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to the Lichens." Earlier still, Nylander 1
INTRODUCTION xxv
, in.a paper dealing with cephalodia
and their peculiar gonidia, had denounced it :
" Locum sic suum dignum
occupat algolichenomachia inter historias ridiculas, quae hodie haud paucae
circa lichenes, majore imaginatione quam scientia, enarrantur." He never
changed
his attitude and Crombie 2
, wholly agreeing
with his estimate of
these " absurd tales," translates a much later pronouncement by him 3 :
"All these allegations belong to inept Schwendenerism and scarcely deserve
even to be reviewed or castigated so puerile are they the offspring of in-
experience and of a light imagination. No true science there." Crombie 4
himself in a first paper on this subject declared that " the new theory would
necessitate their degradation from the position they have so long held as an
independent class." He scornfully rejected the whole subject as "a Romance
of Lichenology, or the unnatural union between a captive Algal damsel and
a tyrant Fungal master." The nearest approach to any concession on the
algal question occurs in a translation by Crombie 5 of one of Nylander's
papers. It is stated there that a saxicolous alga (Gongrosira Kiitz.) had
been found bearing the apothecia of Lecidea herbidula n. sp. Nylander adds :
"This algological genus is one which readily passes into lichens." At a later
date, Crombie 6 was even more comprehensively contemptuous and wrote:
" whether viewed anatomically or biologically, analytically or synthetically,
it is instead of being true science, only the Romance of Lichenology." These
views were shared by many continental lichenologists and were indeed, as
already stated, justified to a considerable extent: it was impossible to regard
such a large and distinctive class of plants as merely fungi parasitic on the
lower algae.
Controversy about lichens never dies down, and that view of their parasitic
nature has been freshly promulgated among others by the American
genetic origin of the gonidia has also been
lichenologist Bruce Fink 7 The .
restated
8
: by Elfving the various theories and views are discussed fully in
the chapter on the lichen plant.
Much of the interest in lichens has centred round their symbiotic growth.
No theory of simple parasitism can explain the association of the two
plants: if one of the symbionts is withdrawn either fungus or alga the
lichen as such ceases to exist. Together they form a healthy unit capable
of development and change : a basis for progress along new lines. Permanent
characters have been formed which are transmitted just as in other units of
organic life.
A new view of the association has been advanced by F. and Mme Moreau 9 .
They hold that the most characteristic lichen structures more particularly
1
Nylander 1869.
8 Crombie 1877.
9 Moreau 1918.
2 Crombie 1891.
6 Crombie 1885.
3 Nylander 1891.
7 Fink 1913.
4 Crombie 1874.
8 Elfving 1913.