194 



Memoir on the Spermogones and Pycnides of Filament- 

 ous, Fruticulose, and Foliaceous Lichens. By W. 

 Lauder Lindsay, M.D., F.L.S. 



This very able and laborious memoir was published in the 

 1 Transactions ' of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, and we 

 call the attention of our readers to it, as affording by far the 

 most exhaustive account yet published of the minute struc- 

 ture of the lichens. Dr. Lindsay, in his papers in this 

 Journal, on the genus Abrothalhis, and on the structure of 

 Lecidea lugubris (vol. v), commenced that line of investiga- 

 tion, which he has carried out in this memoir to a large 

 section of the whole family of lichens. In his introduction, 

 the author draws attention to some of the difficulties which 

 impede the progress of the inquirer in the path he has 

 chosen for investigation. 



1 ' Spermogonological investigations are surrounded by many 

 and serious difficulties ; and it is, perhaps, but justice to 

 those botanists who have hitherto avoided the study of the 

 reproductive organs of lichens here to state what some of 

 these difficulties or obstacles are. Prior to the introduction 

 of the microscope, bodies so minute as spermogones and 

 spermatia could not possibly have been properly studied. 

 But even at the present day, when microscopes abound, it 

 is to be feared that few of our best licheuologists are well 

 versed in histology and the use of the microscope. It can 

 scarcely be denied, further, that many botanists have been 

 too much mere classificators or name-givers; they have 

 devoted attention too exclusively to the discrimination of 

 species and varieties, to the neglect of minute anatomy and 

 physiology, as studied by the aid of microscopy and che- 

 mistry. Continental botanists are infinitely before us in the 

 latter respect; we can show little or nothing in botanical 

 microscopy comparable with the productions of the French 

 school of observers, as published in the ' Annales dcs Sciences 

 Naturelles/ or to those of the German school, as given in the 

 ' Botanische Zeitung.' But the possession of a good micro- 

 scope, facility in microscopical manipulation, and a fami- 

 liarity with the general principles or facts of physiological 

 botany, are not the only requisites or qualifications for in- 

 vestigations in spcrmogonology. The observer must be pos- 

 sessed of unwearied patience and perseverance ; he must 

 expect to meet, and he must bring to his task a deter- 

 mination to surmount and conquer, endless difficulties 

 and disappointments. I have now examined carefully, 



