I 
THE AUSTRALIAN NATURALIST. 183 
Wild roots up in the mountains are nowadays exceedingly 
rare, but sometimes a Korean Rip Van Winkle will disappear 
in some gorge where he happened to discover such a root, and 
- will build his hut next to it, watching it patiently until it 
finally is matured. Then he takes it to the Government office 
or smuggles it into China directly, and his reward will be a 
thousand yen, and if the root is an exceptionally old one (20 
years), even more, for there are no limits to the youth-giving 
power of such a wonderful ginseng, according to Chinese ideas. 
NOTES ON A “CORAL LICHEN” 
(CLADONIA RETEPORA),. 
By Epwin CHEED. 
One of the most interesting species of the Australian lichens 
is a plant having a coralline appearance which has gained for 
it the appropriate vernacular name of “Coral Moss.” It is not 
a true moss, but belongs to the Lichenes group of the vegetable 
kingdom. It was originally collected in Tasmania and recorded 
by Labillardiere (38) under the name Baeomyces reteporus, 
where it is described and beautifully illustrated. Like many 
other species of our lichenological flora, it has several aliases, 
and is recorded under the following names:—Cenomyce retipora 
Ach, (101) Clathrina retipora Mull.-Arg., (94) Cladina 
retipora Nyl. and Cladonia retipora Spreng. (40). It is cer- 
tainly not a true Baeomyces, and as Acharius, genus Cenomyces 
is inappropriate, it was placed in its proper genus by Sprengel. 
Dr. Jean Miiller (Miill.-Arg.) of Geneva, established a new 
genus Clathrina, in which the species under discussion together 
with CG. aggregata and others were placed. Modern lichenologists 
are inclined to regard this genus as a mere section of the genus 
Cladonia, so I have accordingly followed Sprengel in placing it 
in this genus. Several of the earlier collectors, including R. 
Brown, R. C. Gunn and Mr. Ince collected it in Tasmania, and 
D’Urville and W. Colenso also collected it in New Zealand. All 
the above collections are represented in the British Museum and 
at the Royal Herbarium, Kew, England. The Rey. W. Woolls 
(4) was much impressed with the beauty of this coralline plant, 
for we find the following statement concerning it.—‘The most 
interesting lichen that I have seen in Australia is C. retipora, 
but it does not occur in this (Parramatta) neighbourhood. The 
Rey. T. Hassall gave me a specimen of it, which he procured 
from the vicinity of Berrima, and the accomplished authoress 
