102 THE AUSTRALIAN NATURALIST. 
NOTES ON SOME AUSTRALIAN LICHENS. 
(Abstract of a Paper by Mr. Edwin Cheel.) 
THE proceedings or records of any Society whose objects are 
the study of nature, would not be complete withont some 
reference to the thousands of plants classed under the family 
Lichenes, and which form a large part of the vegetable king- 
dom represented in Australasia. In the following notes I will 
endeavour to furnish some information which may be the 
means of inducing members of this Club to take an interest in 
this section of botany. 
Srruarions in wHicH Licuens occur.—Owing to the dryness 
of the climate, and the crumbling nature of the sandstone 
rocks, the Lichen-flora in the neighbourhood.of Sydney is not 
very rich; but although the individual plants are not very 
numerous, they yet comprise a considerable number of species. 
Even as far south as Hden, Twofold Bay, one meets with the 
same scarcity of specimens. On the rocks near the extreme 
coastline some specimens of the beautiful yellow or orange- 
coloured Xanthoria parietina and Thelochistes chrysopthalma 
var. denudata may be found. The first is a cosmopolitan species 
found almost-every where in low land districts. | When speci- 
mens are found growing on the trunks of trees, a slight 
difference in colour will be noted, the lichen being somewhat 
paler, a fact which has led some lichenologists to regard it as a 
variety. Other species than these may also be met with on 
rocks near the coast 
Approaching a little further inland, where the Phanero- 
gamic vegetation is thicker and affords a little shelter, the 
collector will find some fairly fine specimens of Parnelia, 
Physcius, &c , also growing on rocks. _ In the deep gorges and 
gullies at Waterfall and at Manly and Hawkesbury some very 
fine specimens of Parnelia sticta and Parnaria oceur, as well 
as a number of the fructiculose kinds included in the genus 
Oladonia. The latter are usually found growing on the ground 
or mossy rocks. Specimens of other genera will also be noted 
on trunks of trees, rocks, and very plentifully on the shady 
sides of fences. The branches of Casuarina, and the trunks of 
Syncarpia and many of our wattles will yield the collector 
many beautiful specimens. On the Wianamatta shale series 
some fine specimens of Cladonia racemosa, C. diffissa and 
Heterodea muellert occur. Occasionally large patches of 
Heterodea will be found growing on ant-hills. On fences in the 
open forests of Penshurst, Bankstown, and Parramatta are to 
be found some very lange specimens of Parnelia, Anza, and 
others. 
Some species seem to be indifferent as to substrata, while 
others will be found on certain strata and nowhere else. Thus, 
