LICHEN confluens.
Confluent-shielded Lichen.
CRYPTOGAMIA Alga.
G en. Char. Male, scattered warts.
Female, smooth shields or tubercles, in which the
seeds are imbedded.
S pec. Char. Crust somewhat uneven, tessellated, of
a smoky white. Shields sessile, black, with a black
b o rd e r; at length convex, confluent and angular.
Syn. Lichen confluens. Weber Goett. 180. t. 2. Ach.
Prod. 60. Dicks. Crypt, fasc. 1. 9. With. v. 4. 8.
Hull. 286.
Lecidea confluens. Ach. Meth. 40.
Verrucaria confluens. Hojfm. PI. Lick. t. 19. f . 1.
,/S. Lichen pilularis. Davies in T r .o f L . Soc.v. 2 .2 8 3 .
t. 2 8 . / . 1 .
I GATHERED this first, about 1782, on rocks on the Pent-
land hills near Edinburgh, in some of those hours of relaxation,
so agreeably employed in botanical rambles, with a
numerous train of college friends, then ardent and curious
like myself. Of these more than half have sunk into an early
grave, and even now, as I write, the most valuable of them all
is just prematurely cut off from an unspotted and most extensively
useful life *. How truly are we “ sojourners here, as
all our fathers were 1”
This Lichen being shown to Mr. Dickson was pronounced
by him the confluens of Weber, which he had already found
in England. It grows on schistose or other rocks, and may
easily be pared off in large pieces when moist. The crust is
tartareous, soft and friable when dry, white within, its surface
of a grey or smoky hue, tessellated, uneven, but not granulated,
each little portion being rather concave; at least if not
very old. Shields black, closely sessile, more or less clustered,
at first flat and greyish, with an elevated, smooth, black
border ; afterwards they grow convex, and by mutual pressure
angular, being often so crowded together, as for 4 or 5 of
them to make one aggregate tessellated shield. In the variety
j6 they are almost globose, but less aggregate.
* Richard Lubbock, M. D., died at Norwich, Sept. 2, 1808, aged 48,
JOec .Jh ih h jh S In/ Jiif Smt/rin/,Xa7id/77v.