Historical overview - France

The beginning of the XXth century can claim acquaintance only with the French lichenologist M. Bouly de Lesdain (1869-1965), most of whose collections were unfortunately destroyed during the bombing of Dunkerque in 1940. As far as our study area is concerned, Bouly de Lesdain mainly worked near Dunkerque (France, dept. Nord) from where he described many taxa new to science (lichens and lichenicolous fungi). In Belgium, he notably collected near Spa. In northern France, another prominent lichenologist, Father J. Harmand (1844-1915) published a 'Catalogue descriptif des lichens observés dans la Lorraine' (Harmand 1894). This flora mainly concerns the southern part of the Lorraine, an area not studied in the present checklist.