LICHENES. 



UNDER Lichens Bolton enumerates eighty-three species 

 (Nos. 316-398), and remarks, " Beside the foregoing, 

 there will be left with the Publisher, for the inspection of the 

 Curious, three Prints of non-descript Lichens, containing 

 about forty species, most of which are found in the Parish of 

 Halifax." Probably these then " non-descripts " would be 

 determined in after years by this persevering botanist, but, so 

 far as we are aware, no record of them has been kept. There 

 is a solitary example from Bolton's own collection in Herb. 

 Leyl. but the specimen (Pavmelia glomulifera Ach.) was 

 gathered at Llanberris. Sixty-six of the eighty-three 

 species can be satisfactorily traced, but the identity of 

 the remaining seventeen has been obscured in their passage 

 through a maze of synonyms. They are consequently omitted 

 from this list. Many of these early records have been con- 

 firmed, mostly in the case of species which are of general, 

 frequent, or common occurrence. But our ever increasingly 

 impure atmosphere has been responsible for the extinction of 

 many species in this district. These apparently robust plants, 

 which can fasten themselves so tenaciously to bare rocks and 

 stones and the bark of trees, are really of a very delicate 

 nature, and do not come to perfection in a smoky locality. 

 Some of the hardiest are still struggling on away from the 

 towns, while others do not get beyond a rudimentary stage of 

 their existence. In the eastern part of the parish there are 



practically no lichens. 



Leyland's Herbarium contains between thirty and forty 

 local species collected by S. Gibson, J. Nowell, and others. 

 There are also upwards of 60 numbered packets containing 

 Lichens, in a drawer, but, unfortunately, none of them are 

 dated, localised, or named. They are simply accompanied by 

 the following : " Lichens collected chiefly in the neighbourhood 

 of Heptonstall by S. Gibson " ; so that they are useless for the 

 present purpose. 



A few of the records are by Dr. Carrington, Mr. J. G. 

 Baker, and others, published in Mudd's Manual of British 

 Lichens (1861), and Leighton's Lichen Flora. Mr. T. Stans- 

 field, Todmorden, appears to have laboured diligently at one 

 time about Todmorden, and between 30 and 40 species are 

 placed to his credit in Lees' Flora. 



