THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 199 



NOTES ON LICHENS. 



No. 2. 



By Rev. F. R. M. Wilson, Kevi% 



(Read be/ore the Field Naturalists' Club of Victoria, i^th 

 February, \%%%.) 



In the paper which I read before the Club last August I gave a 

 few hints which I thought might be useful to those who should 

 wish to collect and study lichens. I will now suppose that the 

 student has gone out into the country and has collected a few 

 of the commoner kinds, and has fastened them, as I suggested, 

 with strong glue on a piece of writing paper, on which he has 

 written a note of the particulars of collection. He wishes now 

 to know their names. Well, I think there is something more 

 important than this. To name them is to give a beginner no 

 knowledge whatever. He needs to have some acquaintance 

 with the differences of the genera in order to understand what 

 is meant by the generic name. And the specific name serves 

 only to identify our specimens with species previously collected 

 and described by others. Let us examine the specimens and 

 compare them with one another and note their differences, with 

 a view to their classification. This will give real knowledge. 



When I began to collect lichens, with the help of " Leighton's 

 Lichen Flora," I classified my specimens according to their 

 general appearance, which I found was modified by the way in 

 which they attach themselves to the rock, or tree, or earth on 

 which they grow — i. Those that are lengthened out, like 

 shoots of trees. 2. Those that are flattened out, like leaves. 3. 

 Those that cling closely — so closely often as to seem to be 

 mere weather stains. I made three receptacles, therefore, 

 which I labelled " shoot-like," " leaf-like," and " stain-like," 

 and divided my specimens accordingly. This was my first 

 rough classification, which had, of course, to be afterwards 

 supplemented and modified as my knowledge of lichens 

 increased. But I found it to be a good working classification 

 for a beginner. 



As I went on collecting, I found I had further to distin- 

 guish : — I. Firstly, among those that are lengthened out, 

 between the upright, shoot-like lichens, that grow chiefly on 

 the ground, and the hanging, branch-like ones, that grow 

 chiefly on rocks a-ld trees. Lichenologists dignify these 

 families by the name Cladodei, shoot-like, from the Greek 

 dados, a shoot, and eidos, like ; and Ramalodei, branch-like, from 

 the Latin ramale, a branch. 2. Then, secondly, among those 

 that are flattened out I found some which were very noticeably 

 gelatinous. This was most marked when they were wet. And 

 by this gelatinous character, which allies them to the algse, 



