7 S Q [ 1186 ]
LICHEN sulphureus.
Sulphureous Lichen.
CRYPTOGAMIA Algce.
G e n . C h a r . Male, scattered warts.
Female, smooth shields o r tubercles, in which the seeds
are imbedded.
S p e c . C h a r . Crust thick, cracked, rugged, dull sulphur
coloured. Shields convex, blackish, mealy,
with a paler margin.
Syn. Lichen sulphureus. Achar. Prod. 58. Dicks.
Crypt, fasc. 2. 17. With. v. 4. 12. Hull. 286.
Relh. 453. Abbot. 259.
Verrucaria sulphurea. Hoffm. PI. Lich.v. 1. 56. 1. 11.
/ • 3 . '
I t is scarcely credible that this Lichen should have been considered
as a variety of the sanguinarius, yet such was actually the
case, till Professor Hoffman described it by the apt name of
sulphureus. Leers guessed it to be the calcareus of Linnaeus,
an error as remarkable as the other.
It is often found on brick walls in open situations, and not
unfrequently on rocks near the sea. The crust is thick, very
rugged, uneven, and cracked, but not mealy, externally of a
dull or greenish sulphur-colour, spreading circularly, with a
flat border, which becomes rugged and plaited by age. Internally
the crust is whitish and chalky. The shields are numerous,
clustered, variously shaped, convex, their border immersed
in the crust and scarcely distinguishable from it; their
disk blackish, covered with a fine mealiness which easily rubs
off, as in L. impolitus and many others.
When growing on wood the crust is thinner and more inclined
to be mealy, and the shields paler, of a yellowish waxy
brown.
n86
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