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REMARKS ON A PAPER PUBLISHED (JAN., 1874) BY 

 DR. W. NYLANDER, IN THE " FLORA," AND 

 LATELY RE-ISSUED IN " GREVILLEA." 



By H. A. Weddell, M.D., F.M.L.S. 



Few among those who have passed some part of their life in 

 botanical pursuits, and more especially in the study of Lichens, 

 can boast of having committed even but a small amount of errors. 

 I for one have to confess many such, but I may candidly say that 

 I have always felt grateful to fellow botanists who have advised me 

 of them, provided they have done so in a friendly or courteous 

 manner. So much <:) 2^W 0S °f a Latin article, from the pen of the 

 celebrated lichenologist, Dr. W. Nylander, translated some weeks 

 since into this Journal.* Shortly after its appearance in the 

 " Flora " it was handed over to me by a friend of mine and the 

 author's, and as it struck me that some passages quoted in it from 

 my two last lichenological brochuresf had been misunderstood by 

 my learned critic, or wrongly dealt with, I took the liberty of 

 writing to him on the subject, fully expecting then to hear no 

 more about the matter. Dr. N. having, however, thought proper, 

 notwithstanding, to have his paper re-edited for the readers of this 

 Journal, I have on my part thought it expedient to lay before them 

 some of the remarks which its perusal had suggested to me, 

 noticing by the way that they are, for the most part, extracted 

 from the letter above alluded to. 



I, — Lichens du Massif Granitique de Liguge. 



1°. (Nyl. 1. c, p. 57.) Hie prtmo invenimus, p. 5, hcec verba : 

 "Recent observations, by introducing to our notice the singular 

 relations which appear to exist between Lichens and Algee," etc. — 

 Dr. N. takes occasion from these words to develope his opinion on 

 Schwendener's Algo-Lichen theory, taking it for granted I must 

 be, meo modo, an adherent to it. The truth is, that in the face of 

 many facts lately adduced, especially by M. Bornet, it is difficult 

 to deny that many Lichens during the first stage of their life are 

 connected parasitically with some of the inferior Alga?. At a later 

 period, however, when the Alga, assuming the form of Gonidia, 

 becomes included within the tissue of the Lichen, the connection, 



* It is scarcely necessary to state here that, in writing these and the following 

 lines, I have not had the slightest pretension to put my experience in lichenology 

 (hardly of six years' standing) upon a parallel with that of Dr. Nylander. whom 

 the Rev. W. A. Leighton, in one of his late publications, has called the "facile 

 princeps of modern microscopic botanists." I cannot, though, refrain from say- 

 ing how deeply I regret that one whom I had been accustomed for so many years 

 to consider as a friend, and look up to as a master, should have thought it 

 needful, on account of some variance of opinion on scientific matter, to treat me 

 so much like an enemy, and oblige me to ace in self-defence. 



f " Lichens du Massif Qranitique de Liguge'," and " Nouvelle Revue des 

 Lichens du Jardin public deBlossac, d Poitiers." 



