Lichenes.~\ 



FLORA OF NEW ZEALAND. 



269 



to be a very flaccid and slender form of U. plicata ; the apothecia are absent. Among the more notable forms is 

 the var. rubiginea, remarkable for its bright red hue, especially after being moistened, and which is probably wholly 

 due to damp after drying, for certain states of V. melaxantlia change in the same manner if long exposed to mois- 

 ture after preservation in a dry state; some specimens, again, approach var. strigosa, Ach. {U. strigosa, Pers.), but 

 are less strigose than the South American form. Most Hellenists are now agreed in uniting all or a considerable 

 number of the Acharian species of European Usnece ; for example, MM. Fries, Schasrer, Eschweiler, Wallroth, and 

 Sir W. J. Hooker and Dr. Hooker among our countrymen. Dr. Montagne, however, in his learned labours on the 

 Lichens of the Canary Islands, and on those of the South Polar regions, has kept several of them apart, and minutely 

 pointed out their supposed differences. Mr. Tuckermann also, as well as Dr. Montagne, has contended for the dis- 

 tinctness of U. ceratina, Ach. Forms of this species occur in every part of the globe, and are greatly modified by 

 climatic causes ; some, indeed, are evidently wholly dependent on temperature and humidity for the size and appear- 

 ance they assume. 



2. Usnea cmgulata, Ach., Syn. p. 307. Hook. fil. el Twyl. Lich. Ant. in Lond. Journ. Bot. v. 3. p. 

 658. 



Hab. Northern Island, /. B. II., Sinclair. (Barren.) 



This seems to be distinct from the preceding, and always to have an angular stem ; but it cannot, I think, 

 safely be disunited from U. longissima, Aeh. (considered by Eschweiler and Schserer as a form of the U. barbata, 

 Fries), which differs only in a somewhat less angular and pulverulent stem. I am indebted to M. Eeichenbach for 

 a specimen of each species. Dr. Taylor, forgetting that Acharius had described this plant, published his U. angu- 

 lata as a new species, and chanced to give it the same specific name that Acharius had done. U. cmgulata occurs in 

 North America and Tasmania, and the form V. longissima in North and South America (Brazil), in Europe (rarely), 

 in Cappadocia (Tuckermann), and the Himalaya Mountains (Winterbottom !), the Cape, fertile (Tuckermann), Aus- 

 tralia (Tuckermann), and Tasmania. 



3. Usnea melaxantlia, Ach., Syn. p. 303. Fl. Antarct.p. 250. 



Hab. Northern Island, on the mountains, Colenso. Barren. (Setaceous, very dark form.) 

 For the synonyms and geographical distribution see ' Flora Antarctica,' pp. 519-21. U. Taylori, Hook. ! 1. c. 

 p. 521, is perhaps only a very fine state of this plant ; it is, as Dr. Montagne informs me, identical with Neuropogon 

 Pceppigii, Nees. U. spJiacelata, E. Brown !, should rather be considered as a form of U. Taylori than of U. me- 

 laxantlia. The spores of the U. melaxantlia have now at last been found by Dr. Montagne. Dr. Hooker sus- 

 pects that this species, different as it usually is from our first species, may nevertheless be a form of it ; it is not 

 always easy to distinguish them. 



Gen. II. EVERNIA, Ach. 



1. Evernia ochroleuca, Fries, Lich. Eur. p. 22. Cornicularia, Ach. 



Hab. Northern and Middle Islands, Colenso, Bidwill. Barren. (Typical form.) 



Var. crinalis, Fries (Alectoria crinalis, Ach.), is mentioned by A. Richard as a New Zealand species, 

 found by D'Urville. 



For the geographical distribution see my remarks in Seemann's 'Botany of the Herald,' p. 47. 



2. Evernia fiavicans, Fries, Lich. Bur. p. 28. Borrera, Ach. Parmelia Sieberiana, Law. ! in Linncea, 

 1827. p. 38. t. l.f. 1. 



Hab. Northern Island, Colenso. Barren. (Brightly coloured, glabrous form.) 



Found in Western Europe, very rarely fertile (fruit seen in Guernsey by Mrs. Collings, and in Cornwall by 

 Mr. Greenwood and others) ; in North America (Ohio), and South America (Brazil), Ascension, the Canaries, 

 vol. ii. 3 z 



