iIjI'] Bastow, Lichen-Flora of Victoria. 175 



NOTES ON THE LICHEN-FLORA OF VICTORIA. 

 (With Plate.) 

 By R. a. Bastow. 

 (Read before the Field Naturalists' Club of Victoria, loth Nov., 191 3.) 

 It is highly probable that we have all seen Ferntree Gully. We 

 have wandered along its shady walks, and under its umbrageous 

 foHage, in the sweetly-scented and cool shade of its trees and 

 bushes. It is delightful, and fills one's heart with content and 

 joyful anticipation of when, at our ease at home, we examine 

 our collections — gems from the bark, off the ground, off the 

 clay, or off the rocks — 



" God made them all ; 



And what He deigns to make 



Should ne'er be deemed 



Unworthy of our study and our love." 



Then we will suppose we are there — in Ferntree Gully — 

 with the trees covered with lichens all around us. Look where 

 we will we see them — little specks of yellow, white, red, and 

 black, small lumps on the bark of the trees hke little warts, 

 for Xuxw (leikeen) is the Greek name for wart. But they 

 are not always like warts ; sometimes they take the form of 

 writing. I have specimens of this with me, and really they 

 look more like Arabic than anything else ; but, of course, it 

 just grows on bark, as you may see, and really those Arabic 

 letters are the fruit of the plant. All the Graphideae are fruited 

 in this manner. The fruits are called lirellse — sometimes with 

 a margin on them and sometimes without margin. I have also 

 brought a talipot palm book with me, so that you may compare 

 the writing with the Graphis fruit. Sometimes the lichen plant 

 takes the form of fronds, and at other times the plants resemble 

 a bunch of yellowish-green filaments, as in Usnea, the Beard- 

 Moss. 



Some German botanists hold the opinion that lichens are 

 a union of algge and fungi, and their reasons for the faith 

 within them are good, for, in examining the lichens closely, 

 we are strongly reminded first of fungus and then of alga ; 

 but Leighton calls this theory — the Schwendenerian theory — 

 " the baseless fabric of a vision." ''Anyhow." says Leighton in 

 his introduction to "The Lichen-Flora of Great Britain," 

 " the group of lichens is so distinct in its vegetative characters, 

 and at the same time so extensive and varied a one, that it 

 seems more methodical to treat it, as heretofore, as a distinct 

 class than to absorb it in that of fungi, notwithstanding the 

 close affinity shown by its reproductive organs." 



The lichens are usually divided into the filamentous, the 

 foliaceous, and the crustaceous. The filamentous forms a 

 shrub-like mass as in Usnea barhata ; the fohaceous is generally 

 in fronds, as in RamaUna ; and the crustaceous is almost one 



