long, 0,0025-35 mm. thick ; hymenial gelatine deep-blue with
iodine—B. melastigma Mudd Man. Z. c. Lecidea chalyheia Borr.
in Engl. Bot. Suppl. t. 2687, fig. 2 (1831); Nyl. in Mem. Soo.
Cherb. ii. p. 333 (1854); Hook, in Sm. Engl. El. v. p. 176;
Cromb. Lich. Brit. p. 91 ; Leight. Lich. FI. p. 312; ed. 3, p. 327.
Lecidea melastigma Tayl. in Mackay FI. Hib. ii. p. 115 (1836);
Leight. Lich. FI. ed. 3, p. 331.
Exsicc. Larb. Lich. Hb. nos. 148, 149; Johns, n. 393.
Apt to be confounded with states of B. lenticularis to which it is
intimately related, but easily distinguished by the colour of the
apothecia and more especially by the dark hypotheoium and
epithecium. The apothecia are usually scattered and numerous.
The spermogones are minute, semi-immersed, black, with shortly
ellipsoid spermatia, 0,002-8 mm. long, 0,001 mm. thick.
Hab. On siliceous rocks and stones in maritime and upland
tracts.—Distr. Somewhat rare throughout tbe British Isles.'—B. M.
St. Ouen’s Bay, Jersey; Patcham, Aldrington Beach, near Brighton
and the South Downs, Sussex; Lamynack Game, near Penzance,
Cornwall; Fishguard Harbour, Pembrokeshire ; Trefriw Falls, Carnarvonshire
; Bilsdale, Yorkshire; St. Bees, Cumberland; Ben Lawers,
Perthshire ;_ Portlethen, Kincardineshire; Craig Guie, Braemar,
Aberdeenshire; near Cork; Duncarron, Kerry; near Kylemore,
Letterbeg and Gleneorbot, Connemara,¡Galway.
Subsp. chloroscotina A. L. Sm.—Thallus more deeply cracked,
greyish-green. Apothecia somewhat plane and wrinkled ; hypothecium
brownish-black, the hymenium bluish (K + violet);
spores 1-septate, sometimes simple, 0,008-16 mm. long,
0,003--4 mm. thick, hymenial gelatine bluish then tawny-reddish
with iodine. Spermogones and spermatia as in the species.—
Lecidea chloroscotina Nyl. in Flora Ix. p. 565 (1877) & Ixv. p. 456
(188^2); Cromb. in Grevillea vi. p. 113; Leight. Lich. El. ed. 3,
p. 352 pro parte.
Exsicc. Larb. Lich. Hb. n. 180.
Distinguished from the species by the thicker more deeply cracked
thallus and the somewhat large spores which are sometimes simple.
Hab. On moist siliceous stones in streams.—Distr. Very local,
though common where it occurs in W. Ireland and [fide Nylander) in
N.W. England (Kentmore, Westmoreland).—E. M. Between Lough
Feagh and Lough Muck, Connemara, Galway.
31. B. dolosa A. L. Sm.—Thallus determinate, thin, minutely
granular, olive or tawny-olive-brown. Apothecia minute, plane,
dark-brown, with a thin paler margin, becoming somewhat
convex and immarginate; hypothecium colourless; paraphyses
slender, brown a t the clavate apices; spores ellipsoid, 0,011-12 mm.
long, 0,005-6 mm. th ic k ; hymenial gelatine bluish then dark-
violet with iodine.—Lichen dolosus Sm. Engl. Bot. t. 2581 (1814)
(non Ach.). Lecidea Gagei Hook, in Sm. Engl. PI. v. p. 177
(1833); Tayl. in Mackay FI. Hib. ii. p. 120. L. lenticularis var.
Gagei Cromb. in Journ. Bot. ix. p. 179 (1871).
An interesting plant hitherto rightly defined only by Nylander
(Flora xvii. p. 308 (1874) as Lecanora elæiza). In the original
specimen the thallus is in small, rotundate, detached patches, limited
by a paler fibrillose hypotballus ; but in a subsequent specimen from
Sir Thomas Gage, the thallus is much better developed and more
contiguous, with the hypotballus less visible. The apothecia are
chiefly central and not numerous. The spermogones, sparingly
visible, have the spermatia (fide Nyl. I. c.) m inute, oblong, 0,0025 mm.
long, 0,0010 mm. thick, on septate somewhat turgid sterigmata.
Hah. On a rock in an upland trac t of a mountainous region.—
Distr. Found only very sparingly in S.W. Ireland (recently also in
Hungary).—E. M. Killarney, Kerry.
32. B. columnatula A. L. Sm.—Thallus indeterminate,
sordid-yellow, composed as it were of small erect connate
columns and divided into areolæ (K + yellow). Apothecia
superficial, black, small, somewhat plane and obtusely margined,
becoming immarginate, whitish or yellowish within ; paraphyses
not well discrete ; epithecium and perithecium blackish ; spores
oblong, 0,012-16 mm. long, 0,004 mm. thick ; hymenial gelatine
bluish then tawny-wine-red with iodine.—LecZdea columnatula
Nyl. in Flora Ix. p. 228 (1877) ; Cromb. in Grevillea vi. p. 19 ;
Leight. Lich. FI. ed. 3, p. 332. Specimen not seen.
Well characterized by the columnar thallus. The spermogones
have branched sterigmata and minute spermatia, 0,0035 mm. lonsr.
0,0006 mm. thick.
Hab. On a schistose rock in a maritime district. Collected by
Larbalestier at Kylemore, Connemara, Galway.
33. B. biformigera A. L. Sm.~Thallus dirty-greenish-white,
tartareous, thick, tumid, warted-areolate, variously cracked (K +
yellow, CaCl + yellow). Apothecia black or bluish-black, small
and conglomerate, plane and slightly margined, or large, sessile
with a thickish flexuose margin; hypothecium colourless, the
hymenium pale-bluish upwards; paraphyses distinct, blackish
a t the tip s ; spores narrowly oblong, 1-septate, the cells bi-
guttulate, 0,014—15 mm. long, 0,004—5 mm. th ic k ; hymenial
gelatine blue with iodine.^—Lecidea biformigera Leight. in Ann.
Mag. Nat. Hist. ser. 3, xix. p. 403 (1867) & Lich. FI. p. 321 •
ed. 3, p. 332 ; Cromb. Lich. Brit. p. 90. ’
Exsicc. Larb. Lich. Hb. n. 105; Johns, n. 392.
Form subbiformata (Nyl. ex Leight. Lioh. El. ed. 3, p. 333 (1879))
differs from the type in the plane areolæ of the thallus.
Hab. On maritime and alpine rooks.—Distr. Somewhat rare in
the Channel Islands, central and N. England and W. Ireland, more
frequently found in Wales, not yet recorded from Scotland.—E. M.
Alderney ; Longmynd, Shropshire ; Tenby, Pembrokeshire ; Llyn
Aran, Dolgelly and Cader Idris, Merioneth ; Llandbedrog and
Snowdon, Carnarvonshire; Whitehaven, Cumberland; Doughruagh
Mt. and Lough Feagh, Connemara, Galway.