LICHENS AND FUNGI OF OTAGO, NEW ZEALAND. 441 



have found also on the apothecia ofvar.frazinea, L. (of E. calicaris), rendering them 

 black-punctate, on specimens in the Hookerian Herbarium, Kew, from Conception, 

 Chili. 



Sp. 4. M. vermicularia, Linds. (sub nom. Lecidea, Mem. Spermog. p. 143, plate v. 



tigs. 19, 24, and 25). 



Parasitic on the thallus of Thamnolia vermicularis, Schser. (specimens, as 

 usual, sterile, bearing neither apothecia nor spermogones) ; Tarndale Mountains, 

 Nelson ; Dr Andrew Sinclair. 



I did not find this Lichen in Otago ; but I have no doubt it occurs in the 

 central and western alps, which I had no opportunity of visiting. 



In New Zealand specimens the parasite exists only in a degenerate or 

 abortive state. It occurs as very minute microscopic), black, punctiform, im- 

 mersed perithecia, which sometimes become elongated or variously difform; under 

 moisture assuming a brown tint and sub-corneous aspect. The envelope or wall 

 of the cpnceptacle consists of brown, minute, closely aggregated cells ; as do the 

 perithecia of all the allied Microthelice (figs. 26, 46) ; but it contains no spores. 

 The plant is, however, so similar otherwise to the parasite, which occurs abund- 

 antly in a fertile or normal state on the same Thamnolia, in the Falkland Islands, 

 that I have little difficulty as to its identification. 



M. vermicularia diverges — as does also M. Ramalinaria — from ordinary 

 types of the genus, in so far as the perithecia are not papillseform and epithalline, 

 but wholly immersed. In other respects, their characters are those of Micro- 

 thelia, though they have, I think, equal claims to rank as Fungi. 



These two species, moreover, are of interest as types of a group of parasites on 

 the thallus or apothecia of Lichens, whose true position or affinities are not at 

 present thoroughly understood or recognised, because, as a group, it has never 

 been made the subject, as it deserves, of special study. Hitherto these parasites 

 have been by myself, as well as other Lichenologists, classed, though provisionally, 

 with Lichens ; but I feel, and have always felt, that they have probably at least 

 equal claims to be considered Fungi, and that, as such, they should be made the 

 subject of a mutual re-examination and arrangement by and between Licheno- 

 logists and Fungologists. I refer to such parasites as the following, described 

 or mentioned in my "Memoir on Spermogones :" # — 



1. Lecidea obscuroides, Linds. (Spermog. 247; plate xiii. figs. 36-8; Mudd, 

 212). Parasitic on the thallus of a leprose form of Physcia obscura, Ehrh. 



2. L. Alectorice, Linds. (Sperm, p. 135 ; plate i. figs. 12-13). Parasitic on the 



* Compare also the species of the genus Microthelia, Kbrb., and certain species of the genus 

 Thelidium, Mass, as described by Mudd (Manual, pp. 306 and 298) ; as well as certain species of the 

 genera Tichothecium, Fw., and Endococcus, Nyl.) 



