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VII. Descriptions of Eight New British Lichens, By Dawson 

 Turner, Esq. F.E.S. A.S. and L.S. 



Read June S r 1806. 



In submitting to the Linnean Society descriptions of the eight; 

 following Lichens, I feel it necessary to preface my observations 

 upon their individual characters, by briefly alluding to the 

 changes which have been effected in the study of these plants 

 subsequently to the time when I wrote the paper upon a similar 

 subject, which the Society did me the honour of inserting in the 

 seventh volume of their Transactions. It can scarcely be necessary 

 to mention that the changes to which I refer are those intro- 

 duce by Dr. Acharius in his Methodus Lichenum, a work which 

 may in my opinion be regarded as tending most essentially to 

 facilitate the study of this obscure, yet beautiful and interesting 

 tribe of vegetables, as laying the foundation for enabling us to 

 prosecute the investigation of them upon solid principles, and 

 as having thrown more light upon their real nature and physiaf- 

 logy, than could reasonably be expected in the present imper- 

 fect state of our acquaintance with the subject. The genera 

 established by this able author are already almost universally re- 

 ceived among the botanists of neighbouring countries ; and it is 

 with peculiar satisfaction that, convinced myself by experience 

 of their excellence as well as of the necessity of employing them, 

 I avail myself of an opportunity of directing towards them the 

 attention of the naturalists of Britain. It is by no means my 



intention. 



