412 PROCEEDINGS OF SECT1''N D. 



third of the lichens are commou to it and Queensland ; and in 

 New Caledonia nearly one-half. 



Taking Tuckerman's "North American Lichens" as our guide, 

 one-seventh of the species reported from the northern half of the 

 new world are included in the Queensland lists, showing a much 

 closer affinity than in the case of I"iUroj)ean countries in the same 

 l-atitude. But if we turn to South America the points of agreement 

 become very remarkable when we consider the 8,000 miles of sea 

 that intervene between Australia and the western coast of South 

 America. In a list given by Nylander of the lichens of New 

 Grenada rather less than one-third of the species are to be found 

 in Queensland ; and in Leightons "Lichenes Andini et x\.mazonici" 

 the species common to the opposite Pacific shores slightly exceed 

 one-third. Krempelhuber's •' Lichenes Argentinenses " show a 

 similar ratio of agreement, while in lists by Miiller Aargau of 

 lichens from Paraguay and Brazil the number of species inhabit- 

 ing Queensland and reported from each of the eastern countries of 

 South America rises to over 50 per cent, of the whole. 



For the remarkable coincidences between the lichen floras of 

 Queensland and the South American continent I am unable lo 

 offer any sound explanation, as countries lying within similar 

 distance of the equator in Asia, and having the same climatic 

 conditions, rarely show an equal amount of agreement in the 

 species of lichens contributed, although the phanerogamic floras 

 are more extensively allied ; yet it is w'orthy of note that Krempel- 

 huber's study of lichens from the Sandwich Islands, and Jean 

 Mijller's determination of similar plants from the Society Islands, 

 show that tliese groups, lying midway between Australia and 

 America, have lichen floras Avith strong affinities to those of both 

 neighboring continents. This remarkable similarity betw^een the 

 lichens of Queensland and those of the southern portion of South 

 America gives additional weight to the gradually increasing belief 

 that a land connection once existed between Australia and South 

 America, and probably since Eocene times. New Zealand could 

 have formed no part of the Antarctica of that day, but was rather 

 an outlying and distant island oft' its coast. The evidence of the 

 lichen floras of Paraguay and Brazil points rather to a connection 

 wdth the southern end of South America than with any part of the 

 coasts i<f Chili, Peru, or New Grenada. 



Many lichens are wonderfully cosmopolitan in range, as the 

 peculiar plant Myriangium Dur>m, once regarded as a fungus, hut 

 now known to be a pyrenocarpous lichen ; ThamnoUa verni'culans, 

 a lichen whose apothecia have yet to be discovered, and whose 

 soft, pale, worm-like stems readily separate it from its allies. 

 Other world-wide forms are PanvcUa perforata, P. perlata, and 

 P. saxatilis; the golden-crusted ^Jm/j^/7oma murorum ; Lecannra 

 atra, and L. subfusc i ; Lecldea coujluens ; Buellia saxatilis and 

 B. parasema ; and Graphis scriptn. Not one pyrene- fruited 



