144 DR LAUDER LINDSAY ON THE SPERMOGONES AND PYCNIDES 
the name of Lecidea vermicularia. It closely resembles, in external aspect, the 
parasitic Lecidea alectoriw, which inhabits the thallus of Alectoria Taylori, whose 
spores, however, are 3-septate. 
Specimen 3.— Falkland Islands; Dr Hooker; in Herb. Hooker, Kew. A few 
thalli bear the parasite above described. Its spores are soleeform, resembling 
those of L. Smithii, about ;,,,th to ;5,th long by ,7,th broad. 
Specimen 4.—Var. taurica, which is merely a short, turgid, spermogoniferous 
form, as described in No.1; Cairngorm, Aberdeenshire Highlands ; in Herb. 
Hooker, Kew; in very large handsome patches. There are here associated both 
soredic and spermogonal warts: the former can at once be distinguished, on 
microscopic examination, from young spermogonal warts, where spermatia occur ; 
but when the spermogones are old, as in this case, the distinction becomes very 
difficult. Here the spermogonal warts are comparatively large, and resemble 
the young apothecia of Lecanora parella somewhat. They have a distinct, ring- 
like margin, and a pale brown, disk-like ostiole, which becomes semi-pellucid on 
being moistened. In the young state they are mere thalline papilla, with a 
brown apex, which is the round ostiole. An annotator in Herb. Hooker remarks, 
in regard to these warts, of date 1810, [probably Dr TurNER ],—“‘ Can this be the 
fruit of Beomyces vermicularis? Hurtron had two or three morsels besides; but 
I. could not get more from him, as he had promised them to Mr Gisporne. I[ 
thought the best of them looked much like the tubercles of B. roseus.” It is 
most interesting to note here the association of this species under, or in, the 
genus Bwomyces ; for the spermogones of Thamnolia and Beomyces, as I have 
already pointed out, bear a marked resemblance. In my researches I have con- 
stantly been struck with the extreme accuracy of the older lichenologists, an 
accuracy remarkable in the absence of that now all-important aid to the ob- 
server, the microscope. It has been customary to decry the classifications of the 
older authors on lichenology, and to abolish their nomenclature; but I do not 
hesitate to avow my preference both for their classification and nomenclature, as 
contrasted, at least, with the modern systems of the German school, if, at all events, 
we may take the monographs of Bayruorrer and Korper as types or speci- 
mens thereof! In addition to the soredic and spermogonal warts above described, 
there occasionally, though more seldom, occur warts which appear to be bullosities 
of the thallus,—large, very rugose, and irregular ; they are dotted over with black, 
punctiform bodies, which, though I have not detected in them the characteristic 
spores, I have no hesitation in referring to my L. vermicularia. 
I have found spermogonal warts in specimens collected by myself on Lochna- 
gar, Cairngorm, and Ben M‘Dhui, Braemar ; on Ben Lawers, Perthshire; and on 
the Dovrefjeld range of mountains in Norway. I have also met with them occa- 
sionally in the following valuable suite of specimens contained in the Hookerian 
Herbarium at Kew :— 

