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LEPRARIA latebrarum.
Grey Cavern Lepraria.
—.— — ---------
CRYPTOGAMIA Algce.
G en. Char. Seeds in a powdery substance, loosely
clothing a membranous or fibrous crust.
Spec. Char. Grey.. Crust fibrous, forming dense
cushions. Fructification in small round clusters.
Syn. Lepraria latebrarum. Achar. Prod. 7.
Pulveraria latebrarum. Achar. Meth. 2. Winch, v.
2. 29.
Byssus cryptarum. Huds. 607. With. v. 4. 146.
Hull. 308.
B. albida brevis setacea. Dill. Muse. 10. t. 3 . f . 2 0 ;
exclusive of the Linnaean synonym.
T h is I found, when a young botanist at Edinburgh in 1781,
growing on a rock at the Hermitage at Blackford, as well as
on several rocks in Rivelston wood. It always grows in such
places as the rain cannot reach, and exactly accords with
Acharius’s name, description and specimens. The colour is
a glaucous pale grey, and has remained entirely unchanged.
The plant forms light convex soft cushions, easily separable
from the rock, their central part being elevated by age, and
jn a manner vaulted underneath. The whole is a mass of fine
fibres, much entangled, intermixed with powdery granulations,
the powder rubbing off when touched by the finger,
exactly as in the beautiful L. chlorina} t. 2038. The inner part
is white.
Byssus cryptarum of Linnseus is widely different from this,
though Dillenius confounded them.