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THE TREATMENT OF LICHENS IN ^^THE GENERA OF FUNGI.” 
Bruce Fink. 
Dr. Clements’ volume “The Genera of Fungi is well known to myco- 
logists, but little has been stated regarding the treatment of lichens in 
this work. Though few botanists favor the distribution of lichens made by 
Dr. Clements, excluding the class Lichenes, this disposition is the only one 
that seems consistent with the principles of classification. While this is 
true, the present writer finds a number of particulars in which the lichens 
seem to him at least to have fared badly. He confesses being startled at 
the large number of new genera proposed in a disposition of lichens which, 
though original in some respects, is nevertheless mainly based upon the work 
of another man. Extensive genus or species making among lichens should 
rest upon great knowledge of these plants, which cannot be acquired in a 
few years. The systematic work of Nylander, Muller, and others during the 
last half century makes the acquisition of a good knowledge of lichen genera 
and species one fraught with an amount of labor which is fully appreciated 
only after many years of study of these plants, and the literature pertain- 
ing to them. 
Most of Dr. Clements’ new genera appear good enough, but who knows 
that they have not appeared previously under some other name, or who 
would dare to pass upon them without such exhaustive study as no man 
can make, covering the whole range of lichen genera? Making a large 
number, of new genera, without apparent possibility of adequate first 
hand knowledge of all of the plants or the extensive literature involved' 
appears to be a procedure of doubtful merit. Seeing the need of 
new genera is by no means sufficient reason for making them. We 
are not told of more than one species for any of the sixty and more new 
genera, and in three instances, viz. tne genera Phaeoglaena, Dipyrgis and 
Ocellis, the writer has not been able to discover even a type species. 
Examination of the work of Dr. Zahlbruckner, in Engler and Prantl, 
disclosed the fact that the diagnostic characters there given furnish the 
basis for the three genera named above, but the making of new genera on 
this basis appears like a merely literary performance, even if genera without 
cited species are valid, which is questionable. 
Each new genus rests upon two or three diagnostic words found in the 
list of new genera and whatever one may find of diagnostic value in the 
portion of the keys where the new genus is proposed. This treatment will 
1 Clements, F. E. The Genera of Fungi. 1-227. Minneapolis. The H. W. WiUon 
Company, 1909. 
