 bodies, j^ to ^ of an inch across, of a dark, rusty colour. The colour 



^ Ceirarm from ce^ra, an ancient shield of *Bergius, Materia Medica, Stockholm, 



hide, in allusion to the circular apothecia. ii. (1778) 856. 



-These names are generally applied in *Fluckiger, Docamente, quoted at page 



Scandinavia and Iceland to the smaller 404. 



cryptogams, as lichens, true mosses, * Murray, Apparatus Medicaminum, v. 



lycopodiiun, etc. (1790) 510. 



' Hist. stirpium, quoted in the "^ For an exhaustive account and figurea 



Appendix. see Luerssen (quoted at p. 734) p. 176. 



3 A 



