20 PROGRESS OF MICROSCOPICAL SCIENCE. 



draw a number of importaut conclusions, and to examine some of tlie 

 most fundamental questions of biology from a new and independent 

 point of view." 



LecicJea or Lecanora Malfsii f — Tbis would appear to be a question 

 wbicb, though requiring some investigation, has nevertheless been 

 decided. The Eev. J. M. Crombie appears to have hit upon the proper 

 soliation of the question. He says, in ' Grevillea,' that in the 'Annals 

 of the Penzance Nat. Hist. Society,' 1853, II., p. 154, there occurs 

 the following notice of a supposed new species : — No. 34. Lecidea, 

 nova species, gathered with Mr. Ealfs at Lamorna. " This is hitherto 

 a unique specimen, though I hope Mr. Ealfs will be able to find 

 more of it. It consists of a thin, closely-pressed, crustaceous thallus, 

 of a dusky-gi'een colour, with irregular warty protuberances and flat- 

 tened scales intermixed. The apothecia, which are extremely minute, 

 have scarcely any border, and are of a dull reddish-brown. Some of 

 them are of a dull fawn-colour ; but this appears to be an older state, 

 in which the disk has been worn away, leaving the pale colour of the 

 aj)othecium visible. Should it prove to be, as I believe it, unde- 

 scribed, I would venture to call it Lecidea Balfsii, from its discoverer. 

 The plant so named provisionally does not appear, at least under 

 the proposed name, in any subsequent list of British lichens. Its 

 identification is therefore a matter not simply of curiosity, but of 

 importance. Did Salwey rightly conjecture that it was a new species, 

 or is the name proposed merely another synonyme of one previously 

 described ? From authentic information recently obtained from Mr. 

 Wm. Curnow, of Penzance, I believe that I am now in a position fully 

 to identify this plant, and, as will be seen from what follows, it has a 

 rather singular and interesting history. Several months ago I received 

 from the above gentleman two specimens of Lecidea 3Iuddii, Salw., to 

 ray great delight, as no British lichenist, save Messrs. Mudd and 

 Salwey, would seem ever to have seen this lichen, nor does it appear 

 amongst the large collection of British lichens from the latter gentle- 

 man in the herbarium of the British Museum. On first examination 

 the sj^ecimens thus received seemed to agree sufficiently well in all 

 respects with that plant as described in ' Mudd Man.,' p. 178, sub 

 Biatorina, and I took it for granted that they undoubtedly belonged 

 to the desiderated Lecidea Mnddii, Salw. (' Mudd Man.,' I. c), Cromb. 

 Emun., p. 74, Leight. Lich. Fl., p. 315. The receipt, however, of 

 several other specimens, with the apothecia iu various stages of de- 

 velopment, led me to hesitate somewhat as to the identity. This 

 arose from the circumstance that one or two of the younger apothecia 

 had a distinct though evanescent ihalline margin. A more accurate 

 microscopical examination revealed also that the hypothecium was 

 moderate rather than thin, and nearly colourless rather than pale hrown, 

 as Mr. Mudd describes it — a discrepancy, however, which can easily 

 be otherwise accounted for, as the apothecia iu the specimen examined 

 by Mr. Mudd were most probably old ones. On sending a specimen 

 to Dr. Nylander for his opinion, he wrote in reply that the plant was 

 a true Lecanora, and that if not the veritable Lecidea Mnddii, it was 



