70 THE JOURNAL OF BOTANY 



themselves especially to the study of lichens, and collected these 

 little-known plants in all parts of the country. To their labours 

 we owe the discovery of many rare species, and the high position 

 we now hold in lichenology. Charles Larbalestier was a native 

 of Jersey. When, in due course, he entered St. John's College, 

 Cambridge, his love of natural science was already strongly deve- 

 loped, and while still a student he became an associate of the Eay 

 Club, with such well-known men as Sedgwick, J. Couch Adams, 

 and C. C. Babington. After taking his M.A. degree, he went as 

 tutor to reside in Connemara, where he devoted himself specially 

 to the study of lichens, and found many species not only new to 

 Ireland but new to science. Nylander, the great Continental 

 lichenologist, was then at the height of his activity, publishing in 

 Flora from the year 1863 onwards list after list of new European 

 lichens ; and in these the name of Larbalestier continually occurs : 

 the Irish records bear dates from 1870 to 1877. During that 

 time Larbalestier visited the Channel Islands and made useful 

 collections there : between the years 1867 and 1872 he issued his 

 Lichenes Gcesarienses et Sargienses — two hundred and eighty 

 specimens in about six fascicles. He was in close communication 

 with Leighton, who was then preparing the third edition of his 

 Lichen-Flora, and who (in 1879) dedicated the volume to him — 

 " To no one," he writes, " can I more appropriately dedicate this 

 third edition of my Lichen-Flora than to you, whose marvellous 

 researches in the West of Ireland and elsewhere, conducted with 

 consummate skill, zeal, and perseverance, have added so largely 

 to our knowledge, and whose unvarying kindness and friendship 

 in communicating authentic specimens of novelties have rendered 

 me service in the preparation of this work." About this time 

 (1879-81) Larbalestier began to issue his Lichen Herbarium of 

 three hundred and sixty specimens in nine fascicles, collected 

 chiefly in the east and south of England and in West Ireland. In 

 1882 he became a Fellow of the Linnean Society. Leighton 

 dedicated two lichens to him — both unfortunately identical with 

 species already described; a more recent discovery, Microglana 

 Larhalestieri A. L. Sm., will, it is hoped, remain a permanent 

 record in our Lichen Flora. After a period of comparative rest, 

 Larbalestier began again his work of collecting while residing at 

 Cambridge ; he issued in 1896 a fascicle containing thirty-five 

 specimens of ''Lichenes exsiccati circa Cantabrigiam collecti," of 

 which very few copies seem to have been published. In his later 

 years Larbalestier retired to St. Holier, where he died on April 4th, 

 1911. We are indebted to his friend the Eev. E. L. Bloomfield, 

 Eector of Guesthng, near Hastings, for many of the above parti- 

 culars. Larbalestier's own collection of specimens was bought 

 by Mr. Wm. Cadbury for the University of Birmingham ; but 

 during his lifetime he gave freely to his fellow-workers, and many 

 of his specimens included in the lichen herbaria of Joshua, Holl, 

 Pigott, Davies, Crombie, and others have come into the possession 

 of the British Museum. — A. L. S. 



