THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 41 



thorax and spots on the patagia arc very much more distinct. 

 The hind wings, with the exception of an elongate rosy-coloured 

 spot at lower end of cell, are wholly black. 

 Loc, Narracan, Gippsland. 



ON MR. ROBERT HALL'S COLLECTION OF LICHENS 



FROM KERGUELEN ISLAND. 



By Rev. F. R. M. Wilson. 



(Read before the Field Nnturalists' Olnh of Victoria, \Wi July, 1S98.) 



Having examined the lichens collected in Kerguelen Island 



by Mr. Robert Hall, he has requested me to furnish a few general 



remarks upon them, to be read on the iilh July in the Victorian 



Field Naturalists' Club. 



I willingly accede to this request, more especially as it renews 

 in some sort my connection with the Club. It is not easy, how- 

 ever, to write anything of special interest on such a theme. 



The lichen flora of Kerguelen Island, notwithstanding that 

 the latitude is only about 49° south, is decidedly antarctic, and 

 poor in species, even for an antarctic land. Ross, in his 

 " Antarctic Expedition," says that Kerguelen Island is one of 

 the most barren spots on the earth at the same distance from the 

 pole. One of the names by which it has been known to geo- 

 graphers is very appropriate — Desolation Island. 



But, considering the poverty of the materials, the licheno- 

 logical literature upon this island is full. The first mention of its 

 lichens is found in the ''Journal of Botany," by Hooker and 

 Taylor, in 1844. The list then published was revised by Babing- 

 ton for Hooker's " Flora Antarctica," which appeared in 1847. 

 Twenty-four species were enumerated. Owing to the progress 

 made by lichenology since that time, it was needful to revise this 

 revision. Tuckerman gave a new list, with additions by later 

 collectors, in the Nat. Soc. Bulletin, U.S.A. And Crombie, in 

 the 'Journal of Botany," reduced Hooker's 24 species to 17, and 

 altered the names of all but three. Then, the collection by the 

 Challenger expedition having been examined by both Stirton 

 and Crombie, separately, lists of new lichens from Kerguelen 

 Island were published in the " Journal of Botany " and in the 

 Journal of the Linnean Society in 1875, ^876, and 1877. A 

 complete list, gathering up the names of all the lichens that are 

 known to inhabit that desolate land was furnished by Crombie in 

 " The Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society," in 1879. 

 In his work of determining these plants Crombie had the assist- 

 ance of the accomplished, though aged, lichenologist Nylander, 



As the result of these collections and examinations, Crombie 

 gives a list of 64 species and 4 varieties. Some of these are 

 cosmopolitan plants ; some are confined to the Southern Hemi- 



