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L I C H E N ceuthoCarpus,
Tumid dot Lichen.
CRYPTOGAMIA Algos.
Gen. Char. Male, scattered warts.
Female, smooth shields or tubercles, in which the
seeds are imbedded.
Spec. Char. Crust calcareous, continued, cream-coloured,
tessellated, unequal, smooth. Shields minute,
black, depressed, sunk in tumid globose
smooth warts.
F o R this we are obliged to Mr. W. Borrer and Mr. Turner,
who both at first thought it the Sagedia Icevata of Acharius,
so called in his new general work on Lichens, not yet come to
our hands. Mr. Turner having found this to be a mistake,
informs us the plant will be called Pertusaria ceuthocarpa, in
Mr. Borrer’s own Lichenographia Britannica, now in the press.
Of the characters of these genera we are as yet ignorant, but, as
a species, the plant before us is unquestionably distinct from all
we have published. Sir Thomas Gage, bart., as well as Miss
Hutchins, have found it in Ireland, growing, in large uninterrupted
patches, on slate rocks.
The crust is continued, of a tolerably even thickness, white
and chalky within, externally cream-coloured, tessellated,
smooth and not at all mealy. The surface is rather unequal,
especially the fructifying parts, where globose, depressed,
very smooth warts arise, in the centre of each of which is a little
black sunk concave shield, internally pale brown. We should
have referred this species to the genus Urceolaria of Acharius,
among those already proposed. We fear much inconvenience
from the common error of making too many genera in this tribe,
as in others.
Mr. Borrer observes little black tubercles scattered over the
surface of this Lichen, like those of L. microstidicus, t. 224:3.