LINDSAY, ON ABUOTH ALLUP. 31 



Stictarum on Sticta pulmonaria and S. scrobiculata : Pha- 

 copsis varia on Parmelia parietina : Phacopsis vidpina on 

 Cornicularia vulpnna : Arthonia glaucomaria on Lecanora 

 glaucoma : Ven^ucaria rhnosicola on Lecidea rimosa : Lecidea 

 vitellmaria on Lecanora viteUina : and SpJiinctrina septata on 

 Thelotrema lepadinum. We donbt not tliat botanists liave 

 only to dii'ect attention to parasitic lichens in order to dis- 

 cover many new and interesting species. There is a wide 

 field open here for scientific research : we are but on the 

 threshold of the inquiry. Korber most truly remarks 



" Es oflnet sich hier ein ebenso fiir die Physiologic, wie 

 fiir die systematik der Flechten iiberaus reiches Feld der 

 Beobachtung, dessen Grenzen vor der Hand noch nicht abzu- 

 sehen sind, und dessen fleissige Bearbeitung uns einst iiber 

 die Verwandtschaft der Flechten mit gewissen Pilzordnungen 

 geniigendere Aufschlusse geben wii*d, als bis jetzt gegeben 

 werden konnten." 



The presence of stylospores and the absence of a thallus 

 tend to assimilate the genus closely to the Fungi. We are 

 daily finding closer links between the great families of 

 Lichens and Fungi ; and the shades of distinction, the marks 

 of differentiation, in the lower tribes of both are becoming 

 less conspicuous. It were aycII, therefore, that the lower or 

 more minute, and hitherto little-knoAvn lichens shoiild be 

 studied cotemporaneously by lichenologists and mycolo- 

 gists, or by botanists possessing an intimate knowledge of 

 the structure and affinities of the Fungi as well as of those 

 of the Lichens. Standing as they do on a debateable and 

 ever-shifting border ground, their just claims in regard to 

 their position in the scale of vegetation can only be decided 

 by a species of scientific arbitration. Hitherto too many of 

 the lower lichens have been claimed as fungi. Lichenolo- 

 gists are now making raids among the ranks of the latter, 

 and there is a danger that, in their too eager search for 

 deserters, or animated by a spirit of retaliation, they may 

 seize plants which do not properly belong to them. More- 

 over, it is highly desirable that British microscopists should 

 take up the subject of the minute anatomy of the lichens, 

 and especially of their reproductive organs. With the ex- 

 ception of the elaborate works of Mr. Leighton of Shrewsbury, 

 we have nothing to place in competition with the monographs 

 of Tulasne, Montague, De Notaris, Flotow, Nylander, 

 Massalongo, and other Continental observers. And lastly, I 

 gladly avail myself of the opportunity' of illustrating, in a 

 single small and comparatively unknoAvn genus, the chief 



