604 RECORD OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 



hesitate to affirm that every competent observer will entirely coincide 

 in the view of Dr. Nylauder, who declares that the " microcjonidia " 

 are no new discovery whatever, have nothing at all in common with 

 gonidia, and in fact are simj^ly what is called in vegetable anatomy 

 " molecular granulations," which never, if present in the cellules, go 

 forth from them, and never present any cellular metamorphosis ; 

 that so far from their being any novelty, their existence has been well 

 known to every microscopic observer, and that vaiuly in these granu- 

 lations shall we seek for anything having any special relation to 

 gonidia or their origin. 



Mr. Crombie considers therefore that " the labours of Dr. Minks " 

 cannot in any way, in so far at least as his discovery of " micro- 

 gonidia " is concerned, be regarded as " profoundly modifying the 

 anatomical notions which were entertained concerning the thallus of 

 lichens." Eather is it to be regretted, in the interest of true science, 

 and for the final suppression of Schwendenerian oj)inions, that these 

 labours, valuable in some respects as they may be, should liave 

 resulted in the promulgation of another theory as untenable as that 

 which Dr. Minks set himself to destroy. 



In regard to the " zoospores or zoosporoid corpuscles," which Dr. 

 Miiller mentions as having been observed by him in certain gonidia, 

 " contento contracto," gyrosely agitated (and also in the spores of 

 Agaricus rimosus), Mr. Crombie considers this a discovery of exactly 

 the same nature as that of microgonidia, and that they are in reality 

 nothing more than the same " molecular granulations." The motion 

 which he saw is evidently the well-known Brownian movement, an 

 ordinary property of molecular granulations to agitate themselves 

 where sufficient space is allowed them. 



Leighton's ' Lichen-Flora.'— The third edition of the 'Lichen-Flora 

 of Great Britain, Ireland, and the Channel Islands,' has been issued, 

 and is the consequence of the extensive discoveries of Mr. Larbalestier 

 in the west of Ireland, and the inferior, but very interesting, ones of 

 Mr. Crombie, Dr. Stirton, and others, in the north of Scotland, and 

 the author's own extensive researches in North and South Wales, 

 whereby our lichen-flora has been raised to an equality in numbers, 

 rarity, and novelty with that of any other country in Euroj^e. 



The number of species and varieties or forms comprised in the second 

 edition of the work amounted to 1156, whilst in this third edition 

 they have risen to 1710. The work is preceded by an introduction 

 to the study of lichens, with their geographical distribution, general 

 and local, and their uses. The descriptions have been revised and 

 corrected throughout, and measurements of the spores from the works 

 of Mudd, Nylander, T. M. Fries, and tlie author's own, have been 

 added. A copious glossary, list of authors and exsiccati quoted, and 

 an exhaustive index have been appended. 



Microscopical Slides of Lichens.— Messrs. Holmes and Joshua's 

 first fasciculus of a series of microscopical slides of British lichens, 

 announced some time since,* has now been issued. The fasciculus 

 * See this Journal, i. (1878) p. 379. 



