184 M. C. COOKE ON THE DUAL-LICHEN HYPOTHESIS. 



When we see an organism in possession of certain organs, which 

 organs perform certain functions, however small, and these organs 

 and functions are inherited and transmitted, there is a pretty strong 

 presumption that all our efforts to demonstrate external causes, to 

 account for pliEenomena already well accounted for, we shall only 

 embark on a profitless speculation. At present there are still a few 

 who are content with this view of the Lichens, and do not crave the 

 novelty of a dual hypothesis. 



As to the assertion that the hypothesis is now generally received 

 and adopted, come from what quarter it may, it must be accepted for 

 what it is worth ; even if endorsed by the " Nineteenth Century" it 

 will certainly be forgotten in the twentieth. Such an hypothesis 

 cannot practically be accepted whilst it is rejected by the Licheno- 

 logists and Mycologists. It must resolve itself into a question of 

 classification, and so long as the best classificatory books are written 

 by the best men, Lichens will continue to be Lichens, and Fungi 

 much the same as they are. 



