NOTE FISHES. 299 



It is more difficult to say what is the ' olivacea ' of Leighton's 

 ' Lichen Flora,' so far as English plants are concerned. The stations 

 given for it on the testimony of others may be passed over ; but he 

 records its occurrence in several places in Shropshire on his own 

 authority. Now, as all the other forms then gathered in Britain 

 appear under separate names, with the exception of subaiirifera^ which 

 perhaps he referred to fuliginosa on the strength of the reaction with 

 Ca.CL, there actually remains nothing to which it can have any 

 reference. It is most likely, however, that these Shropshire plants 

 are corticolous (?) forms of prolixa ; and if this conjecture be 

 true, it will perhaps account for the words ' smooth .... 

 sometimes varnished' in the diagnosis he gives ('Lich. Flora', 

 3rd ed., p. 114). 



In endeavouring to utilise old records of ' olivacea' for the 

 purpose of studying the distribution of the various species, regard 

 must, of course, be paid to the date of the record and to the author 

 followed by the person recording the plant. I am afraid, however, 

 that in most instances it will be quite impossible to determine 

 accurately the plant unless access can be got to specimens in some 

 herbarium. 



Having thus somewhat cursorily considered the history of this 

 group of plants, I w^ould only further say that there is perhaps no 

 group of lichens of which the species are more easily determinable, 

 or which have so little tendency to run into one another. The 

 question whether they should be considered distinct species or as 

 varieties of one polymorphous plant, is one that each person will 

 decide with reference to his own notions of the nature of species and 

 varieties. We must remember, however, in respect to this, that not 

 only have they each a fixed external character, but that the spores 

 and spermatia differ in each, and to some extent the thalline structure. 

 In fact except in colour they differ from each other in almost every 

 character, and it seems to me that they are more distinct from each 

 other than many species of moss genera, say Sphag?iiLin or Andrecea 

 or Hypniim, or of genera of phanerogams, say Thalictrum or Fota- 

 viogeton or Carex, not to mention J^osa, Riibtis, or Salix. 



NOTE— FISHES. 



Whitby Fish-notes. — On the 22nd November, 18S6, two Ballan Wrasse 

 {Labrtis maculattts Bl.) were brought into Whitby, the largest of a green colour, 

 the smallest deep reddish brown. 



Yesterday (September 22nd), three of our fishermen caught a small specimen 

 of the Short Sunfish {Orthagorisciis mola) on the top of the water outside the Rock 

 Buoy off AVhitby. I have not yet obtained its dimensions. — Thos. Stephenson, 

 Whitby, 23rd September, 1887. 



Oct. 1887. 



