I 2273 ]
L I C H E N frustulosusi
White-scaled Lichen.
CRYPTOGAMIA Algat.
G en. Char. M a le , scattered warts.
F em a le , sm o o th shields or tu b e r c le s, in w h ic h the
seeds are im b ed d ed .
Spec. Char. Crust tartareous, yellowish white, in
dispersed, tumid warts, at length somewhat imbricated,
lobed, and variously shaped. Shields
dark brown, with a white, crenate margin like
the crust.
S yn. L ich en frustulo sus. Dicks. Crypt, fasc. 3. 13.
t.S .f. 10. With.vA. 19. Hull.289. Ach.Prod.76.
P a rm e iia frustulosa. Ach. Metli. 172.
P . atra /3, argopholis. Ach. Meth. Suppl. 32.
C o l l e c t e d on the micaceous rocks of the mountains of
Breadalbane by Mr. Bower, who assures us of the above syno-
nyms, on the authority of Mr. Dickson’s herbarium, and of
specimens from the celebrated Acharius. The latter could
scarcely be aware that the plant he received from Mr. Wall-
lenberg, by the name of Parmeiia argopholis, was what he
had already adopted from Mr. Dickson’s work; but we are
much surprised that he should now consider it as a variety of
our L. ater, t. 949, from which its mode of growth is surely
fundamentally distinct.
We do not find the black under-crust or stratum described
by Mr. Dickson, probably because our plant is not old enough.
Ours consists of little, roundish, tumid, smooth, tartareous
lumps, externally of a pale-yellowish or greenish white, and
very smooth, which at length become crowded, lobed at the
edges, and somewhat imbricated, assuming various shapes.
Shields numerous, rather elevated; their disk dark brown,
concave at first, finally convex and blackish ; their border of
the substance of the crust, thickish, inflexed, crenate, and
sometimes jagged, at the inner edge.—The name we retain for
this species is unexceptionable, and has the precedence in
point of date. That of Wahlenberg, equally good, we have
translated in the English appellation.