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<strong>PART</strong> 2<br />

THE 10¢ TOUR OF THE PYRENOLICHENS<br />

A TWENTY-YEAR PERSPECTIVE<br />

In 1975 I submitted my thesis which, while dealing primarily with Arthopyrenia s. lat., also included a<br />

primitive attempt to break away from Zahlbruckner's system, then in use. Over the ensuing 20 years my<br />

mistakes as regards Arthopyrenia and the more general system have become evident, new ideas and<br />

information have become available, critical specimens have been examined and a large number of new<br />

records have accumulated. This anniversary seems an appropriate time to try again. The system proposed is<br />

not intended in any way to be final but only an interim report. As noted in the introduction the title "tour" is<br />

given to this part so that I am free to pick and choose what is treated. This is not the proverbial 50¢ tour, only<br />

the 10¢ version, since I badly miscalculated the amount of errors, changes and specimens to be waded<br />

through. The most interesting part, the higher categories, is left undone. They naturally fall at the end of such<br />

a project since I have worked from the bottom (species) upwards. I do not like the current tendency to assign<br />

new genera, etc., to "incertae sedis". This conveys absolutely no information. It is useless. It is an admission<br />

of failure, of lack of general knowledge, of laziness, which one is surely forced to admit to on occasion but<br />

should not become a way of life. Given a choice, I have chosen to err on the side of controversy. This, I<br />

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