514 DR LAUDER LINDSAY ON NEW LICHENICOLOUS MICRO-FUNGT. 



lichen ologists — I can no longer hesitate in contributing to botanical science the 

 following observations on the structure and place in classification of the Micro- 

 Parasites referred to. 



In the earlier years of my lichenological studies, I examined microscopically, 

 with the greatest minuteness, large numbers of lichens for different collectors, from 

 various parts of Britain and Ireland. I gave much more attention to the con- 

 tents of other Herbaria than to those of my own ; and to this circumstance, along 

 with my reluctance to describe and name " new species" — a hesitancy to " rush 

 into print" with accounts of mere novelties, real or supposed — I owe the fact 

 that many of my own gatherings in different parts of the world — many of the 

 original observations recorded in my MSS. — have been published to science, with 

 the stamp and eclat of novelty, by other — mostly continental — lichenologists. 

 This, however, I do not regard as subject for regret. Much more important than 

 the mere discovery and nomenclature of so-called "new species" — only a small 

 proportion of which has any claim to pe?'ma?ient rank as species— is, I think, the 

 proper classification of existing material, so as to render additions to our know- 

 ledge capable at once of estimation at their proper value, and of absorption and 

 assimilation in their proper place. So far as regards descriptive or systematic 

 lichenology, my own aim has always been and still is to arrange on a simple 

 plan of classification the data already accumulated, so that they may be readily 

 accessible and intelligible to the student. My own studies in lichenology are and 

 have been preferentially biological; regarding as I do questions affecting (e.g.) the 

 physiology and anatomy, affinities and uses, of lichens as of higher interest than 

 the mere collection and nomenclature of varieties or species ! 



The lichenicolous parasites above-mentioned are partly of the character of 

 true lichens, partly of true fungi; while many partake of, or possess, the characters 

 both of lichens and fungi, and can be appropriately referred only to the inter- 

 mediate group of fungo-lichens* In the present communication I confine myself 

 to the two last-named groups — to Parasites which are either true fungi or fungo- 

 lichens. All of them require for proper examination the microscope, and most 

 of them are distinguishable only under the lens. Very few, such as Coniothecium 

 sometimes, are sufficiently large to be visible to the naked eye. All are rendered 

 more conspicuous by moisture, which frequently converts punctiform into papillae- 

 form perithecia, and flat surfaces into convex ones. 



In determining the genera under which to arrange the parasites hereinafter 

 to be described, I have availed myself of the opinion, kindly accorded, of two of 

 the most competent British Fungologists, who have at various times examined 

 certain of the said parasites at my request, viz., Rev. M. J. Berkeley, F.L.S., 

 and Fred. Currey, F.R.S. While agreeing with these distinguished fungologists 



* Vide Author's " Otago Lichens and Fungi," p. 434, and Arthonia melaspermella, Journal 

 of Linnean Society (Botany), vol. ix. p. 269. 



