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Lichens as Food

"Iceland moss" (Cetraria Islandica, Colour Plate VII) is even now used as an article of food, as it contains a high per cent. of lichen-starch.

The Spotted Lungwort (Sticta pulmonaria, Colour Plate VII) was considered a sure cure for lung trouble and was used in a Siberian monastery for a beer which was noted for its peculiar bitterness.

The manna of the Israelites is supposed to have been a species of Lecanora (Lecanora esculenta). This lichen is plentiful in Algeria and Tartary, as well as in mountainous districts of other countries. It is its habit to grow and spread rapidly and, as it is loosely attached, it is often carried by the wind down the sides of mountains into the valley, where it is spoken of as "Rains of manna." Kirghiz Tartars eat it as "earth bread."

It first forms thick-wrinkled and warted grayish-yellow crusts on the stones. Within, they are as white as parched corn.

As the plant grows older the crust is rent and loosened from the substratum, while the edges curl over until the loosened piece forms an elliptical warted body about the size of a hazel-nut. The Manna Lichen is sometimes brought down in such quantities by the rain that it accumulates to a depth of several inches, and in the Steppe region, and in the high lands of southwest Asia is used as a substitute Ior corn.

From the time of Dioscorides in the first century, A. D., until 1825, advance in exact knowledge of lichens was practically nothing. Between 1825 and 1868 considerable progress was made in the chemical study of lichens, the investigations still being primarily made with a view to improving the dye industry.

France took the lead in improved methods of extracting dye as well as of applying it.