Page:Journal of botany, British and foreign, Volume 9 (1871).djvu/373

 NEW PUBLICATIONS. 345

remarks on the species, in addition to the mere specific dino^noses, and due notices of the minute (microscopic) parasites — Fungi, Lichens, or Fungo- Liciiens — that so frequently infest the thallus or apothecia of certain Lichen-species. It is, moreover, better " got up," printed on better papei-, in more legible type. No doubt all the additions that are desir- able to Leighton's ' Lichen-flora' — including, for instance, an index, glossary, bibliography^ and hilrodnction — would seriously increase the size of a volume which, at present is a convenient one, as respects both size and siiape. But, on the other hand, the present volume is, pro tanto, incomplete and defective; while it is desirable that a national work on such a sul)ject should, be as complete in all respects as possible. To the physiologist or biologist — to tl)e scientific or philosophic botanist — the paucity of information regarding the spermof/u/ies, and the utter absence of all reference to pycnides, are serious defects ; serious even in their bear- ing upon a classijicatioii, which might have been materially altered by full descriptions of the secondary reproductive organs of those species in which they have been discovered. The few references that have been made to spermogones, or their contents, by Mr. Leigiiton appear to have been taken at second-hand from Continental authors, probably Nylander. The following are illustrations of the few bald, unsatisfactory descriptions or references given. In the Cetrariei, we are told (p. 96), " Spermo(jonia mar- ginal, in setuliform apiculi or black papillae." In Flatysma (p. 98), " Spermogonia minutely papillate or tnberculate." In the Psoromiei (p. 163), " Spermogonia with arthro-sterigmata :" in the Imbricariei (p. 121), " Spermogonia innate." In Rlcasolia (p. 120), " Spermogonia in mas- toid prominences." In TJmbilicaria and the Placodei (j)p. 154 and 174), " Sterigmata articulate." In Psoroma, and the Pannariei and Phys- ciei (pp. 163, 164, and 141), " Sterigmata pluri-articnlate." In ParintUa (p. 122), " Sterigmata 2-5-articulated :" in the Parmellel (p. 114), " Ste- rigmata pluri-articulate, or with arthro-sterigmata." In only certain genera and their subdivisions are the characters of the spermaiin given. In Platysma (pp. 98-102), the genus is subdivided into sections according to the character of the spermatia, — the only instance, however, in which they are here utilized in classification. In the Ea-Lecunorei (p. 180) w(! are told, " Spermatia various in form in ditferent species ;" but the variations in form in the different species are not given, so that such a statement is almost tantamount to no information at all!

In such a Lichen-flora as Leighton's there ought be a separate sec- tion, treating of the vegetable Micro-parasites that so commonly infest the thallus and apothecia of Lichens ; so frequently produce deformities of their fructification ; so often puzzle the student. Or, at least, under the proper s|)ecies, mention should be made of their particular parasites. But Leighton's work contains no enumeration of, or reference to, the Micro-fungi, or Fungo-lichens, that are parasitic on Lichen thalli or apothecia; and though the British parasitic species of Micro-lichens are given (e.g.) under such gcmerie heads as Lecidea, Ferrucnria, and Arlhonia, if we turn to sueli parasite-infested species as Sticta pnlmonacea, Pelti- gera canina, Parmelia saxatilis, P. caperata, P. physodes, P. olivacea, P. coHspersa, Lecanora veutosa, L. vitellina, L. cinerea, L. subfusca, L. poly- tropa, L. glaucoma, L. ferntginea, L. Parella, Pertnsaria comvianis, Le- cidea fusco-atra, L. conlignn, L. conjluens, L. canescens, L. albo-atra, or L. excentrica, we find no allusion to their parasites.

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