74 
NEW AND RARE BRITISH FUNGI. 
226. Sphaeirella uliginosa, Ph. & PL 
Perithecia punctiform, seated upon bleached spots on the living 
leaves ; asci clavato-cylindrical, *06 X '02 mm. ; sporidia brown, 
triseptate, lanceolate, acute, slightly curved, having one joint often 
slightly swollen, *03--035 X ’01- '012 mm. 
On living leaves of Stellaria uliginosa. Forres, 1881. Rev. J. 
Keith. 
SYMBOLS LICHENO-MYCOLOGICiE. 
By Dr. Minks.* 
Dr. Minks, the author of this work, has set forth his views on 
the morphology and physiology of lichens in the “ Flora ” for 1878 
and in bis book “ Das Microgonidium,” to which the attention of 
the readers of “ Grevillea ” has already been called. f It is to be 
regretted that no sufficiently competent Lichenologist possessing a 
knowledge of the German language has come, forward to place 
Dr. Minks’s views before an English speaking public in more 
detail and completeness than has hitherto been done, for it is only 
fair to him that views so subversive of the hitherto received 
notions should be brought fully before the critical attention of the 
English student, that they may stand or fall by their own merits. 
Dr. Minks himself affirms that without the aid of his figures 
much that he has written will be difficult to understand. This 
much, however, is clear, that he finds minute bodies in the tissues 
of lichens, which he calls “microgonidia,” to which he assigns 
high physiological value, that they exist throughout the vegetative 
and reproductive parts, being present in the hyphse, the gonidia, 
the cortical layer, the various component parts of the apothecia — 
the paraphyses, the asci, and the sporidia. " Each tissue contains 
in its cells at least one microgonidium ; ” that owing to their 
number and arrangement in the cells, it is that the cells may be 
either green or colourless, which depends simply on optical condi- 
tions. These microgonidia can be seen by the aid of Hatnack’s 
No. VIII. microscope, with 2, 3, and 4 eyepieces, and No. IX. 
immersion object-glass. In the work, the title of which is given 
above, he discards the hitherto accepted criterion between lichens 
and fungi, namely, the absence or presence of gonidia in their 
substance, and substitutes the presence or absence of these micro- 
gonidia, which he considers a much more valuable test. Dr. 
Nylander asserts that the bodies Dr. Minks has under view are 
nothing more than the “molecular granulations” long since 
known to the students of Vegetable Anatomy, and have no special 
relation to gonidia or their origin. In this opinion the Rev. M. J. 
Cromby fully concurs. If this be the case, the criterion advocated 
* “Symbolse Licheno-Mycologicae.” Beitraga zur Kenntniss der 
Grenzen Zwischen Fletchten und Pitzen, von Dr. Arthur Minks. Erster 
Theil. Kassel, 1881. 
f “Grevillea,” Vol. xii., p. 89, 118 and 143 ; also Vol. ix., p. 34 and p. 48. 
