248 



Mycologia 



curious circumstance of year before last may be cited here. Par- 

 melia rudecta is often found fertile here, P. saxatilis less com- 

 monly, and P. crinita pilo sella almost never. On one tree trunk 

 I found the first named uppermost, the second in its form fur- 

 furacea. Just below, and at the base of the tree, the last, all 

 fertile. Now it will take more than mere argument to convince 

 me that the apothecia or rather thecia of P. crinita pilosella were 

 not adventitious with one or the other of the superior plants re- 

 sponsible. The so-called thecia of Coenogonium belong to Gya- 

 lecta, and I know that the thecia of Thelo schist es parietius and 

 Placodium elegans are conspecific. The hyphema of the lichen 

 thallus may resemble those of the mycelium of fungi, may be 

 fungoid, but the thallus is too much modified structurally and 

 morphologically for the parallel to be more than mere resem- 

 blance. In the lower lichen together with a conspecific thecial 

 character, there may be a conspecific thalline one. I have found 

 Lecanora subfnsca glabra, Conotrema urceolatum and Pertusaria 

 velata growing on the same thallus, and right here is where some 

 investigator can add lustre to his crown of glory. Let him inves- 

 tigate the thalli of the lower lichens and he will find ample proof 

 of the parasitism of the lichen thecia. Lichenist, i, 15. 



Quotation 15 



I send you the reply to the question that you have asked con- 

 cerning the lichens. For me the affirmative answer has not the 

 shadow of a doubt, and it is absolutely impossible that those who 

 have worked up the anatomy of certain of the cryptogams should 

 not be of my opinion. Most of those who desire to unite the 

 lichens with the fungi base their view upon the similarity of 

 fructification in certain species of the two classes ; but the 

 botanists have only considered one side of the question and this 

 not the principal one. Indeed, a plant must exist before produc- 

 ing fruit and not all necessarily fructify at all. It is, therefore, 

 the means of existence of the lichens, that is to say its thallus, 

 that must be examined first of all. It is in the thallus, moreover, 

 that the consortium, composed of the two elements is found. 

 Therefore, the structure of the thallus, and especially that of its 

 cortex, is entirely different from that of the fungi. The lichens 



