ON LICHENS COLLECTED IN VICTORIA, AUSTRALTA. 353 
On Lichens collected inAhe Colony of Victoria, Australia. By 
Rev. F. R. M. Wır$ox. (Communicated by W. CARRUTHERS, 
Esq., F.R.S., F.L.S.) 
[Read 16th April, 1891.] 
(PrATE XLIX.) 
No previous paper has been published on the Lichens of Victoria, 
so far as the writer is aware; and, with the exception of a few 
specimens in the Melbourne Botanical Museum named by Krem- 
pelhuber and J. Mueller, and a few collected along the coast by 
various persons and named by Nylander and others, the lichen- 
ology of Victoria has hitherto been a blank. The paucity of 
previous information will account for the large number of species 
and varieties which are here named as new. 
The microscopical examination in every case was made with a 
good magnifying-power of 275 diameters, from which the drawings 
have been enlarged to 1000 diameters. In these examinations 
it has been found that the spores of Victorian Lichens are 
usually smaller than those of the same species described by 
European lichenologists. It should be mentioned, however, 
that most of the plants examined were gathered during a cycle 
of abnormally dry seasons, and that the spores of at least some 
Lichens gathered after a continuance of wet weather proved to be 
nearly half as large again as those from specimens collected in 
the same spot after a drought. 
In determining the species much help has been obtained from 
the Lichen herbaria inthe Melbourne Botanical Museum, especially 
from Hepp’s collection, and from the specimens authenticated by 
J. Mueller. Besides which the following authorities have been 
consulted :—Acharius’s ‘ Lichenographia Universalis,’ 1810, and 
‘Synopsis Methodica Lichenum, 1814; Nylander's ‘ Synopsis 
Methodica Lichenum,’ 1858; Leighton’s ‘Lichen Flora of the 
British Isles,’ 3rd edition, 1879; Hooker’s ‘Handbook of the 
New Zealand Flora’; and various papers in the Linnean Society's 
Transactions during many years. 
Fam. I. BxssACEX. 
It is probable that there are representatives of this family 
which have eluded observation from their obscurity and their 
close affinity to the Algæ. It is only after much perplexity and 
