Fink: Composition of a Desert Lichen Flora 103 

 Conclusion 



This brief study of the ecologic relations of some desert lichens 

 should be of special interest, since it is the first one to appear. 

 The workers in ecology have very largely confined their atten- 

 tion to seed-plants, but there is certainly a problem of great 

 interest in the study of ecologic distribution of lichens in the 

 desert as well as elsewhere. The writer has been at the dis- 

 advantage of not being able to see the field, and had it not been 

 for the painstaking manner in which Mr. Spalding answered all 

 inquiries and the careful collecting and note-taking of Mr. Blumer, 

 the results herein presented would not have been possible. The 

 writer realizes very fully that there are other problems con- 

 cerning the distribution of lichens in the area herein considered, 

 doubtless of as great importance as the ones discussed or sug- 

 gested herein, that would present themselves during the progress 

 of a study of the problem in the field. 



While the writer was studying the ecologic problems, a number 

 of the lichens collected were sent by him to Mr. Theodor Hed- 

 lund and to Mr. A. Zahlbruckner in Europe for aid in the taxo- 

 nomic study. Thanks are due to both of these gentlemen for 

 their aid in the work. Six new species and one new subspecies 

 result from the work of Zahlbruckner (see Bull. Torr. Club 

 35: 297-300. Je 1908). 



Miami University, 

 Oxford, Ohio. 



