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L I C H E N Gagei.
Gagean Urceolate Lichen.
CRYPTOGAMIA Alga.
Gen, Char, Mate, scattered warts.
Female, smooth shields or tubercles, in which the
seeds are imbedded.
Spec. Char, Crust continued, calcareous, smooth,
brownish-white; irregularly cracked when dry.
Shields very minute, blackish, sunk in the crust.
T h is , which is a species of the Acharian genus Urceolaria,
was discovered on the rocks of Glena and Glen Flesk near
Killamey, by Sir Thomas Gage, Bart., but is not common there.
We have inscribed it with the name of its intelligent discoverer,
as a mark of our gratitude and respect. Few botanists are more
deeply versed in this difficult tribe of vegetables.
The only species to which this can possibly be compared is
L . Acharii, t. 1087, Like that it grows on rocks occasionally
inundated, and agrees with it in the hard even texture, and apparently
levigated surface, of its uninterrupted inseparable crust.
The colour however is a very pale brownish or ochrey white, not
red. We are aware indeed that L. Acharii sometimes loses
nearly all its red hue. But the far more minute, blackish, not
red, shields of L. Gagei, which, in a young state, resemble diminutive
inky dots or stains on the crust, serve amply to discriminate
these two neighbouring species,