64 JOURNAL OF THE [July, 



records of this early condition occurring in a state of nature. 

 For, since the time when lichens were styled aerial algae, down to 

 the time when Schwendener termed them autonomous, so much 

 of error was published that there can be no fear of augment- 

 ing this dark but suggestive page of botanical history. On the 

 other hand, the histological work of De Bary' and Schwendener,' 

 the analytical researches of Famintzin and Baranetzki,' and the 

 brilliant and successful synthetic labors of Rees,^ Treub," Bor- 

 net,^ and Stahl," from their thoroughness and scientific methods, 

 preclude the addition of material truth either to theory or facts 

 of the subject. And in our own day the ingenious investigations 

 of M. G. Bonnier' on the protonema of several mosses should be 

 included as v/orthy of mention with these latter scholars. Per- 

 haps no department of scientific research can present such a flood 

 of false observation and theory ; certainly none can show such 

 dogged resistance to the truth or more brilliant and scientific 

 work in its establishment. These early lichenologists, confining 

 themselves narrowly to their subject and unacquainted with its 

 biological relationship, compiled volumes, tomes, and libraries 

 totally ignorant of the real nature of the subject under discus- 

 sion. And to them came the truth like the awakening from a 

 dream. They could not at first believe that their work was all a 

 myth, and later would not. And so not till comparatively very 

 recent times, though demonstrated beyond peradventure of a 

 doubt by the histologist and physicist, has the truth been 

 accepted. 



When first gathered the material bore a close resemblance to 

 Protococcus viridis Ag. as it often appears growing on trees and 

 stones in damp places. But under the glass it aroused the won- 

 der of all who saw it, none the less from its strange and un- 

 expected appearance than from the beauty and elegance of its 

 form. Here could be seen the white, almost hyaline mycelium 

 becoming excessively branched and forming bushy, spherical 

 masses of hyphae, in whose ultimate ramifications were held the 

 round, emerald-green algal cells (Plate 44, Fig. 2). Not yet 

 were the gonidia obscured by the filaments, and the branching 

 and method of growth were easily followed. In nearly every 

 group could be found one or more algal cells, somewhat removed 

 from the cluster, and showing clearly how they are seized by the 



