CRYPTOGAMIA Algce.
Gen. Char. Male, scattered warts.
Female, smooth shields or tubercles, in which the
seeds are imbedded.
Spec. Char. Crust thin, white, smooth. Shields sessile,
scattered, pale purplish waxy brown, with a smooth
margin of the same colour; blackened in decay.
Syn. Lichen corneus. With. v. 4. 20. i. 31 . f . 3. Hull.
290, but not our t. 965.
W h a t we have described as L. corneus, t. 965, proves not
to be that of Withering, but a species never before published.
As the name is admirably suited to that species, and is now
sanctioned in the Methodus of Professor Acharius, and as the
original corneus neither answers to that name, nor could possibly
be made out by Dr. Withering’s description and figure,
we venture to apply to the latter the name of its original discoverer
J. W. Griffith, Esq. of Gam near Denbigh, whose
labours in this department of botany well merit the honour.
L. Griffithii is found on oaks in Denbighshire and Durham,
from which last county we have been favoured with it by the
Rev. Mr. Harriman. Mr. Turner finds it common on birch
bark near Yarmouth.
The crust is thin, smooth, even and white, conforming to
the inequalities of the bark, and spreading indeterminately.
Shields scattered, sessile, flat, irregular in shape and size, of a
peculiar pale purplish brown, with a waxy transparency, and
their border is of the same hue. When young they are paler,
especially the border, but by age that part first, and finally
the whole shield, turns black. Small black bodies are scattered
over the crust, which seem to be old dwindled shields, which
if so are very remarkable in their mode of decay.
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M ay u S o j.Z \ib tish ’d iy J a .i Sow erfy, London,.