IV.— Lichens

• Published in: Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: The Royal Society 1879
• Subjects: Antarctic; Hooker; Kerguelen; Kerguelen Island; The Antarctic; Antarc*; Antarctica
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rstl.1879.0007; https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/pdf/10.1098/rstl.1879.0007

The first record that we can find of the Lichen-flora of this remote island, is contained in a preliminary account of the Antarctic Lichens collected by Dr. J. D. Hooker during the voyage of the “Erebus” and “Terror,” which was published by him and Dr. Thomas Taylor in the “London Journal of Botany” (1844), vol. iii. pp. 634-658. The Kerguelen Island lichens there enumerated amount in number to 17 species, named by Dr. Taylor; but at least one half of the names attributed to them are misapplied, and therefore must be excluded, owing chiefly to the determinations having been attempted in the absence of such microscopical analysis of the specimens as is now found to be essential for their discrimination. The number was subsequently raised to 27 species and varieties, when the list was revised by the Rev. Churchill Babington for publication in Dr. Hooker’s “Flora Antarctica” (1847), vol. ii. pp. 519-542. A considerable proportion of the names in this later list must however be rejected for the same reason as those erased from the previous one. Unfortunately authentic examples of several of Dr. Taylor's critical species are wanting in the Kew Herbarium; and his collection (now in the Herbarium of the Boston Society of Natural History), according to Professor Edw. Tuckerman, contains very little that is illustrative of his Kerguelen Island determinations. I have lately published a further revision of the Kerguelen Island Lichens collected by Dr. Hooker, in the “Journal of Botany” for April 1877, wherein the number of the species is reckoned to be 18 or 19 besides 2 named forms. Mr. Moseley of the Challenger Expedition gathered in this island upwards of 13 species and 1 named form. ( Vide Crombie in Journ. Linn. Soc. Bot. 1877.)