Lichens on old tombstones 



Raymond H. Torrey 



An inviting subject for botanical research was suggested by 

 hasty observations of the lichens on tombstones in a ramble 

 through central Putnam County recently. It seemed possible 

 to approximate the age of lichen thalli by the dates on the stones. 

 In the old cemetery at Gilead, where Enoch Crosby, (the Amer- 

 ican spy, "Harvey Birch" of Fenimore Cooper's novel) is buried, 

 an old red sandstone headstone, placed in 1795, was so richly 

 covered with crustose and foliose lichens as to obscure part of 

 the inscription. Marble headstones of about 1840 to 1850 bore 

 only crustose lichens. 



Judging from the species of lichens and the age of the stones, 

 crustose lichens establish themselves first, such as Lecanora 

 cinerea, Candelariella vitellina and concolor, then Lecanora tar- 

 tar ea, and at length Rinodina oreina, which last was unexpected, 

 as it is a species of high hilltops in this vicinity. Older stones 

 bore all of the above, but in addition the foliose Physcia obscura 

 and Parmelia saxatilis. The headstone of 1795 bore all of these. 



In a newer cemetery, north of Carmel, on stones bearing 

 dates of the eighties of the last century, colonies apparently 

 twenty or thirty years old, of Lecanora cinerea and Rinodina 

 oreina had established themselves on smoothly cut granite 

 stones. Here is an unusual botanical objective which will be 

 shared with anyone who has the inclination and opportunity 

 to pursue it. City churchyards would yield no lichens, the city 

 air is unfavorable to them, but old country cemeteries, in purer 

 air, ought to be rewarding for Hellenists, though collecting 

 would be difficult — one couldn't carry home the headstones. 

 Some of the colonies, with the golden Candelariella and gray- 

 green Lecanoras and Rinodina, were very attractive. The ques- 

 tion as to the conjunction of the symbiotically associated algal 

 and lichen cells, on these stones, out in an open graveyard, away 

 from sources of either, was stimulating to speculation. 



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