SPITSBERGEN LTC1IENS 
79 
definite^ which of the two is the more common. From the evidence 
of several of the packets, it would appear that G. sylvatica is the 
more frequent, for it often occurs in small quantity associated with 
the principal lichen of the sample. This being the case, the condition 
is similar to that which exists in Norway, for it has been recently 
stated that in the northern part of this country G. ranyiferina is not 
so common as G. sylvatica, and also that C. alpestris, which is the 
lichen most generally harvested for reindeer fodder, is a lowland 
species compared with the other two # . We note that this last-named 
lichen is not among the material of the collection. 
The genus Getraria is represented by well-developed specimens of 
C. nivalis, G. islandica, G. hiascens, and G. aculeata. They form a 
most conspicuous feature of the lichen Hora of Bear Island and Prince 
Charles Foreland. The examples of C. islandica are not so luxuriant 
as those of the other three species, they are small as regards height 
and never broadly sub-foliaceous. It is the form tenuifolia of this 
lichen, and the narrow cespitose G. nivalis and G. hiascens that grow 
frequently and in abundance. 
Lecanora tartarea is almost ubiquitous. It appears not only in 
large broad patches covering other plants but also in snow-like Hakes 
on mosses and other lichens, the latter merely indicating new centres 
of growth. Its habit of developing fantastic forms by entirely 
incrusting small plants, mostly mosses, produces specimens that have 
proved puzzling to identify. So much has this been the case that 
a specimen of L. tartarea, collected in Newfoundland, similar in 
every respect to the growth from Spitsbergen, was named Hoccella 
Grayi, nov. sp., 1883. It does not appear to have been noted since. 
It is possible to demonstrate by means of thin sections that the 
growths are in both cases the result of L. tartarea closely incrusting 
mosses. At certain points in the specimens there arise crowded 
whitish-green groups of irregularly spherical swellings, each with a 
diameter approximating ’5 mm., and from most of these are produced 
live to six slender, cylindrical, slightly curved branches averaging 
5 mm. in length. These branches are pinkish white in colour, 
corneous in texture, and have frequently a darker core of foreign 
matter, moss, grass, etc. They are arranged in a pectinate form and 
the extremity of a branch is frequently compressed. 
This growth is regular and frequent among the Spitsbergen 
material. It is an extreme spinulose form of L. tartarea var. frigid a. 
Among the specimens of Solorina hispora there is one (No. 13 e') 
in which the size of the spore, 100-104 p, greatly exceeds the 
measurement recorded for those of the normal species, which is 
diagnosed as having spores 65-88 p long x 33-42 p thick. 
It is perhaps not advisable to consider this lichen as representing 
a new species, seeing that only one small specimen has been collected ; 
hut a spore exceeding by 16 p that of the greatest length usually 
recognised as belonging to Solorina hispora is not an inconsiderable 
character in determining a species. It is, for the present, designated 
var. spitsberyensis. Measurements taken at random from typical 
specimens of Spitsbergen material, collected on Bear Island and in 
* “Studies on the Liclien Flora of Norway,” Kristiania, Herat Lynge, 1921. 
