I.M. Lamb's unpublished contribution to Antarctic lichenology

An account is given of the unpublished work of Ivan Mackenzie Lamb, who spent almost 35 years working on the taxonomy and ecology of Antarctic lichens. Much of his meticulous research and descriptions of certain genera was published, and it was his intention to provide a series of monographs based on his own collections made in 1944-46 and more recent collections, as well as on those made by early expeditions to the Antarctic. In particular, he critically revised the descriptions of a very large number (>170) of the type specimens emanating from these expeditions. Sadly due to a combination of factors, not least of which was his declining health from 1970 onwards, a substantial amount of his written accounts remained unpublished and were superseded by Carroll Dodge's (1973) Antarctic Lichen Flora. Lamb deposited his notes in the archives of the British Antarctic Survey, and an outline of what these contain and the circumstances under which they were written is presented here.