C l a s s a n d O r d e r CRYPTOGAMIA ALGiEj Linn.<— N a t . O r d . ALGfB, Juss.
GEN ERIC CHARACTER.
Frons cariilaginea, dichotoma, angustissima, tuberculis terminalibus.
Frond cartilaginous, dichotomous, with terminal tubereles.
S P E C IF IC CHARACTER.
L i c h i n a confixAs; Jronde cylindrica, tuberculis ovalibus.
L. frond cylindrical, the tubercles oval.
L i c h i n a co n fin is, Ag. Sp. Alg. p . 105.— Syst. Alg. p . 274.— Grev. FI. Fdin.
p. 286.
L i c h i n a pygmaea ¡3, minor, Hook. FI. Scot. 2. p. Q6.
Fu cu s pygmams f t minor. Turn. Hist. Fuc. t. 204. f. i-o.
L i c h e n co n fin is , Ach. Prodr. Lick. f. 208— FI. Dan. t. 879. f- 2.— Smith
Engl. Bot. t. 2575. ’
S t e r e o c a u l o n c o n f i n e , Ach. Meth. Licit. 2. p . 3 1 7 .
H a b . Rocks on the sea-coast, near high-water mark. Rocks opposite Caroline
Park near Edinburgh, at Dunbar, and many other places in Scotla
n d ;—more rare in England. Perfect fructification produced in autumn.
Plant growing in a crowded and concentrical manner, spreading widely
over the rocks like a lichen, very dark green when moist, black when
dry, very short, rarely exceeding 2-3 lines. Boot an irregular disk, of
a pale yellowish-green colour, as is also the base of the stems of the
frond. Fronds numerous, crowded, cylindrical, various in len g th ; ^ome
are given off from the disk-like root, almost in a creeping manner; the
remainder are erect, variously divided, and obtuse at the apex, or terminating
in oval tubercles. Tubercles somewhat paler at the poreshaped
orifice, filled with a gelatinous mass of filaments, among which
the oval seeds are arranged in continuous lines, from the centre to the
circumference, as in L. pygnuea. After the contents of the tubercle
have escaped, the orifice enlarges, as in L . pygmcea, and at length becomes
a mere concave empty receptacle.
This minute species seems to be less general than the one
figured in the preceding number of this work, and it is perhaps
VOL. IV.