Lichens

by Annie Lorrain Smith

Lichens, by Annie Lorrain Smith, published in 1921 in the Cambridge Botanical Handbooks, was the first comprehensive account of lichens in English and long remained a standard work. Smith, who worked at the British Museum's botanical department, begins with a history of lichenology from its earliest observers to the discovery that a lichen is a partnership of fungus and alga. She then examines the components of the lichen body, its structure and reproduction, its chemistry and physiology, its relations to the surfaces it grows on, its economic uses and its classification. Original papers are cited throughout, and a glossary helps the general reader. The full text is available to read online in your browser on Vinteuil, and the opening pages are free.