Abstract:

 Parmelia is a genus of economical importance.   According  what  was  recorded,

Meyen & Flotow were the first foreigners to study Chinese lichens in 1843.  Up to the

present time 74 species, 24 varieties and 11 forms have been described from China.

     The majority of specimens reported in this paper were collected by many Chinese

botanists and collectors from 21 provinces from 1928--1962, while a few of them were

collected by Licent from 1916 to 1917 and by Poliansky in 1957.

     The system of classification adopted here is that held by A. Zahlbruckner in 1926.

But in section Hypotrachyna, the two subsections-Myelochroa and Myeloleuca proposed

by Asahina are adopted and Parmelia xanthocarpa which has not been properly placed

before, is here referred to the subsection Myelochroa.

     In the subgenus Hypogymnia the writer discovers that the length of spores of two

species are longer than 10μ, especially  Parmelia macrospora reaches  17.5μ long.  So

far as the writer knows, the upper limitation of the spore length  recognized  by  many

lichenologists has been 10μ in this subgenus.  The spore measurement of this subgenus

needs, therefore, to be revised in future.

      In this paper 78 species, 14 varieties and 6 forms are presented.  Among them, 5

species, 5 varieties and 1 forms are considered as new and two new combinations have

been made.  Out of all these, 31 species, 6 varieties and 2 forms are first recorded from

China.  All the materials cited are deposited in the Mycological Herbarium of Institute

of Microbiology, Academia Sinica, Peking.