THE BRYOLOGIST. 
Vol. VII. 
March, 1904. 
No. 2. 
FURTHER NOTES ON CLADONIAS. 
Cladonia fimbriata. 
Bruce Fink. 
It is the intention in the present paper to follow out, with reference to a 
single species, the work begun in a previous number of the Bryologist, 
(6:2.1903). With all due respect to the labors of the noted American lich- 
enist, Tuckerman, it must be apparent to all who have attempted to use his 
diagnoses of American Cladonias as aids in determination, that they are too 
brief and indefinite. Tuckerman recognizes in his manual just two varieties 
of Cladonia fimbriata , disposes of the species in a half page, and giVes not 
the slightest hint that the forms are extremely varied and difficult to deter- 
mine. This view is all that could be expected from one who was a pioneer 
in the study of American lichens, and much as Tuckerman has done for 
American iichenology, we can not afford to do otherwise than pass beyond 
his results as rapidly as may be with some adequate degree of certainty. 
In passing beyond the Tuckermanian view, we have been so fortunate 
as to have the aid of Dr. E. Wainio, and we now have his view of more than 
two hundred specimens of American Cladonias , which the writer has sent to 
him from time to time. Attention was directed to the extremely great amount 
of variation in forms of Cladonia fimbriata years ago in work in the field, and 
an especial effort was made to obtain all of the forms possible. But it was 
only by a careful study of the species, as viewed by Dr. Wainio, and set forth 
in great detail in one hundred and three pages of his monograph of the genus 
Cladonia, that the present writer began to realize something of the difficulties 
to be encountered in the attempt to gain anything like an adequate knowledge 
of the species. In Wainio’s monograph, sixteen varieties and a very large num- 
ber of subvarieties and forms are recognized. We have not been able to see 
the subvarietal distinctions in some instances even with specimens which have 
passed through Dr. Wainio's hands before us, and so it is not deemed wise 
to burden these pages with them. However, though we may not be able to 
follow the specialist in the genus into all of the intricacies of the most 
minute and discriminating observations, we can at least improve matters 
somewhat, and perhaps as much as is desirable, by attempting somewhat 
brief and yet sufficiently definite descriptions of the twelve varieties which 
are well known to exist in North America. 
By giving figures of our more common forms with the descriptions, it is 
hoped that the student of lichens will not confuse the varieties and assign 
them to other species so frequently as has been done in the past. The fig- 
ures are not in this instance all from plants examined by Dr. Wainio, two 
or three of them having been selected from other specimens which seem to 
The January Bryologist was issued January 12th, iqo4. 
