Introduction. 
The seientist and philosopher Johan Ernst Gunnerus was 
bishop in Trondhjem (Drontheim) from 1758 to this death in 1773. 
The extensive travels which his office imposed on him gave him 
much opportunity to collect natural curiosities. His diocese was 
large — from Romsdal to the Russian frontier, then a travel of 
several months, and it was a terra incognita to the naturalist. The 
enthusiastic bishop also interested many of his clergymen for 
nature, they collected plants, animals, and minerals, and sent to 
him. 
He thus brought together valuable collections. After his death 
they were acquired by the «Kongelige Videnskabers Selskab» (The 
Royal Scientific Society), in Trondhjem (Drontheim), the oldest 
scientific society in Norway, which was established on his initiative. 
Gunnerus embodied the results of his botanical researches in 
his Flora Norvegica Ill. The first part was printed in 
Trondhjem 1766 (Nidrosia MDCCLXVI), the second part in Kjø» 
benhavn, according to the title page (Hafnia MDCGCLXXII) in 1772, 
but this is evidently not correct,*) it was printed in 1776. 
The secientist's object was then to detect and describe the plants 
and animals found in his district. This task occupied the scientists 
for a long time. To investigate their distribution and biology was 
a work that must be left to later generations. Gunnerus himself 
devoted himself to the former problem, his statements of the habi- 
tats are not always so accurate as we would like to have them — 
especially in his herbarium — but they are remarkable for his time. 
The lichens are onlv a small part of his herbarium, and his 
botanical investigations are not so important as his zoological. 
Never the less attentation should be called to his lichen herbarium 
also. It contains interesting things and bears a testimony to his 
comprehensive genius as well as to the difficulties which his isola- 
tion laid upon him. 
The lichens are here enumerated in the same order as in his 
Flora Norvegica. The arrangement is not systematical, he has first 
mentioned the plants that first came to his knowledge. — Several 
plants are now missing in his herbarium. 
For biographical information, see Ove Dahl: Biskop Gunnerus' 
*) «Mindeblade» p. 92. 
