Lichens and Hepatics of the Nueltin Lake Expedition, Keewatin, 1947

Abstract

In 1947, from May to December, Dr. Francis Harper visited the Barren Grounds of Canada in the vicinity of Nueltin Lake, about 250 miles northwest of Churchill. His work was supported by the Arctic Institute of North America with funds provided by the Office of Naval Research. Among the many and various plants he brought back was a collection of lichens, especially interesting since no previous collection had been made in that area. Perhaps the earliest report on the lichens of northwestern Canada was that by Sir John Richardson (1823) in the Botanical Appendix to Sir John Franklin's Journey to the Shores of the Polar Sea. His list of 121 species was determined by Dr. J. D. Hooker. In another and later (1826) collection by Sir John Richardson over somewhat the same territory, the lichens were turned over by Hooker to Rev. W. A. Leighton (1867), who named 163 species, varieties, and forms.