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XXX. — Observations on New Lichens and Fungi collected in Otago, New Zealand. 

 By W. Lauder Lindsay, M.D., F.L.S., Honorary Fellow of the Philosophical 

 Institute of Canterbury, New Zealand. (Plates XXIX., XXX.) 



(Read 2d January 1866.) 



INTRODUCTION. 



In 1861, in a part of the province of Otago, New Zealand, not previously 

 botanically explored, I made, among other botanical collections,* one of Lichens 

 and Fungi. The number of new species and varieties proved to be considerable, 

 amounting to about 20 per cent, of the whole lichens, and 40 per cent, of the whole 

 fungi, collected. Since my return home, I have submitted ^with a view specially 

 to the study of the minute anatomy of the reproductive organs and their contents) 

 the new species (and varieties) in question— some of them repeatedly — to micro- 

 scopical examination : the results whereof are contained in the notes which 

 follow. 



I hold that he only is fully competent to determine and describe species from 

 new countries, who, in addition to the requisite analytical and descriptive power, 

 has, on the one hand, constant access to, and an intimate knowledge of, the now 

 overwhelming and ever-increasing mass of Botanical Literature in all the principal 

 European languages; and, on the other, equally habitual access to Herbaria 

 which contain the largest collections of specimens from all parts of the world, 

 such, for instance, as those of Kew or Paris. By no other means does it appear 

 possible now-a-days accurately to ascertain or distinguish what is new from what 

 is already known in the plant-world. This virtually restricts systematic and 

 descriptive botany to the Naturalists of London or Paris, or of similar centres of 

 botanical knowledge ; and as virtually excludes Provincial Botanists, who are 

 isolated from the sources of the necessary fundamental information. It were 

 easy for a collector or observer in a new field to name and describe, what to him- 

 self, according to his limited opportunities forjudging, appears to be new. But if 

 he do so, however otherwise qualified, without that knowledge, which can, 

 generally speaking, only be acquired in the Botanical Libraries, and from the 

 Herbaria, of the largest European cities, he cannot fail to add to the confusion of 

 synonyms, and impede the true progress of botanical discovery and science, by 



* Vide " Contributions to the Flora of Otago, New Zealand : " Transactions of Botanical 

 Society of Edinburgh, vol. viii. p. 250: and "List of Lichens collected in Otago, New Zealand," 

 ibid. p. 349. 



VOL. XXIV. PART II. 5 S 



