DR. LINDSAY ON NEW-ZEALAND LICHENS. . 527 
barbata : at least I know of no essential distinction between them. The branches are 
long, plicate, slender, with long, delicate cross fibres, as in florida. The apothecia are 
very large, but the spores very small, :0002" long, -00016" broad, oval or subspherical ; 
thecæ 0010” to 0013” long. 
Throughout all the Usne@ I have examined, from every part of the world, there is 
great general uniformity as to the characters of the apothecia and spermogones, spores 
and spermatia. The variations of the thallus, however, are infinite, and set at defiance 
all efforts of the systematist to limit and define their species and varieties. I have no 
doubt the present number of book species and varieties is unnecessarily and improperly 
numerous, being capable of reduction, with advantage, to one or two great types, such 
as U. barbata. 
Genus XI. Nzgvnorocow, Nees and Flot. (Plate LXI.) 
Sp. 1. N. MELAXANTHUS, Ach. (Fig. 28.) [Linds. Spermog. 125; Usnea, Bab. L. N. Z.) 
Dun Mountain, Nelson (elevation 3000 feet), in fruit: in herbarium of Dr. Sinclair, at 
Auckland (Dr. Monro). Probably also from the Alps of Nelson, Hermite Island, Cape 
Horn, and Falkland Islands (Dr. Hooker, Antarct. Exped.): all in herbarium Kew. Spores 
(a, e) oblong-oval, simple, colourless, margined in maturity, somewhat variable as to 
size, sometimes much intermixed with oil-globules (e). Thecæ (d) shortish, subsaccate, 
blue with iodine, 8-spored.  Paraphyses (b) indistinct ; tips pale brown in some spe- 
eimens, in others deep indigo-blue—a colour which, in the same specimens, pervades the 
hymenium (b, c). The spores are those of Usnea barbata : the plant has the general 
aspect of an Usnea ; and I am not convinced of the propriety or necessity of dissociating 
it from that genus. It is a stout, shrubby, handsome plant, whose peculiar aspect 1s 
due to its arctic and antarctic distribution. 
Var. ciliatus, Nyl. L. N. Z. 245. (Fig. 27.) 
Tarndale, NES Dr. (Sinclair) : nr herbarium. He (a, b, c) sree pond = 
spherical, somewhat irregular in form (a), “0003” long, "0002 broad ; spp : = 
racters they correspond with those of the type and with those of Usnea barba > : iby 
also the thecæ and other constituents of the hymenium. Spermogones ha pri : 
ated on or in the thickened black tips of the ramuscles and SE di * d 
Matia (d,e) straight rods, generally about 0003" long, and ‘00005 à Ber n. 
Variable, however, as to length, sometimes only half-length (e), as A y "rom 
divided, like 1-septate spores, into two. Sterigmata short, about ‘0006 o asd 
Subsimple. I cannot see in what respect this variety differs from = doti E 
11 à series of antarctic specimens in my herbarium ; = apothecia iin V spermego- 
© Same; yet Nylander says it is perhaps à distinct species. air, TINA 
uferous tips of the ramuscles and apothecial cilia, hitherto pude forms of Ù. bar- 
teristic of N. melaxanthus, occur occasionally in southern ane Aka fin which, more- 
la (e.g. Auckland New-Zealand specimens of var. en e 
Yer, in general aspect most nearly approaches N. melavanthus). 
