j B t [ 1792 ]
CRYPTOGAMIA Algce.
G e n . C h a r . Male, scattered warts.
Female, smooth shields or tubercles, in which the
seeds are imbedded.
S p e c . C h a r . Crust leprous, granulated, indeterminate,
bright greenish yellow. Shields clustered, sessile,
flat, tawny yellow, at length convex and brownish.
Border elevated, crenate, the colour of the crust.
S y n . Lichen vitellinus. Ehrh. Crypt. 1 55. Ach.
Prod. 41. Relh. Cant. 450.
L. candelarius. Iluds. 528. TVith. v. 4. 27. Hull. 292.
Sibtfi. 323. Lightf. 811, oc.
Patellaria vitellina. Hoffm. PI. Lich. v. 2. 5. t. 26.
ƒ . 1 . t. 27. f 2 .
Parmelia vitellina. Ach. Meth. 176.
V e r y common on garden pales, rails, and other wrought
wood, especially deal, when long exposed to the weather;
but scarcely, if at all, on the hark of trees. It is most perfect
in the wet wintry months. Sometimes it occurs on brick
walls.
The crust spreads in oblong patches, frequently conforming
to the grain of the wood, and consists of minute granulations,
more or less scattered, of a very conspicuous yellow colour
inclining to green, looking as if the boards had been besmeared
with yolk of egg. Shields not very abundant, but crowded when
they occur, sessile and flat, of a more dull and tawny yellow
than the crust, but surrounded with an elevated, crenate, or
granulated, very conspicuous border, very like it. By age the
disk of the shields becomes somewhat convex, as well as olive
or brownish.
Our .British writers have, not without apparent reason,
taken this for the Linnsean L. candelarius, and much misconception
and confusion have arisen from its being confounded
by Dillenius and others with L. murorum of Acharius. Ehrhart
• determined it, and we gladly retain his expressive name.
What the real candelarius is will appear at 1. 1 794.