36 GUERNSEY. 
the list, some not found for a great many years past, and some 
which have only been met with once or twice. So that altogether 
the fungus-flora of Guernsey is an exceptionally fine one, the number 
of species recorded having rarely been equalled in any locality of 
the same size. 
- It has been so long customary to regard the lichens as 
Lichens. forming a perfectly natural and well-defined family of 
plants, that it isnot easy to reconcile oneself to the idea that they 
are after all merely symbiotic fungi, and that the green gonidia, 
which used tc be looked upon as their essential differentiating 
character, do not belong to them physiologically, but are algze pure 
and simple, associated with these particular fungi in a lifelong 
partnership. To the field botanist, however, lichens will be lichens 
to the end of time, whatever their systematic position may be, and 
no finer field for the study of these interesting plants will he find 
anywhere than this little island of Guernsey, where some 300 species 
have been recorded—a number which, though large, is certainly not 
exhaustive. 
Plenty of work for hammer and chisel will be found among the 
stupendous rock-masses and boulders which ada so much to the 
beauty of the coast scenery, for, generally speaking, it is impossible 
to lay one’s hand upon the exposed face of a rock without covering a 
lichen. Some of the stones are excessively hard, and the temper of 
both the collector and his chisel will often be put to a severe test. 
Saxicolous forms largely predominate, especially those peculiar to 
maritime districts, whereas lichens which grow on wood, whether 
trees or dry timber, a-e much less plentiful. We do not find the tree- 
trunks shaggy and bearded, or densely covered with lichen growth, 
as they are in the south of England; but it should be observed that 
many species which are normally lignicolous, find in this island a 
congenial habitat on stone. 
The plant which was named after the island by Salwey Chiodecton 
sarniense is one of the rarest of Guernsey lichens, but it still grows 
in the spot where he discovered it half a century ago. It does 
not appear to have been found anywhere outside of the Channel 
Islands. 
It may not be out of place here to impress upon the young 
lichen-collector the imperative necessity of testing, chemically as 
well as microscopically, every specimen he gathers before placing it 
in his herbarium. It is sheer waste of time’ to try to identify a 
Lecidea, a Lecanora, or a Verrucaria by external characters alone. 
Even for a practised hand it is seldom safe, and lichenologists of 
high repute have been known to make most grievous blunders 
through this hasty and careless method of jumping at conclusions 
Some of the foliaceous lichens, like Parmelia Borreri and P. reddenda, 
are so exactly similar as to be absolutely indistinguishable, except by 
