Extensive contributions to the knowledge of English plants generally were
made by Sir James Edward Smith[75] who, in 1788, founded the Linnean
Society of London of which he was President until his death in 1828. He
began his great work, _English Botany_, in 1790 with James Sowerby as
artist. Smith’s and Sowerby’s part of the work came to an end in 1814;
but a supplement was begun in 1831 by Hooker who had the assistance of
Sowerby’s sons in preparing the drawings. Nearly all the lichens recorded
by Smith are published simply as _Lichen_, and his _Botany_ thus belongs
to the period under discussion, though in time it stretches far beyond.
Continental lichenologists had been more receptive to new ideas,
and other genera were gradually added to Weber’s list, notably by
Hoffmann[76] and Persoon[77].
For a long time little was known of the lichens of other than European
countries. Buxbaum[78] in the East, Petiver[79] and Hans Sloane[80] in
the West made the first exotic records. The latter notes how frequently
lichens grew on the imported Jesuit’s bark, and he quaintly suggests
in regard to some of these species that they may be identical with the
“hyssop that springeth out of the wall.” It was not however till towards
the end of the eighteenth century that much attention was given to
foreign lichens, when Swartz[81] in the West Indies and Desfontaines[82]
in N. Africa collected and recorded a fair number. Swartz describes about
twenty species collected on his journey through the West Indian Islands
(1783-87).
Interest was also growing in other aspects of lichenology. Georgi[83], a
Russian Professor, was the first to make a chemical analysis of lichens.
He experimented on some of the larger forms and extracted and examined
the mucilaginous contents of _Ramalina farinacea_, _Platysma glaucum_,
_Lobaria pulmonaria_, etc., which he collected from birch and pine trees.
About this time also the French scientists Willomet[84], Amoreux and
Hoffmann jointly published theses setting forth the economic value of
such lichens as were used in the arts, as food, or as medicine.
F. PERIOD V. 1803-1846
The fine constructive work of Acharius appropriately begins a new era in
the history of lichenology. Previous writers had indeed included lichens
in their survey of plants, but always as a somewhat side issue. Acharius
made them a subject of special study, and by his scientific system of
classification raised them to the rank of the other great classes of
plants.
Acharius was a country doctor at Wadstena on Lake Mälar in Sweden, as
he himself calls it, “the country of lichens.” He was attracted to the
study of them by their singular mode of growth and organization, both of
thallus and reproductive organs, for which reason he finally judged that
lichens should be considered as a distinct Order of Cryptogamia.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account