Tulasne was one of the pioneers in microscopic botany. He made a
methodical study of a large series of lichens[134] and traced their
development, so far as he was able, from the spore onwards. He gave
special attention to the form and function of spermogonia and spermatia,
and his work is enriched by beautiful figures of microscopic detail.
Lauder Lindsay[135] also published an elaborate treatise on spermogonia,
on their occurrence in the lichen kingdom and on their form and
structure. The paper embodies the results of wide microscopic research
and is a mine of information regarding these bodies.
Much interesting work was contributed at this time by Itzigsohn[136],
Speerschneider[137], Sachs[138], Thwaites[139], and others. They devoted
their researches to some particular aspect of lichen development and
their several contributions are discussed elsewhere in this work.
Schwendener[140] followed with a systematic study of the minute anatomy
of many of the larger lichen genera. His work is extremely important in
itself and still more so as it gradually revealed to him the composite
character of the thallus.
Several important monographs date from this period: Leighton[141]
reviewed all the British “Angiocarpous” lichens with special reference to
their “sporidia” though without treating these as of generic value. He
followed up this monograph by two others, on the _Graphideae_[142] and
the _Umbilicarieae_[143], and Mudd[144] published a careful study of the
_British Cladoniae_. On the Continent Th. Fries[145] issued a revision
of _Stereocaulon_ and _Pilophoron_ and other writers contributed work on
smaller groups.
H. PERIOD VII. 1867 AND AFTER
Modern lichenology begins with the enunciation of Schwendener’s[146]
theory of the composite nature of the lichen plant. The puzzling
resemblance of certain forms to algae, of others to fungi, had excited
the interest of botanists from a very early date, and the similarity
between the green cells in the thallus, and certain lower forms of algae
had been again and again pointed out. Increasing observation concerning
the life-histories of these algae and of the gonidia had eventually piled
up so great a number of proofs of their identity that Schwendener’s
announcement must have seemed to many an inevitable conclusion, though no
one before had hazarded the astounding statement that two organisms of
independent origin were combined in the lichen.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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