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2 HISTORY OF LICHENOLOGY
A seventh period which includes modern lichenology, and which dates
after the publication of Krempelhuber's History, was ushered in by
Schwendener's announcement in 1867 of the hypothesis as to the dual
nature of the lichen thallus. Schwendener's theory gave a new impulse to
the study of lichens and strongly influenced all succeeding investigations.
B. PERIOD I. PREVIOUS TO 1694
Our examination of lichen literature takes us back to Theophrastus,
the disciple of Plato and Aristotle, who lived from 371 to 2848.0., and who
wrote a History of Plants, one of the earliest known treatises on Botany.
Among the plants described by Theophrastus, there are evidently two
lichens, one of which is either an Usnea or an Alectoria, and the other
certainly Roccella tinctoria, the last-named an important economic plant
likely to be well known for its valuable dyeing properties. The same or
somewhat similar lichens are also probably alluded to by the Greek physician
Dioscorides, in his work on Materia Medica, A.D. 68. About the
same time Pliny the elder, who was a soldier and traveller as well as a
voluminous writer, mentions them in his Natural History which was
completed in 77 A.D.
During the centuries that followed, there was little study of Natural
History, and, in any case, lichens were then and for a long time after
considered to be of too little economic value to receive much attention.
In the sixteenth century there was a great awakening of scientific
interest all over Europe, and, after the printing-press had come into
general use, a number of books bearing on Botany were published. It will
be necessary to chronicle only those that made distinct contributions to the
knowledge of lichens.
The study of plants was at first entirely from a medical standpoint
and one of the first works, and the first book on Natural History, printed
in England, was the Crete Herball 1
. It was translated from a French work,
Hortus sanitatis, and published by Peter Treveris in Southwark. One of
the herbs recommended for various ailments is "Muscus arborum," the
tree-moss (Usnea}. A somewhat crude figure accompanies the text.
Ruel 2 of Soissons in 3
France, Dorstenius , Camerarius 4 and Tabernaemontanus
5 in Germany followed with works on medical or economic botany
and they described, in addition to the tree-moss, several species of reputed
value in the art of healing now known as Sticta (Lobaria) pulmonaria,
Lobaria laetevirens, Cladonia pyxidata, Evernia prunastri and Cetraria
islandica. Meanwhile L'Obel 6
, a Fleming, who spent the latter part of his
life in England and is said to have had charge of a physic garden at
1 Crete Herball 1526. Ruel I536
4 Camerarius 1586.
5 Tabernaemontanus 1590.
8 Dorstenius 1MO
6 L'Obel 1576.