12 LINDSAY, ON POLYMORl HISM IN LICHENS. 



some Asci containing simple, round or oval spores, along 

 with others filled with spores of the usual form, all in the 

 same apothecimn."* And again, Th. M. Fries describes a 

 condition of Lecidea [Rhizocarpon) geminatum, Fw., in 

 which, he says, " sporas singulas et binas in eodem apothe- 

 cio observavinius."f My own records of observations during 

 the last ten years will enable me to give many facts of a 

 similar kind, when I have leisure to treat of the " Variation 

 of the Sporidium in Lichens.^' 



I cannot, however, at present, further pursue the subject 

 of polymorphism in the rej)roduction of Lichens. T have 

 said enough, I think, to show what I mean by the term, and 

 in what directions the subject may be studied with advan- 

 tage. I trust that some of the increasing number of stu- 

 dents of Lichenology throughout Europe will give attention 

 to the Biology or Physiology of Lichens, rather than to the 

 mere effort at the multiplication of species and the devising 

 of new names, to the greater confusion of an already alarm- 

 ingly confused synonymy. I have no wish to depreciate 

 the labours of systematists, of species-describers, of Lichen - 

 ographers so-called, provided they possess the necessary 

 qualifications for the determination and description of spe- 

 cies, and for classification — qualifications that should, how- 

 ever, confine such authors to a mere fraction of those that at 

 present are incessantly adding to the already too bulky 

 " Literature of Lichenology." But my experience has led 

 me, under present circumstances at least, to esteem more 

 highly the botanist who studies Lichen-life in all its phases, 

 over wide areas, and in all the external conditions to which 

 such life is exposed in Nature. Studies of such a character, 

 besides correcting, or contributing to, our knowledge of the 

 physiology of the Lichens (the nature, for instance, of the 

 various processes of reproduction, of which we have as yet 

 little positive information), cannot fail to generate liberal and 

 philosophical views of the range of variation and the artificial 

 or book-limits of sj)ecies, and so to lead to the reduction and re- 

 arrangement — on a simplified plan — of the present unnecessa- 

 rily and mischievously great redundancy of species and genera. 



Quite recently two Eussian observers^ have discovered 

 Zoospores as one of the phases or forms of development of 



* The var. octosponi, Nyl., of Lecanora vitellina, Acli., differs from the 

 type iu conUuiiiiig eight, instead of twenty or thirty s|)oridia. 



f " Lichenes Sjiitsbergenscs," p. 45, ' Kongl. Svenska Vetenshaps-Akade- 

 miens Handlingar,' 1867. 



% " Beitrag zur Entwickelungsgcscliichte der Gonidien und ^oos;?i?r(?;2-bil- 

 dung bei Fhyscia parietina, D. N." ; by Famiutziu and Barauietzky, 'Bota- 

 liische Zeitung,' 1867, p. 189. 



