Notes on Tasmanian lichens

During my visit to Tasmania in January last, to attend the annual meeting of the Australasian Association at Hobart, I took such opportunities as offered themselves to make a collection of the lichens of the island ; and hearing from Mr. W. A. Weymouth that he had a small collection of these lowly yet lovely plants, I was kindly permitted to look through his gatherings, and to select some 40 specimens of such as appeared rare and worthy of microscopic examination. The examination of a lichen in all its parts by the aid of a microscope is a work requiring considerable time and patience but a still more time-consuming labour is the examination of the multitudinous and fragmentary works on lichenology, which must be undertaken when a species is believed to be new to science. Every care has been taken, but should an older and more experienced lichenologist detect errors in my work, then " Magna est veritas et prevalebit.''